Usually people talk to me about the weather when they have nothing else to say. I personally don’t care what the weather is, as long as I can do what I want to do and go where I want to go. But the weather has been very strange lately. So I’m gonna talk about it.
When I was growing up, my Dad and I went downhill skiing at least twice a week for one of our many winter activities. His rule was December was for building the base of snow on the ski slopes so we couldn’t ski and take the chance of harming our skiis (no matter how much snow and beggin’ on my part) until January 1st – yay! The chemical snow (snow making) wouldn’t kick in until early March, when the snow started melting and they had to patch certain spots on the ski slopes. And I hate chemical snow, because it doesn’t feel right under my skiis, and it makes my face burn. So I’m wondering, how the heck would this work now? We have absolutely no snow, not even a little flake on the ground (okay now we have two flakes, it snowed overnight and I wrote this post yesterday). Do they make chemical snow now, even though it isn’t cold enough for real snow?
December of 2003 was a real hard December – very cold and snowy (how well I remember it because I was taking outdoor classes and had to buy very warm clothing), but on January 3, 2004 we went for a hike at Hi-Tor. It was 65 degrees F that day – a perfect day for a hike. You can see the ice on the cliff face near the water falls:
And if you turn around 180 degrees you can see Canandaigua Lake in the distance through the trees: 
No snow anywhere. So the rule of snow in December building the base for January skiing has been tossed out the window. It would have to snow quite a bit for me to want to go down any ski slope now. I’m glad I haven’t invested in new ski equipment, I would be disappointed – or would have to travel far to find some good skiing. By the way, I love the Finger Lakes region of NY, and the Bristol Hills is one of my favorite places to hike, although I have lots of fav places. What about you? Where do you like to hike? Do you like to snow ski – either downhill or cross-country?
P.S. Sorry for the yucky photos – these were taken with my old original digital camera.
Nature Woman 
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