Category Archives: Winter sports

This weekend: Whistle Pig, Bushwhack, Schuss

Conditions should be good on the slopes this weekend.

Race at a new nature park near Wilmington in honor of the groundhog, Bushwhack it on a mountain bike in the Piedmont, celebrate the cold in the high country in the most appropriate way possible. Another diverse weekend is on tap in North Carolina.

If you’re looking for something closer to home, check out the new weekly calendar listings at the Great Outdoor Provision Co. Three events every week near Great Outdoor Provision’s seven North Carolina markets: Charlotte, Chapel Hill, Greensboro, Greenville, Raleigh, Winston-Salem and Wilmington. read more

90 Second Escape: Ski Moses Cone

Monday — never an easy time for the outdoors enthusiast. After a weekend of adventure, returning to the humdrum work-a-day world can make one melancholy. To help ease the transition, every Monday we feature a 90 Second Escape — essentially, a 90-second escape to a place you’d probably rather be: a trail, a park, a greenway, a lake … anywhere as long as it’s not under a fluorescent bulb. read more

Warm up to Winter car camping

Odds are you don’t do it in winter. Odds are equally good that you don’t have a good reason that you don’t.

Go winter car camping, that is.

There is no good reason not to camp in winter.

You hate being cold when you sleep at night? Bad excuse for two reasons: One, sub-zero sleeping bags. Two, fleece blankets, layers and layers of fleece blankets. There is no better sleep than that had snuggled in a comfy, coldbomb-proof sleeping bag, the world outside crisp, quiet and dark — and with minimal threat of ornery critters lurking about.
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A timely (hopefully) return of our cross-country ski guide

Whenever we get wind of snow in accumulations of five inches or more in the mountains and Piedmont, we trot out our handy cross-country ski guide. For those of you who have skis, you’ll find some of the best spots to cross-country ski in the mountains. And for those of you who don’t, it will help you find out where to get some. Here’s hoping the prediction of up to 12 inches comes true. read more

Going for cold after being teased by warmth

Dress right and you can do just about anything in the cold.

Teased into resuming your outdoor workouts by our recent three-day run of temperatures in the 70s? Even though the temperature isn’t supposed to get much above 45 today, that doesn’t mean you have to revert to your troglodyte was of suffering through another session on your basement trainer, or sweating to the oldies with little Richard. You may have to keep your shorts and T-shirts in the closet, but observe a few easy rules of cold weather outdoor engagement and the outdoors can be your playground on all but the coldest of days. Which is a good place to start. read more