March 23, 2008

I surged ahead of Kris on ski days. I picked up three in a week. My department took a team building trip to Girdwood this week. We headed down Tuesday afternoon and got in a few hours of skiing. Then we had team building exercises until after midnight, had another meeting on Wednesday morning, and then skied Wednesday afternoon. Not a bad work schedule, but I didn’t get much of my regular work done.

Last weekend was nice skiing. We skied both days and had tons of fun. We hooked up with a group of patrollers for a good part of the day Saturday. We had fun traveling around the mountain in a group. Then we had dinner in Girdwood with our friends who are moving to Fairbanks. She has given her notice at the state which has created an interesting situation since everyone knows they are living together and he hasn’t yet given his notice. I suggested that he just answer the prying questions by breaking into tears.

We had dinner at Maxines, our favorite restaurant in Girdwood. They didn’t have any tables available so we sat on couches in the lounge area and had a great dinner. It was very comfortable and somewhat silly. We still made it home before dark, a soon to be guaranteed accomplishment. We are rapidly moving into the light. The time change was simply ridiculous for us, keeping us a taste of darkness in the morning while shockingly extending our evening.

My skiing during the week was a little less thrilling. On Tuesday, I stayed down low with a couple of my coworkers who are low intermediates. I had fun working on slow speed precision. The top of the mountain was calling to me, but not all that loudly.

We awoke Wednesday to snow, lots of snow. It was difficult sitting there in my meeting looking out at the mountain. After the meeting, only two of us were skiing. Some were going to soak in the hot tub and others were heading back to work. My coworker and I walked from the car to the ticket office. That is when she realized that she forgot her credit card in the car. It was a perfect opportunity. I gave her the car keys and told her I would meet her on the easy slopes after taking a run up high.

I rode the lift to mid-mountain and watched the slopes below. They were snow covered, but pretty well skied up. I contemplated a few different lines down, but was a little disappointed to not have gotten out sooner. As I looked up from mid-mountain, my decision was easy. The deep lightly tracked slopes above were irresistible. I decided my one run would be from the very top. The potential choices were overwhelming. There was practically no one there with the wind and low visibility on a weekday. I noticed that North Face was open and decided to take a look. I contemplated taking one of the aggressive entrances, but being by myself , I decided it would be ill advised. I took a more conservative line and tried to stay close to a couple of snowboarders on the way down.

The snow was variable. In places, my skis hit hard pack just below the surface. In other places, the snow rose to my chest. The unpredictable turns were demanding. I went over a steep section and hit deep snow that sent me into a roll. It was soft and I easily flopped my skis over and hopped back up. The two snowboarders also fell.

Down lower, I was drawn in by the smooth looking fresh cover. I went over a drop off, expecting to drop easily through deep snow and land gently at the bottom. Instead I found myself in camouflaged avy chunks. My right ski slammed into an ice chunk just below the surface, immediately ejecting my ski and flipping me over. I tumbled and slid down below while me ski remained stuck on the ice chunk. I had to climb back up to get my ski, a real sweat inducing exercise and the one thing I didn’t want to have happen while skiing alone on North Face. Luckily I hadn’t traveled too far so it only took a few minutes to retrieve the ski.

I spent the rest of the day on the easy slopes, playing in the soft snow on the edges of the easy trails. I took one more run from mid-mountain to finish the day, finding a few more stretches of deep untracked snow mixed with not so deep crusty stuff just below the surface. Arriving at the car, my intermediate coworker was surprised to see me covered in snow up to my waist as she has never experienced deep snow skiing.

Yesterday was close to the least fun day of skiing all season. The lift lines were long. The snow conditions were firm, rutted, and chunky. We found that the best conditions were on the north side. We also found that the steeper terrain had smoother surfaces. We ended up skiing Christmas Chute twice, the second run with poor visibility. The least fun day was still quite fun.

Friday night we went to a show. We saw the Reduced Shakespeare Company’s semi-improvisational show, “All the Great Books”. It was a three man team of actors covering dozens of books, they claim over 80, in a nonstop barrage. It was pretty funny. So my life in the last week has been lots of skiing, lots of dinners, lots of work, and a show.