SGL 176 in the Snow

I've only had a chance to do a little exploring in the closest public lands to the new house, SGL 176. So, while my friends in philly got a paralyzing 23" of snow from the "Pre-Christmas Blizzard of '09", I took advantage of central PA's relatively modest 6" of snow to do a little more. I know there's a few geocaches in there and one mentioned beaver dams, so I went looking for ponds (that's the bigger of the two I found in the pic). With 6" of falling snow I didn't bother taking the GPS, though, just headed in the general direction. The place is criss-crossed with all kinds of trails. It's gonna be a great place for trail runs, but all that fresh powder and trails over rolling hills makes me think I need some cross-country skis. Preferably ones that hook into the toe of my climbing boots, but that's probably asking too much. The Play-it-again sports in Schenectady, NY -- where I bought a pair of new-to-me downhill boots earlier this year -- had alot of pretty cheap used x-cskis/bindings. I doubt they'd have a cheap all-mountain or touring set-up, but still, may have to try and swing by there on my way to the daks in a few weeks.

It was kinda nice to head out without any particular training objective or destination; although I was curious how my back would handle a ramble over uneven ground. Turns out it felt pretty good. I also used it as an opportunity to double-check my climbing boots. Last year, I bought new boots to replace the Koflach's Degre's. Although not nearly as warm, my new La Sportiva Trango Extremes are much lighter and definetely fit better but I still have some heel lift. Last year, I put green superfeet footbeds in the Trango Extremes to help take up some volume in my low-volume feet, but it damn near cost me my big toenail on the descent from Mt. Washington last winter. And that sore toenail KILLED me the next few days on New Hampshire's Frankenstein cliff. This year I'm sticking with the stock footbeds (and cutting my toenails the day before every trip), but I do wish that the heel locked down a bit better, especially on vertical ice. I want to put some more pitches on them before I try doing anything beyond alternative lacings. My gut feeling is that a slightly thicker tongue right around my ankle would help a bit and would only help keep my toes from hitting the end of the boot on the downhills.

Injury-wise, I'm learning a lot from Stuart McGills "Low Back Disorders..." It has provided some insight into the anatomical basis of some of the recommendations from CrossFit San Francisco's Kelly Starrett and challenged me to consider conventional 'wisdom' when it comes to sparing the lower back. More on that later.

Sound track: No soundtrack today. My daughter is on a kid-song kick and I can't get the song "Found a Peanut" out of my head; and that's not something I will ever recommend.