Crust skiing this morning was fantastic. I arrived at the golf course at 8:15 am. the temperature was in the low 20's, the wind was out of the SE at less than 10 mph, and the sun was shining.The temperature for the last two days had climbed above freezing for part of the day and so had started to melt the snow. It was then refreezing at night. When I walked out onto the snow to put my skis on, my boots did not sink in. I knew then that I was going to experience some unique skiing conditions.
I put on my skate skis and started coasting on a very slight slope. The friction was no more than being on ice skates on a fresh frozen pond.
I stuck my poles into the snow and pushed off with my right foot. The ski bit into the snow with no slide. I was off across the golf course at speeds I only experience on my Roller Blades on a smooth asphalt trail. It was amazing how good a bite my skis got in the snow while getting a great glide.
For the first hour the snow stayed hard in the sunny areas. I did sink 3 or 4 inches into snow in areas north of pine trees and the northern slopes were a little softer, but created no problems.
Around 9:30 the top layer of snow started to soften up, but I skied until 10:00. I don't expect to have the same experience tomorrow morning because it is suppose to rain tonight, but I will be ready to go tomorrow morning if we get a hard freeze tonight.
