March 15, 2010

I think we have almost fully adapted to not working.  It seems very natural.  The only thing that still seems a little strange is afternoon showers.  While they make perfect sense as a follow-up to a workout, it does leave us struggling to manage our clothes.  We seem to change our clothes several times a day and only our ski clothes are really in need of laundering.

Our friend from Fairbanks arrived Friday afternoon.  We had a pleasant evening truck shopping with him.  He is contemplating a new GMC pickup so we took one for a test drive.  I always enjoy shopping for vehicles and it might have been more fun since it wasn’t my money.  I can’t believe how expensive new trucks have become.  They are very nice, but that is a lot of money.  I was glad that I could get by with a nine year old van for my last purchase.

On the subject of vehicles, I think my Subaru is sold.  I am waiting for the final transaction.  I still have the title and will relinquish that when I get the money.  I should net about what I thought I would had I sold it myself.  It did save me the trouble of dealing with test drives and taking the car for mechanical inspections.  I also escaped having to replace the windshield.  With a little effort, I think I could have sold it for more, but there is something to be said for avoiding the effort.

The weekend continued a stretch of good skiing.  We had a fun group for Saturday, three friends from Fairbanks and one of their friends who was an interesting person.  The weather was pleasant and the moguls were still awesome.  I haven’t seen moguls like this in years so I was pleased to see how much I have improved at handling deep nasty troughs.  Unfortunately, I pushed the envelope, taking continuously more aggressive lines across the troughs until I hit one that was just too deep.  The tips of my skis planted firmly into the side of the trough and dumped me over.

We also helped the ski patrol on one run.  Someone had lost a ski on South Face.  Our group joined a couple more searchers and we zigzagged down the steep slope, hoping to come into contact with the missing ski with either our skis or our poles.  We finally gave up and regrouped at the bottom of the slope.  As Kris skied up to the group, she found the missing ski buried just under the surface near the bottom.  Someone was saved having to pay for the missing ski. 

Sunday was more difficult.  Heavy wet snow was falling.  We were all suffering from the time change and the previous day’s activities.  We skied until we were wet and tired.  We met up in Anchorage for dinner.  Our friends spent the night with us and we took them to the airport this morning. 

Fourteen inches of new snow fell at the resort last night.  We stopped at the storage yard to check our trailer and then headed down.  The sun was out when we arrived even though the forecast said snow.  The crowd was relatively light for a powder day.  Things were pretty cut up by the time we arrived, but we found some nice snow, including another awesome run down most of North Face.  The conditions got pretty heavy down low and the fatigue from the weekend was limiting us.  Kris was experiencing significant back pain so she quit.  I made a couple more awesome runs, one down Slot and another off High Traverse.  My legs were not feeling strong enough to keep going so I headed back to the car.  The last slope was the far side of Tanaka.  It was untracked mashed potatoes with a crust on top.  It took every ounce of energy to keep turning.  The heavy snow kept trying to divert my skis in separate directions.  The flat run-out at the bottom was just painful.  I was really done after that.

The temperatures have returned to normal.  It made it into the upper thirties this afternoon.  The roads are starting to clear again.  The forecast looks promising.  The only down side is the ski resort will freeze into a brick each night before softening again in the afternoons.