Sunday, November 13

Yesterday was my first day ski touring.  Coffee and breakfast at home after another night of not-so-great sleep (thank you time change and full moon), a short drive to the Mountain Village and we started skinning a little past 8.

We skinned up the cat-track that ends up at the bottom of the Prospect Lift, then on up Madison to the top of Prospect Ridge.  Hot tea and peanut-butter sandwiches hunkered away from the wind, then a ski back down to the car.  Here I am eating and hunkering:

Obviously, a lot about the day was new, but mostly it was gear stuff - how to put on and take off my skins, managing my layers for warmth, working the bindings for the pitch, that kind of thing.  It goes without saying that I loved it - I love hiking and I love skiing, and here they are, providing me/us with another way to enjoy the winters, away from the ski area and music at the bottom of the lifts, and spending some of my ski time jsut sitting on the lifts.

When I was in Hawaii and trying surfing, I can remember people asking if I had been surfing, or if I was learning, how did I like it, blah blah blah.  And I used to tell them, "Well, I don't know how much surfing I did today but I sure did a lot of paddling! "  Kind of similar to the ratio of skinning to skiing.

We stopped by the ski swap and I bought some ski passes for some owners at the Lodge where I work, ate and drank when we got home, then rode our bikes to J. Michael Brown's memorial.

It was bittersweet.  I don't know how else to describe the combination of humorous stories and sad goodbyes.  The goodbyes weren't just for him and who he was, but what he represented in this community.  One of the "originals".  Not many of those arriving here these days, that was for the '70s and early '80s maybe.  We were both glad we went, and I feel like I got to know him better through the family and friends who spoke about him.

Then we just lounged around and rested, ate a yummo dinner of sesame beets and kale, roasted butternut squash and whole wheat orzo.

By the way, I am putting it out there that I am going to write every day, just about the boring old stuff we do here, what the weather is like, what my day-to-day life is like, working, skiing, hiking, practicing and teaching yoga and step-parenting.

I also made some cookies yesterday from a recipe I got out of Ski Magazine.  JC loves them and I haven't tried one yet, but when I do (and if I like them) I will put the recipe in here tomorrow.