March 2, 2008

Four years ago yesterday was my last day of work at my career in Ohio. Friday was my last day of work for the State. Tomorrow I start my new job.

It has been awhile since I gave 2 weeks notice on a job so I don’t really remember if this was typical. I think I worked harder in my last two weeks than I did in the previous 2 years. It was frustrating trying to wrap up loose ends. Yesterday was the worst, trying to check off the last few items on my list while people stopped by to say goodbye. On my last day of work I worked until 5:30. My shift ends at 4:00.

This means that on Monday I return to the corporate world after a 4 year vacation. It is exciting to be moving into the unknown on challenges, culture, and even job content. I am not really sure what I will be doing, but I am not too concerned. It should be a fun adventure. I don’t see this as another chance to climb the ladder. That may well happen, but I am less focused on it. I now understand that I have an inherent desire to continually increase my contribution. This is not the same as a desire to move ahead, but the end result might be similar. I also understand that I can find satisfaction in almost any environment. Some just pay more. It has been a well spent four years.

Skiing continues to be fun. We spent most of last weekend and today skiing with another couple that we know. They are in the process of looking for jobs in Fairbanks. They plan to move in spring. They own 40 acres outside of town and plan to build a cabin. We are really excited for their impending adventure, not the least bit jealous, but truly excited. We will probably head up there and camp with them on their property this summer. They hope to have a shelter built before next winter.

The weather has been good with decent temperatures and plenty of snow. The problem has been avalanches. We had two snowmobilers killed a couple weeks ago when they foolishly triggered a major avalanche. Upon confirming their deaths, the rescue team left them there as it was too dangerous to do recovery work. When the weather finally improved, they went back in to get them. That same day, another major avalanche occurred within a couple miles of the site. The recovery team quickly became a rescue team. No one was killed, but one skier was buried for 40 minutes. Our friend who is moving to Fairbanks knows some of the rescuers. They assumed that the guy was dead when they finally dug him out. They were amazed when he gasped for air.

These avalanches occurred about 15 miles from the ski resort, but the mountains have been sliding all over the place. We had several weeks of wicked cold that put in a major layer of frost on the mountains. Then it started dropping heavy wet snow. The resort got 12 feet of snow in a couple weeks. When this heavy snow breaks, it just slides down on that layer of frost as if it is on ball bearings. The resort assisted the process with artillery and explosives. The results are incredible. Huge slide paths were visible on all the extreme terrain. North Face slid in two different locations and could not be opened last weekend. We skied it this weekend and it was a different mountain. Huge mounds formed at the bottoms of the steeper sections. Some areas of the mountain were now steeper and some were flatter. The slides ran into the trees in places, piling up deep with branches and whole trees sticking out in all sorts of directions. In some places the debris was still lumpy and brutal to ski over in spite of the smooth new snow on top. It is an amazing force of nature to inspect up close. It would be something to see it happening. Hopefully I will never see it from below.

The skiing was pretty good last weekend. We had soft snow up high. The lower elevations were a little firm, but we didn’t spend much time down low. It was the most crowded weekend I have seen in awhile. It was sunny and nice. It was also the weekend before the Iditarod. We helped a couple of tourists who had found their way into a difficult gully. She was trying to walk out and really struggling. The snow was not packed well enough to support her weight on the small surface area of her foot. She fell through on every step, sometimes up to her knee, sometimes only ankle deep. I took her skis for her to help take some weight and to allow her to walk with her ski poles. It appeared to help quite a bit. We helped them out to a groomed run and gave them some directions to the base.

This weekend was pretty nice as well, and a lot less crowded. We had about eight inches of new snow today, but it was heavy snow. Our legs are very tired.

Yesterday we skied Christmas Chute for the first time ever. This is one of the more extreme chutes at the resort that Kris has been afraid to try. It is only open occasionally. Since it was a relatively un-crowded day, I suggested it for our second run while our legs were still fresh. Kris was resistant, but I asked her why she would try anything at an unknown resort on vacation but was afraid of our scary stuff. She agreed to take a look. I skied across the opening of the chute toward an escape route. Kris didn’t see the escape route. She was breathing heavily as she dropped in. I dropped in behind her.

The chute wasn’t as narrow as we expected. We made turns without feeling rushed. The mountain fell away below us, no steeper than other things we ski, but a different view looking down 2000 feet through a relatively narrow path. The chute was bumped up already. Kris was using the fronts of the bumps to control her speed. I was using the soft snow on the backs of the bumps to control mine. This caused huge amounts of snow to slide with me as I pushed the back side of the bumps down the chute. It was the first time I ever felt like I was going to get knocked over by the sloughing snow that I cut loose. It usually only slid as far as the next bump so it wasn’t too bad.