Starlight Skiing

Philip

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This afternoon I finished the bulk of a 1,500-word feature for Business New Hampshire Magazine and had to get out for some fresh air. I’ve skied at night on occasion, but only beneath bright lights at a ski resort. Tonight was different. Tonight I cross-country skied beneath a star-studded sky across a wide-open pasture and into the forest down to frozen Lake Massabesic at the Audobon Center in Auburn.

While gliding back from Battery Point, my headlamp light got dimmer as my batteries lost juice (Always pack extra batteries!) so I relied on the pristine snow reflection to guide me. I remembered the tall man I passed on my way out to meet the group. He was was skiing without any light and startled me when he suddenly appeared from the pasture’s darkness. “I’ve skied this path so many times that I don’t need any light,” he said.

While following the glowing headlamp light from Will, our Four Season’s group leader, our skiis hissed as we slid across hard packed snow. Looking up, I noticed the Little Dipper appearing in the opening above the parallel lines of towering trees along the trail path and other bright stars twinkling through the branches. All of us appreciated the quiet, peaceful silence of the forest that you find only in the deep freeze of winter when everything is still.

Johanna Knapschaefer is a freelance writer in Manchester, New Hampshire. Starlight Skiing was originally published in Johanna’s Blog http://jknap.wordpress.com/2011/01/25/starlight-skiing/

Johanna Knapschafer, a fellow member of the Gaijin Group, reminded me of the more subtle joys of winter. She wrote an eloquent piece in her blog about skiing under the stars. Below is a reprint. I offer it as a final push to get active and savor the final weeks of winter.