December 17, 2006

It is ski season. It doesn’t really feel like it should be ski season yet, but the weather has been cooperating. We skied a full day last Sunday and both days again this weekend. The snow has been accumulating on the mountain. We have had little snow in Anchorage, but it seems to be snowing in Girdwood every time we ski. The visibility has been a bit of a problem, especially this weekend since the top of the mountain was finally opened. We took a beating blindly trying to make turns in heavy snow. It is similar to that feeling when you lose count of the steps and try to step up one more or forget to step down that last step.

I took my first real fall of the season. I fall over all the time. Sometimes it is more like sliding into base. Sometimes I just fall over while standing. I have had a few problems this year in unpacked snow. I stop to take a break and lean on one of my poles which sinks in much deeper than I expected. I don’t consider those to be real falls. On our last run yesterday, though, we came to a steep lightly tracked slope. I attacked the slope. Deep heavy stuff takes an aggressive attitude. Fore/aft balance can be a bit tricky when repeatedly slamming into heavy snow and then releasing in previous tracks. I hit a big poof of snow and got a little forward. I was fighting to get my feet back under me, forcing them forward in the heavy snow, when I came to a little drop. It would have been a fun little drop if I was well balanced, but approaching weightlessness while dragging my feet behind me started an unrecoverable forward rotation. In other words, I flipped over the little drop. I landed in deep soft snow laughing hysterically and filling the back of my coat with snow.

Today’s snow seemed a bit softer, less heavy. It might have been partially due to us switching to our powder skis for the first time this season. Things felt quite a bit different, smoother, softer, and less precise. Our legs were sore from yesterday, but we kept pushing and having fun. I think we have a pretty good handle on not pushing too hard, but the fun keeps inviting us to make one more run.

Solstice is almost here. Darkness arrives mid afternoon and leaves mid morning. I think it feels less depressing than the darkness in Ohio. When the sun goes down, it really doesn’t feel like the day has ended. It is way too early for the day to end. And by the time the sun comes up, much has already happened. It is not like I really want to stay in bed until it is light outside. So darkness is a fact of life, not a indicator of the start and end to the day. The days don’t feel shorter, just darker. Of course I can’t really ski any longer than sun up to sun down anyway.

So we are already back into the rut, work all week, ski all weekend. We are boring, but we are loving it. I have been trying to catch up with the thousands of pictures I have taken this year. I should get a few posted here this week.