Wednesday 06/01/2010. The winter weather is breaking records, we have now had a covering of snow since before Christmas Day and with continuing fresh showers and constantly freezing temperatures overnight the conditions are amazing. The countryside is transformed and made beautiful and I feel very healthy in the cold but not everyone is as welcoming as that. When I was involved in winter ice climbing I (and all climbers) prayed for weather like this, I still relish it and envy the guys who will be doing good winter routes on The Ben, there will be some wonderful climbing done in Scotland this season and I wish I could be part of it.
Still, I have been motivated to get my cross-country skis out of the loft and see if I can still keep upright on them, amazingly I had no trouble at all and spent three good hours skiing from my doorstep down to and across the river Tees and on to Preston Park where I joined in with the kids on sledges and a couple of men on snowboards. I had a great time and began to feel at home on the skis after such a long gap though I am no nearer to mastering telemark turns now than I was 20 years ago, but you can manage fine without that degree of skill.
If the weather keeps up I will try and get a longer route done, it would be good to ski to the RSPB reserve at Saltholme, a good ten miles each way, but I could carry spare boots, leave my ski's at the reserve and come home on the bus if I'm not up to the double journey, we shall see. The photograph was taken on the summit of Chapel Hill on my way back from Preston Park.
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