Just when it looked like December’s excellent cross-country skiing conditions in North Carolina’s high country was a once-in-an-every-five-years-or-so occurrence, it looks like Mother Nature might be staging an encore starting this weekend.
Weather.com and Weather Underground both see snow starting in the Boone area Friday and lasting at least through Wednesday of next week. The omnipotent Ray’s Weather, the definitive source for mountain weather, is likewise suggesting snow for the next week, and says some higher elevations could get a foot or more alone out of the system moving through today and Saturday. Along with the snow: dang cold temperatures, possibly not getting out of the 20s for much of the next week.read more
Resolve to be more active in 2011 by checking out one of these three events this weekend.
Mountains
Frankly, I can’t think of a better way to get the juices flowing the second week of January than on a hike, a mountain hike. A 9.8-mile mountain hike that gains 2,000 feet of total elevation, flirts with an elevation of one mile, takes in frozen waterfalls and promises great winter views in the Shining Rock area. That’s what the Carolina Mountain Club has in mind for this Sunday when it takes on the Seniard Ridge Loop in the Pisgah National Forest west of Asheville in the Looking Glass Falls area. Because of the potentially dicey footing, trekking poles and YakTrax (or a similar traction device) are recommended.read more
The following originally appeared yesterday in The News & Observer and Charlotte Observer as part of the papers’ series on Fat. It appears today with helpful links to provide you with more information.
Move more and eat better in 2011 using these seven simple strategies:read more
Note to parents of kids in organized sports and to those of you with kids in middle and high school: Your kids may not be as active as you think.
A study from San Diego State University has found that kids who play softball, baseball or soccer still don’t get their daily recommended allotment of exercise. The government says kids should get at least an hour of good, hard exercise a day; kids in these sports only get about 45 minutes, on average. Of the softball players studied only 2 percent — mostly pitchers and catchers (the only players involved in every play), I’m guessing — got in their 60 minutes.read more
Today, we begin an occasional peek at everyday athletes who excel, and their secret for how they do it.
Lew Hollander’s goal is to live to be 120. If the 80-year-old Bend, Ore., resident succeeds and does so at the rate he’s been going, he will race to the pearly gates with 61 Kona Ironmans under his belt.read more