XC Skiing - Vermont Getaway #1

As we do every winter, Holly and I traipsed off to Vermont for a few days of skiing, good food, and relaxation (yeah, we're retired, but still...) We stayed at the Landgrove Inn, an old Vermont inn in the middle of nowhere that's become our favorite. As we were leaving our home turf, snow was falling pretty heavily, and we had high hopes for a big dump of snow that's eluded us for most of this winter. As it turned out, this one went south as have all the others, and my yard is still brown and bare.

After checking in at the Landgrove on Wednesday, we headed to Wild Wings Ski Touring Center for an afternoon of groomed skiing. This place is a throwback to the early days of ski touring. There's a small barn with a wood stove, outhouses, and a warming room, and no other facilities. Only classic skiing is allowed - no skating! And the trails are wonderful. There was about an inch or two of new powder atop a very firm and deep base, and it hadn't been groomed to death, so the skiing was great. We spent about 2 hours going up and down the blues and blacks before we called it a day and went back to the Inn for dinner, reading, and an early lights-out.

Thursday dawned very blustery, with windows rattling and the wind howling, though a warm sun tempered things a bit. We decided to postpone skiing until the afternoon, and go to the Vermont Country Store in Weston after breakfast. It bills itself as a "purveyor of the practical and hard-to-find", and it's a very interesting place to easily kill an hour browsing. After lunch, we headed to Viking Nordic Center near Londonderry. We've been coming here for many years, and have our favorite trails, including many blacks. Unfortunately, Wednesday's storm had little impact here (only an inch or so), and the base was less than we'd seen at Wild Wings. Many trails were closed for lack of snow, so we did our best to fill up another 2 hours here on those that were still open. It was a long uphill slog back to the center at the end of the day, and we'd both had enough. Another good dinner at the Swiss Inn and more reading took us to bedtime.

Today after breakfast we skied the Landgrove's own trail system. It's not as extensive as the others, but it was very convenient for a quick hour of skiing before heading home. It was windy in the open fields and there were some icy spots where the new snow had blown off, but overall wasn't bad. These trails connect directly to the Catamount Trail, but it looked a little dicey for the conditions, so we passed it by.

I numbered this post "#1" because next week we'll be going back to Vermont. A friend has invited several of us to her Vermont house for a few days mid-week, and we'll be doing some more skiing. No snow on the horizon, but we'll continue to hope...