Link to the full set: Blizzard of January 12 2011, photowalk in the woods [Flickr set]
Tons of photos (and one video) from the woods during today’s blizzard below:

Happy and healthy 2011, everyone. I hope this year is full of wonderful things for us all.

I am soon to be the proud owner of a Canon T1i. Oh, and eagerly anticipating a vacation in India–and why, yes, the dSLR is coming with me. I can’t wait to go and see what there is to see. Here’s hoping this trip will be the first of many to such a wonderful country.

(The above photo? Not from a fancy camera in the slightest. Rather, from my cell phone. Amazing what you can do with the tools all around you.)

This photo was featured on UniversalHub on Wednesday, March 4th. Thanks Adam!

And what did I realize I was out of this morning when I reached for my breakfast cereal?

Lucky me, I got to stand in some truly epic lines while waiting to check out my milk and eggs. (Thankfully I already had bread.) The Clarendon Hill Foodmaster in Somerville was completely mobbed, way worse than the Saturday morning crowds. And in everyone’s hands were indeed milk, eggs and bread. Unbelievable!

In most of my posts I like to include a picture. If you subscribe to my flickr account, you’ll notice there are none of me in my boarding gear, beaming from under my pink goggles and pom-pom beanie. Simply put, I’m a n00b, and I fall a lot. If I tried to keep a camera on my person while I’m fearlessly conquering the, erm, bunny hills, I’d crush it.

But just to keep things interesting, here’s what my snowboarding experience thus far has NOT looked like:

Oh yea, carving up a storm on lovely powder…somewhere out in the Rockies.

I know that pretty much anything green circle is bound to be icy, but I have some unexpected experience even with higher-level runs. How, you ask? Well, let me tell you a little story—the story of how a n00b boarder, who has only spent a cumulative six hours in her life on a snowboard, found herself at the top of a mountain with only blue squares leading the way down.

(For those unfamiliar with snow sports, skiing and snowboarding trails are categorized from easiest to hardest by a simple system.)

This past Sunday, my friend and I took a lovely chair lift up Gunstock Mountain, it’s a lovely few minutes as we blithely watch kids showing off their best tricks on the halfpipe. But did I bother to check the trail map before jumping on the lift? Of course not! (Pro-tip numero uno: always check trail closings before hopping on a lift! Duh!)

We get to the top of the lift, which is not even the top of the mountain, mind you, but about half-way up. My friend and I stop to take in the breathtaking view–a snow-kissed panorama of rural New Hampshire with shimmering Lake Winnipesaukee at the heart of it all.

I began to make my way towards the gentle green circle trail (and by make my way, I mean board for five seconds and then fall squarely on my butt). The passage to the green circle run is a bit icier and steeper than I’m prepared for, I start to freak out a bit, make some bad falls in my fear, my boots get a bit too loose. I’m doing everything wrong.

Then, more good news. The green circle, the easiest trail down–oh, and the only easy path up there–is closed off. The three trails in front of me all look like insta-death: one is narrow and winding with some menacing-looking trees, the other two are wide but very steep with great big bumps everywhere. Cue the visions of me flying (screaming) through the air, landing head-first in a snow drift, or less comically, in a coma.

Families of skiiers and snowboarders whiz by me as I sit on the snow, my total six hours of snowboarding skills not nearly enough to prepare me to take an intermediate trail. Alpine skiing parents with their toddler kids on ski-leashes swish by me without a word, just a concerned glance, and off they went. Little kids no older than seven or eight ask me if I’m ok, and I lie tell them that I am. But I’m not budging.

Those same kids fly past me later on their second, third pass down the slopes, and I’m still stuck there, bum-on-snow. But hey, at least I know calculus–they probably can’t even do fractions. Huzzah!

Working up a bit of gumption and determining that I do need to get down the mountain somehow, I make a few feeble attempts to board down the gentler edges of the intermediate slope. You know, just off to the side a bit. Total. Freaking. Disaster. After riding for three seconds and falling, riding for three seconds and falling (repeat ad nauseum), I wondered if I could beg the chair lift operator to let me grab a ride down.

At that point, I do the only other thing I can think of–un-snap my bindings, sling my board over my shoulder, and take the walk of shame all the way down the side of the mountain. It was a lovely stroll, beautiful view, great exercise. Also embarrassing as hell.

I spent the rest of the day exactly where I belonged: with the middle-school kids on the bunny slopes. Since nothing could possibly be worse than walking down a mountain in snowboard boots (heavy snap-ons no less, ugh) I made sure to make up for the lost time. Somehow I made progress. My friend — an already skilled snowboarder who first learned the sport on the pristine powder slopes of northern Japan — came by to see how I was doing at about 2pm. To my surprise she said I’d improved a great deal, and she’s not one to exaggerate. (I think!)

Yes.

So here’s hoping one day I can have a rematch with those blue square trails on Gunstock and not let the mountain win. And I’ll even take pictures. But it won’t be for a long, long while.

Somehow, very luckily, it only took me an hour to get home from work yesterday. Like most people I left work (in Waltham) right after lunch, just as the snow started coming down hard.

So I took some photos!

Top photo — The view down Cottage Ave in Somerville mid-afternoon yesterday.
(This was picked up by Bostonist.)

An abandoned umbrella in Davis square.
(This photo was picked up by UniversalHub.)

The view down Chester Street.

And a few hours later…

Some serious snowcover.

Since cars were all but useless with this much snow on the roads, some folks got creative.
Good idea:

Cross-country skiing your way into Davis Square.

A not-so-good idea:

Biking your way onto Massachusetts Avenue. EEK!

If you live in the area, make sure you keep Adam’s French Toast Alert system bookmarked! We’re due for another storm Saturday night into Sunday, and there’s no guarantee your local supermarket’s will have the bread, milk and eggs you need to get you through the weekend, so stock up now :)