The freezing temperatures lately have been building up ice on some of the local ice climbing spots. Our lead climber, Matt Gentling, was out just the other day.
Here’s a great resource for ice conditions in the area.
Congratulations to our own Alex Cole, who won first place in her first mountain bike race last weekend! Alex won The Icycle Mountain Bike Event’s beginner women xc division.
Sycamore Bicycles in Hendersonville puts on The Icycle every year at the singletrack trails near Fontana Dam, south of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. You never know what kind of whether they’ll get – conditions could be muddy or icy. As you can see from the pictures, there was a light dusting of snow on the ground.
Pretty hardcore, eh? Read Alex’s column about winter mountain biking. (Some browsers won’t support the photos.)
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I’ll bet you wrote off this winter, didn’t you? Now we’ve got three inches (or more)Â on the way today and another snowstorm due next week! Ski resorts are back in a big way, with most mountains close to being entirely open, if not already entirely open.
According to Ray’s Weather Center, our favorite source for weather information, the winter snows have only just begun. When Ray issued his “Fearless Forecast” for winter 2006-2007, he noted this winter would be influenced by the mild El Niño. Note this passage:
“Other characteristics of weak El Niño winters are: “big thump snows” and big finishes in March and April.”
Black Dome still has some jackets and snowboarding gear, and it’s all 25-50% off. If you were thinking winter would be over soon, you were wrong — this is just the beginning…
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