Doubletop this morning

Doubletop Mountain this morning: 2 degrees Farenheit and a fresh several inches of snow.

snow again

It's snowing at Frost Valley again today. Oh goodness. I don't think the photo above was taken today but it was taken during this long and snowy winter.

cabin 40

Cabin 40 ten days ago.

wintry pics of the past

Having posted today's wintry picture, I've been receiving snowy images all day from former staff who have been digging into their personal archives. Here's one of several photos Ken Nathanson sent me.

Big Tree Field this morning

Melissa Pauls took this photo of the Big Tree Field this morning - after a lovely snowfall.

wintry scenes

Tom Cometa, who was visiting Frost Valley this past weekend with his family, took these photographs.

Castle in winter

My daughter and I xc-skiied by this lovely scene on Saturday, along "the Castle loop" trail.

early days of XC skiing

When cross-country skiing was new at Frost Valley, around 1973. Those skis are clip-ons (you wore your own shoes and clipped them onto the ski by means of a contraption that fell apart often for the novice). The scene of course is the Big Tree Field (ski trail through the Big Tree Field?!) and at right you can see a tobaggan that had just come a long ways down the tobaggan run that started up near cabins 21-25 and emptied out across the field. If conditions were icy and slick enough, you could get all the way to the county road. The building to the center-right is the Lake House (where in those days the Food Service Director, Everett Lake, lived) and to the left is the old horsebarn. Yes in the summers we actually ran our horseback riding program out of that barn. An old, old, old barn, barely standing. It was affectionately known as the Lazy Nag Corral.

chapel in winter

The chapel under snow - as caught earlier this winter by Tom Cometa who was up at FV for his annual snowy weekend.

snowy trails

Just back from a gorgeously snowy and cold winter weekend. Saturday afternoon and overnight we got a new layer of powdery snow (8 inches or so), on top of the 4 inches of icy hard stuff that was already there. Perfect for cross-country skiing. Before the snow we slipped and slid along the Castle Loop trail (easy) and busted out onto the red trail that goes on past the Castle field toward the old Sawmill site, crossed the Neversink at the bridge built for logging (near the Model Forest area). At some point, breaking a new trail somewhat east of main camp, we stopped to make this recording to mark the spot.

EE/Conference alums help for a weekend

Kenis Sweet, Chris Dundorf, Glenn Horton and others among Environmental Education/Conference staff alumni volunteer for a winter weekend each year to relieve the current staff who like to go off to a conference away from camp. (What a perfect way for alumni to help!) The gang has been doing this for years. Recently they were back again for their 2008 volunteer stint.

It's been cold and snowy at FV of late. Follow this link and then play a 22-second video clip of a snowy just-at-sundown 360-degree swing around - a little video taken, I think, by Kenis Sweet.

And here are photos of the gang.

our Long Islanders

In the 1960s there emerged a core group of Wawayanda folks coming to camp from Long Island - Woodmere, Great Neck, etc. I'd guess that the L.I. contingent peaked in the early to mid 1970s. This group brought us a number of families whose devotion to Frost Valley continues to this day, four decades later. Among the core families were the Chandlers, the Nathansons and the Tilleses and a bit later the Diamonds. Ken Nathanson, who with his gang recently spent the weekend at camp, sent this recent photo and also this caption:

Most in this photo have been coming to camp during the winter for many years. Actually, the Chandler's and the Nathanson's were coming up to Frost Valley in the winter since the early 60's with the Ricciardis [Tom, Ellie, and Pat Ricciardi).

Front: Sam Nathanson, current camper; Ken Nathanson, '69-'77. Second Row: Aaron Chandler-worth; Bradley Nathanson; Alex Arrick, current camper; Graham Arrick, current camper; Cindy Chandler-Guy Back Row: Kathy Nathanson; Casey Chandler-Alexander,'94-'04; (behind Casey) Steve Guy; Micah; Maho; Cathy Chandler,'63-'72; Linda Arrick; Remy Bernstein, camper & CIT '07; Martin Arrick; Dan Arrick, camper - CIT '07; Lindsay Chandler-Alexander,'92-'02; Chris Lane,'78-'04.

I guess one can say this is a mini Allen Lane reunion. Missing from Allen Lane crew that went to Frost Valley are: David Chandler, Mark Nathanson, Peter Tilles & his daughters Amanda and Olivia, Adam Diamond, Cindy Diamond, and Kim Diamond.

At left you see just the summer camp crew: top row: Casey Chandler- Alexander,'94-'04; Cathy Chandler,'63-'72; Chris Lane,'78-'04; Lindsay Chandler- Alexander,'92-'02; Remy Bernstein, camper -CIT '07; Dan Arrick, camper - CIT '07. Bottom row: Sam Nathanson, current camper; Alex Arrick, current camper; Graham Arrick, current camper; Ken Nathanson, '69-'77.

winter camp

It's never too late in the year, or too cold or snowy outside, to have a good "Opening Campfire." Yes, it's Winter Camp 2007. Campers and staff gathered in front of the fire in Geyer Hall and sang "The Moose Song." "There was a great big moose... [repeat after me] there was a great big moose!" The photo above, the handiwork of Dan Panorama Weir, depicts the moment when they sing, He went to sleep....

Amy Rosvally is leading the song in the pic.

And Dan Weir adds: "We had some great 8 core value skits from our CIT applicants. Bobby lead a fun version of Singing in The Rain that will eventually make it to our podcast. Jeff lead a skit of who can get into a hot tub the best when the crowd knows they are really competing to show how they sit on the toilet the best. We did this skit for a number of years (1997-2001), but telling the competitors that it is a motorcycle impersonation instead getting in a hot tub."

Today is the annual Winter Olympics. And tonight it's Challenge Night!

A better version of the photograph is here.

expert corner-cutters asked to run a dangerous activity

Danny Shelburne (left) and Doug Tompkins "working" at the toboggan run during a December winter weekend in the mid-1970s.

The toboggan run shot down a clearing running downhill and in the southern direction from cabins 21-25. It had been cleared of trees to make way for power lines (the lines, now buried, are no longer there). It had been graded and grooved, and we sent weekend guests down 3 and 4 and 5 at a time on one of the maybe 15 toboggans we had. At the bottom of hill was a lean-to - which had been used for summer activities such as "Nature" and "Indian lore" in the 60s but was most commonly referred to, even in the summer, as "the Toboggan Shed." There was a working pot-bellied wood stove in it, and indeed the toboggans and some sleds were stored there.

When the snow was scarce (for about 3 winters in the early to mid-seventies we had very little snow--cold but little snow) we shoved ice and snow on the run and even occasionally watered it, just to have some kind of surface on it. (Later FV acquired snow-making machines.) The run got super-fast and was exciting but also incredibly dangerous. We stacked bails of hay along each side, to keep people from squirting off the course into the woods (and smashing into trees, which happened fairly regularly). Of course with all that watering (and the warming and cooling temps) the bails of hay eventually became hard as rocks, making the journey down still more perilous, the rider a pinball bumping its way through a bonkers pinball machine.

Add to that the hilarious Laurel-and-Hardy-like nonchalance (and occasionally--why not say it?--the downright laziness) of these two characters, Danny Shelburne and Doug Tompkins, and you got a FV activity area that seemed, to the weekend visitors, truly akin to Evel Knievel's leap across the Grand Canyon. They loved it and feared it - and we of course (e.g. during dining hall announcements) trumped up the fear and fervor with hysterical narratives of insane heroism, folly, recklessness, life-long phobias only realized mid-course, bizarre close calls, and stupendous feats.

Fir Mountain in January

It's the first of September and I'm thinking of Frost Valley in winter--perhaps this morning trying to avoid all those autumnal death thoughts I mentioned the other day. I'm glum at summer's end (for many reasons, not all having to do with FV), so my mind likes to leap forward fast. I went hunting among my carousels of 35 mm slides for a scene of snow.

After a day-long hike up and back down Fir Mountain in January 1973, Bud Cox pretends to be so tired as to fall asleep leaning against a tree. Fat chance that Bud was tired--then or ever--on a hike. Among those he dragooned into this adventure were David and Becky White, two of Chuck and Joy White's children.

It was really cold that day--15 degrees or so--but we were all young and had just hiked at almost a running pace, so the coats had come off long before this point.

If anyone ever asked Bud how far it was before we reach our hike's destination, he would immediately and in a flat-toned just slightly ironic voice, "Oh, two point three six miles." You would believe this until, maybe a half hour later, you asked again, and then came this answer: "Oh, two point three six miles." Sometimes he would add as a coda: "Give or take a few miles."