From Thursday Night Ride to Thursday Night Ski

Below is what it looked like here in Davis last night at 4:00pm. So the World Famous Thursday Night Ride turned into the Thursday Night Ski at White Grass because of a second dumping of snow this week.

This was going to be my first XC ski of 2008/2009 and only like the 3rd in my life. I was super excited to have a group of friends to spend the evening with but I was a little worried about holding everyone up because I am new to the sport. When I arrived at White Grass I was quickly greeted by the always super nice Chip Chase. Chip was really excited when I told him that everyone was coming out for a night ski. A few minutes later Rob Stull, the three Sarah's, Darren and Macky showed up to join us and almost on cue the snow started falling again.
Just as we were ready to head out Mandy showed up. Mandy didn't have her own gear so Chip quickly found her a pair of new retails and we were off. You can ski out of WG lodge in any direction but of course the group wanted to go straight up the mountain. I really had never done any climbing before and it was a challenge at first but after a few minute I started make small improvements. We ended up climbing up to round top which is a mile of climbing from the lodge. I was really shocked at how good I felt going up the mountain. It was really step in sections and figured I be toast at the top but I wasn't.
Chip giving Mandy hell for being late

Then it was a nice long section of kick and glide on top of the ridge. It was freaking sweet! I was as happy as can be and loving it. The snow was also continuing to fall all around me. Things then changed. It was time to head back down the mountain. First let me say that I have been a downhill skier since I was 5 years old and will ski any trail on downhill ski. With that being said I was getting worked on the way down the hill on XC skis. I couldn't even snow plow! I still don't get it. I have no problems doing it before, but it was almost impossible for me last night. I hit the ground four times total and one of those times was pretty darn hard.
Time for a photo at the top of round top

It took some time but I did make it back to the lodge. I still had a blast even with my troubles coming back in. I think going to head back to WG today and try some shorter skis and a few other ideas to try and fix my problems. My snow falling out side right now! Sweet! If you are interested here is the GPS information from our ski and thanks to Chip for all the tips.