Silvercrest Ski, Feb 22, 2014
Charlene, Kathy, Katie brave cold and bad roads

Snow-packed and icy were the words of the day as Charlene braved driving to Silvercrest on King's Hill in the Little Belts.  As three others bailed and Katie initially  cancelled the outing, Charlene, who had rented skis, really wanted to try skiing and agreed to drive. Kathy M also wanted to go, so we headed out around 9:15.

We had to go slowly from right out of Great Falls as the ice-packed roads were revealed within the first mile.  However, not much traffic pushed us as we were a bit behind the ski-hill crowd making the going less stressful..

Charlene and Kathy had excellent first times going over a mile on cross-country skis, easily out-distancing Katie on her back country gear and new boots that were hurting her feet.  Both Kathy and Charlene really got the hang of "kick and glide" as well as getting much practice with the herring bone as we climbed several hills and Mount Eureka.

We happened upon some friends, Andy and Zander, but they were the only other skiers out today.  Andy gave Katie some advice on using arm sweatbands to help keep ankles from rubbing against boots.

Despite the under 10-degree temperatures, we kept warm under sun the first half of the ski and light snow the second half.

The return trip home had much improved roads and we headed home ahead of the ski crowd, since we finishted skiing around 2 p.m and arrived home by 3:30.