Minnesota Waterfowl

Ice-out in Minnesota is running two weeks earlier than normal.

On Friday 3/23, Randy Frederickson counted 110,000 snow geese in Traverse County, MN. On Sunday 3/25 we headed to Worthington Minnesota, 200 miles south of Traverse County, looking for waterfowl. A scheduled MRVAC trip, one of our local Audubon chapters.

We had all the trappings of a successful Audubon trip. A hole-in-the-wall hotel, an out of the way location, a motley assortment of birders. And trip leader Craig Mandel.

Sunday evening we checked a few lakes. A couple of scaup here, some distant mergansers there. A good run-in with a pair of Eastern Screech Owls. Otherwise rather quiet.

Monday started the same. Nothing much flew in overnight. We are definitely at the tail-end of waterfowl migration. We chase after some skeins of geese in the distance, tossing the map and just following where they’re going. As so often happens… STOP! Geese in the field. The nondescript sheetwater pond in the last year’s cornfield gives us all the waterfowl we need. We park along the highway for a good hour picking out one species after another. Filling our checklists.

Pied-billed Grebe Mallard

American White Pelican Northern Pintail

Double-crested Cormorant Blue-winged Teal

Great Blue Heron Northern Shoveler

Trumpeter Swan Canvasback

Tundra Swan Redhead

Greater White-fronted Goose Ring-necked Duck

Snow Goose Greater Scaup

Ross's Goose Lesser Scaup

Canada Goose Common Goldeneye

Wood Duck Hooded Merganser

American Wigeon Red-breasted Merganser

Gadwall Common Merganser

Green-winged Teal Ruddy Duck

71 Species for the trip.

Julia Fischer

Wow. Julia Fischer put on one of the best performance artworks I’ve seen. She’s a guest violinist with the Minnesota Orchestra this weekend. I am no expert, but I have never seen anyone play with such dexterity, precision, speed AND power. She negotiated the performance like Valentino Rossi on the MotoGP circuit. Focused and dominating, Tchaikovsky had to be proud to have her in his corner last night. Brava, Julia. Our future is in good hands.

Bloke's Ride

Friday afternoon was just too nice for working. Jim skipped out of work and four of us met at Cars ‘r Coffins for a pre-ride espresso. One-speeds were the order of the day as the roads were mostly dry but still absolutely covered with winter grit. We rode trails, rode downtown mpls and across campus. Soaked up the sun and the sights and the camaraderie of the road. First group ride of the new season and a great start.

Johnny Neutron

An anecdote from our recent Canada trip.

Late in the week, we’re skiing high on a slope. Last run of the day. We get to a spot that drops a bit, then the aspect changes for a few turns before the slope gets a little shallower and faces north again. Here’s the reason you have a guide. Tom guesses that the change of aspect has allowed some extra snow to blow into that spot.

“We may kick off a little slide. It won’t be anything big. Just go one at a time and, if something starts, should be no problem to ski out of it.”

Tom goes. A couple more. A few do kick off little sloughs. The snow around them breaks for a meter or two in each direction and follows along for a turn. I go, same deal. As I hit the steep and deep part, the snow around me breaks into a dozen or twenty soft blocks that immediately slough and disintegrate. Kind of cool at this minor scale. Normally in a slide, you yell so people are alerted and try to outrace the slide until you can ski out of it. But here, no worries.

So I don’t know if Johnny Neutron wasn’t listening, or wasn’t watching. ‘Cause he’s not really the nervous type. He skis next and we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt here. We’ll say his slide is a little bit bigger. He hits a range a few octaves higher than normal,

“Avalanche! Avalaaaaaaanche!!”.

He points ‘em down and absolutely races to us below. Yammering with adrenaline. Yes, we’re all relieved he made it through.

He absolutely did react well. He gained a tale of survival to share with his doting groupies back in Nashville. And he earned himself another moniker; Johnny Lightweight.

Sorcerer Lodge

Just finished my week with the Geriatric Telemark Society. This year to Sorcerer Lodge in British Columbia’s Selkirks. Friggin’ gnarly.

Saturday \ Day 1 began in a dorm room in Golden, BC. A couple of late shift partiers were coming in as we went up for our 0545 breakfast. Then to the helipad sans luggage, thanks to Northwest Airlines. Through the efforts of Sorcerer staff, our missing pieces arrived in time for the final chopper ride in! So we got in a couple of easy runs, 2,000’.

Day 2 we gear up for a big day. Our second guide joins us via his own heli-shuttle, Robson “Mr. Trump” Gmoser. A great day, sunny above the clouds and lots of vertical. Up and down the Perfect Glacier, over the pass, past the Little Matterhorn, back through White Russian Col and down a huge descent. 5,700’

Stinky got a bit gripped up the back side of the col. He dropped a ski right at the crux snow pillow. Hanging on to the ski and fighting to avoid a ride down a few hundred feet of wind-hammered crust, he was losing an inch at a time. He finally kicked his free boot into the slope to regain the upper hand. Watching all this from the number two spot got me overly cautious as I scooted past above him.

We broke in the sauna in the evening, the best! Then Timmy and I started our cribbage domination.

Day 3. Down Wizard Gully on the way to Swiss Col. A lot of climbing brought us to a nice snowfield in the cloudbank. Flat light skiing is becoming a theme of the trip. Another theme is that I’m struggling to stay smooth on the slopes where most of my compadres are looking great. I need more snow time, and this wasn’t the year to do it. I sign up for the B-team and quit with 3,500’.

Day 4. Neat day up the Escargot Glacier. The light is super flat for most of the day. You can’t tell the ground from the sky or the rock walls around us. People are getting launched from unseen snow mounds and planting themselves into invisible drifts. Not the day to go first. In spite of 3 meters of snow on the glacier, we rope up just in case a crevasse supports an inadequate snowbridge. I skip the days’ second traverse, through bulletproof sastrugi. 2,500’.

Wednesday \ Day 5. The snow is now an inch of breakable Styrofoam over a thick unconsolidated layer. That spells rest day for many of us. Boardie easily triumphs in the Acquire game and we eat and drink as if we did ski 5,000’. As if!

Day 6.
We’re getting some freshies, and just in time. We start with my best run yet through some thick powder. A couple of more runs and the uptracks are going well, so I stick with the A team. We decide it’s time to amble across a number of avalanche chutes (albeit one at a time) in order to gain a new knob. Then, I give up some hard-fought elevation by side slipping through the steep and thick woods before coming out onto a sun-crusted avalanche debris field. Even guide Tom crashes on this crap. Nate finds us an exit into a nice, and steep, glade and we finish with some turns for the run. A beautiful tour up the little creek before hammering back up to the hut for a 6,000’ day.

Day 7. The week is shaping up. By this last day we’ve gotten close to a foot of new snow. We head into the steep and safe woods. I eke out only a single run on this epic day. Everything is great except the skier as I overturn and fail to point ‘em down. It’s just too steep for me. Being more hazard than skier I decide to get out of everyone’s way.

In all, great comraderie. Wonderful hut. Great food, great guides. I’m frustrated with my remedial skiing. If I make it back, it will be with more skills.

Cast of Characters

Tom Raudaschl – Guide

Robson Gmoser – Guide

Eileen McKee – Cook

Kellie Erwin-Rhoads – (highly overqualified) Hut Boss

Dave “Boardie” Boardman

Steve “no name” Jennison

Kurty Klussendorf

Timmy “Two Shoes” Power

Bob “Beep” Power

Steve “Paco” Sterner

Tom Sult

Johnny “Lightweight” Thompson

Don “Oaty” Uden

Nate Weisz

Dave “Two Skins” DiMarzio

Tim “Stinky” Schowalter

Bobby Governski