Snow in the Sierras has been very limited this year but finally it started snowing some powder so it was a chance for me to grab some cross-country skis and head out with my friends Julie and Joy for some cold-weather training. Saturday afternoon we were able to hit up some touring through the forest near Tahoe Meadows. The skiing turned out to be an interesting experience - I’ve only been out cross-country skiing a few times before and so learning how to stop and how to get up after falling was an interesting affair.   It was good exercise but my feet suffered some serious blisters and we all fell numerous times.  We called it a day and headed off to eat and camp near Tahoe City.  The next day Joy headed off for some downhill skiing while Julie and I decided to ditch the skis and don our hiking boots to make an ascent up Martis Peak.  That was a 7 mile round trip day with ~1300ft of elevation gain - we definitely got to test our cold weather systems as it was cloudy, wet, and windy all day long.

Pictures of the weekend are available here:

http://parhelia0.fotopic.net/c1207770.html 

http://www.randyfranklin.com/pictures/skitahoe_feb_2007