On a fine Monday morning Tom and I headed off for a 32 mile day trip, an out-and-back to Moose Creek Cabin in the White Mountains NRA. We are considering doing the White Mountains 100 and thought it would be a good idea to get some longish day ski trips in as training. It was a great day for a long ski – fairly warm and relatively calm by white mountains standards.
The area received a dump of snow the week prior and the trails were much improved. The first 8 miles or so were quite well beaten down and after that the the trail was a bit narrow for fun skiing on the downhills but otherwise was in great shape. 
The final quarter of a mile or so to moose creek cabin was quite windy – this section of trail crosses a large open field and always provides a fantastic view. 
We stopped at Moose Creek cabin for a bite to eat and got a little more excitement that we anticipated. After we had been at the cabin for 15 minutes or so two snow machiners who had passed us earlier rushed up and joined us in the cabin. One of the riders had hit a stump while riding in the 12″ of powder and was thrown off his machine, apparently breaking his wrist in the progress. We helped him wrap up his wrist, gave him some ibuprofen, and Tom loaned him a much larger mitten so he could keep his enlarged wrist warm.. He turned down my suggestions for splinting his wrist and headed back out to ride back to the mile 28 parking lot one handed. I expect that was a supremely unpleasant ride out.
Our ski out was, on the other hand, fairly pleasant, but tiring of course. As Tom put it, “I think I have earned a huge dinner and a nice lie down.” 
According to our gps we had a moving average of 4.8 miles per hour and we beat my prevous personal best of 3 and a half hours into Moose Creek cabin, which was quite rewarding and a fantasic first training ski.
Tags: arduous, mondays, moose creek cabin, training, white mountains