Now we know spring is here: Ron Konowitz has stopped skiing.

Most skiers probably think last winter was a lousy one, but not for Ron Kon. He skied 161 days, all in the Adirondacks. That’s every day for more than five months.

Ron Konowitz ascends Mount Marcy on skis. Photo by Phil Brown.

“I had a good year,” Konowitz said today. “I definitely didn’t get into the backcountry as much as usual.”

Konowitz did a lot of his skiing at the state-run downhill center on Whiteface Mountain. “The snowmakers did an amazing job,” he said.

After Whiteface closed for the season, Konowitz would hike up the mountain and ski down the remaining snow. He made a final ski trip down Whiteface just last week.

He last skied Mount Marcy, the state’s highest summit, in early April.

A retired schoolteacher who lives in Keene, Konowitz is the only person who has skied all forty-six of the High Peaks. Or at least the only one to admit it.

The Jackrabbit Trail in snowier days. Photo/Phil Brown.

How bad was this winter for backcountry skiers? It ranks as one of the worst, according to the Adirondack Ski Touring Council, which maintains the twenty-four-mile Jackrabbit Trail between Saranac Lake and Keene.

Tony Goodwin, the group’s executive director, says the entire Jackrabbit was skiable for only twenty-five days this winter—by far the worst season since the trail was created in the 1980s.

Previously, the worst season was 1989, when the full Jackrabbit was skiable for forty-eight days.

“Our best season was 1998 when the Jackrabbit Trail was covered for 132 days,” Goodwin writes in the ASTC’s spring newsletter.

But Goodwin recalls worse winters before the Jackrabbit came into being.

“As recently as 1982-83 there was even less snow,” he says. “A lot of shoveling eked out about twenty-five days of skiing at Van Ho [the state-owned Nordic center], but I doubt the Jackrabbit Trail would have ever been skiable that season.”

Goodwin also points out that in 1932 and 1980—when the Winter Olympics were held in Lake Placid—“there was literally no snow.” And in 1950 the World Nordic Championships had to be moved from Lake Placid to Maine for lack of snow.

It’s not much of an upside, but the dearth of snow meant little blowdown along the Jackrabbit this winter and few washouts this spring.

The Mountaineer in Keene Valley will host the tenth annual Backcountry Ski Festival this weekend. Most of the ski tours are full, but you can try out gear for free at the rope-tow hill at North Country School from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. That night, skiing legend Glen Plake will show slides and videos of his backcountry adventures. The presentation starts at 7:30 at Keene Central School. Admission is $10.

Click here for more details.

When I skied to Avalanche Lake a week ago, the bottom of the Trap Dike in Mount Colden didn’t have much snow. Evidently, there is enough snow higher up to ski the dike and the upper slide. The video below is from Drew Haas’s website Adirondack Backcountry Skiing. The site has a number of other videos worth checking out.

2/20/2012 from ADKBCSKI on Vimeo.

Avalanche Lake. Photo by Phil Brown.

We sent files for the March/April Explorer to the print shop Monday, so I took the next day off to ski to Avalanche Pass and, given the dearth of snow this winter, was surprised at the quality of the skiing.

I also tried out our new Go Pro video camera during the descent of Avalanche Pass. It worked much better than my old system of strapping a point-and-shoot to my chest during my downhill schusses. You can check it out here:

We may get rain this week, so the conditions could change, but for what it’s worth, here’s my report on snow conditions on various parts of the trip.

South Meadow Road. The ski from Adirondak Loj Road to the start of the Marcy Dam Truck Trail is sometimes icy, but on Tuesday, South Meadow Road was ideal for skiing: well-packed snow with a veneer of powder.

Marcy Dam Truck Trail. Thin cover near the start and bare sections near the trail register and Klondike Brook. But most of the trail had good cover.

Marcy Dam to Avalanche Camps. Still lots of rocks poking through the snow, but they are easily avoided.

Avalanche Pass Ski Trail. Not as much snow as we should have, but plenty enough for an enjoyable run. In three places, surveyor’s tape flags rocks or roots that might trip up a skier.

Avalanche Pass to Avalanche Lake.  Good cover. But on one of the descents, a signpost points left to a section of trail rerouted after Tropical Storm Irene. There is a big rock just as you make the turn. If you’re skiing, go straight on the old trail to avoid the rock.

Avalanche Lake was frozen solid. Most of the snow had been blown off, exposing bluish ice. I skied to the base of the Trap Dike and was startled by its lack of snow. When I climbed the dike last winter, its waterfalls were largely buried in snow. Yesterday they were exposed, revealing long columns of ice. Too difficult for me to climb, I thought.

Coincidentally, on my ski out I encountered Don Mellor, the author of Blue Lines: An Adirondack Ice Climber’s Guide. He had just climbed the Trap Dike with a client, and he remarked that in its current condition the dike is “a real ice climb.”

Snow cover on the Marcy Dam Truck Trail was thin at the start. Photo by Phil Brown.

Fresh snow on Baker Mountain in Saranac Lake. Photo by Phil Brown.

We finally got a bit of snow in Saranac Lake. Not enough for backcountry skiing, but enough to get you thinking about it.

On my lunch hour yesterday, I hiked Baker Mountain and took the photo above. The few inches we got might be enough to ski on golf courses, the Whiteface highway, and a few of the easier trails in the region. I hope to check out the trail to Moose Pond later in the week.

This is a good time to remind people that the Adirondack Ski Touring Council regularly updates cross-country-ski conditions online. It reports that Nordic centers near Lake Placid have some trails open.

Here’s the report on backcountry conditions:

“Whiteface Highway skiable, although there will be short stretches that have been blown clear of snow. Marcy Dam Truck Trail possibly skiable with caution. Main Loop at Henry’s Woods on Bear Cub Lane just barely skiable. With 5 inches reported at Paul Smiths, the Hayes Brook and Fish Pond truck trails are finally skiable, although caution definitely advised on the first hill on the Fish Pond Truck Trail. Lake ice on Avalanche and Lake Colden crossable. No other ice should be assumed to be safe, although the cold Tuesday night has probably made many lake crossable. On the higher summits, finally enough for snowshoes above 3,000 feet; but with much ice under the snow, traction aids will be very useful, if not required, on steep trails getting to that elevation. Definitely be prepared for winter conditions on any of the higher summits. Meadow Lane, access to the Marcy Dam Truck Trail, closed to vehicles for the winter.”

One shortcoming of the council’s report is that it concentrates on the Tri-Lakes Region (Lake Placid, Saranac Lake, Tupper Lake), so you rarely see accounts of conditions in other parts of the Park, such as Old Forge or Cranberry Lake.

 Here’s the link to the full report.

Let’s hope we get some real snow soon. It is January, after all.

Want to do something good for the world? Then watch the new Teton Gravity Research ski film at the Lake Placid Center for the Arts this Friday night.

Proceeds from the ticket sales will benefit the Adirondack Ski Touring Council and the Barkeater Trails Alliance, two nonprofit organizations that maintain trails for cross-country skiing and mountain biking in and around Lake Placid.

The film, One for the Road, follows some of the world’s best skiers on the road and on the slopes, whether in Jackson Hole, Japan, Iceland, or Alaska.

The doors open at 7 p.m., and the movie starts at 7:30 p.m. There will be prizes and a raffle.

Tickets at the door cost $12 (or $6 for children under 12), but you can purchase them in advance for $10 (or $5) by clicking this link.

Ron Konowitz, left, and Mark Meschinelli at the Lake Placid Turn on the Whiteface Mountain toll road a year ago. Photo by Phil Brown.

We had a brief snow squall in Saranac Lake this afternoon. No accumulation, but the cedars outside the office window got a nice dusting.

So I wasn’t too surprised when Ron Konowitz called to say he had just skied the toll road on Whiteface Mountain.

As the robin is to spring, Ron Kon is to winter. He is usually the first, or among the first, to hit the toll road in the fall and the last to put his skis away in the spring. Last season, he went skiing more than 160 times, mostly in the backcountry.

This season, he got off to a late start, thanks to a dearth of snow. Usually, he manages to squeeze in five or six trips on the toll road in October. After a freak snowstorm many years ago, he went skiing on Labor Day weekend.

“This is the latest I haven’t been able to ski,” he remarked.

On Friday morning, Ron and a friend, Katie Tyler, hiked 3.5 miles up the toll road as far as the Lake Placid Turn, where they put on skis for the remaining 1.8 miles to the summit castle.

Ron said there was five or six inches of snow up high. He and Katie did four laps between the castle and the Wilmington Turn (about 0.8 miles) and then skied back down to the gatehouse.

Ron said the skiing was very good for a few miles, on Styrofoam snow, but the cover became thin at the lower elevations. They would ski on the sides of the road, sometimes gliding over frozen grass. In a few spots, they had to walk.

“It was worth it, for sure,” he said.

Like many backcountry skiers, Ron is looking forward to skiing some of the new slides created by Tropical Storm Irene.

“It’s going to be an amazing winter,” he said. “All we need is snow—the magic ingredient.”

Ron is the only person to have skied all forty-six of the High Peaks. Click here to read an interview with him about this feat.

Fresh snow on the Jackrabbit Ski Trail in Saranac Lake. Photo by Phil Brown.

Winter hasn’t ended yet. It has been snowing off and on since early Tuesday. Driving from Plattsburgh to Saranac Lake last night, I found myself in a blinding snowstorm.  

The new accumulation has amounted to only a few inches, but it was enough to inspire me go for a short ski through a pine forest in Saranac Lake on my lunch hour. The forest is at the start of the Jackrabbit Ski Trail. It’s a beautiful place after a fresh snowfall.

If you like snow, enjoy it while it lasts. The temperatures are supposed to climb into the fifties this weekend.

The Mountaineer in Keene Valley will host the ninth-annual Adirondack Backcountry Ski Festival this weekend.

As in the past, skiers can sign up for a variety of intermediate and expert tours. The most difficult outings entail skiing slides in the High Peaks.

As of today, there were still three openings for the High Peaks Traverse on Saturday, an end-to-end trip through Avalanche Pass. Cost: $90. All the other tours are full, but if you’re interested, you can get on a waiting list.

In addition, the public can demo gear and take part in free clinics for telemark skiing, skinning, and the use of avalanche beacons at Otis Mountain, a private ski hill near New Russia.  The Otis Mountain events will run from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.

On Saturday night, Marmot athlete Heather Paul will give a slide show of her ski adventures, including a trip to the Altai Mountains in Central Asia. The show starts at 7:30 p.m. at the Keene Valley Fire Hall. Admission is $10.

Profits from the ski festival benefit the Adirondack Ski Touring Council and the New York State Ski Education Foundation.

Click here for more details about the festival.