Tag Archives: ski bum life

Sunday was one of those absolutely gorgeous ski days.  Foggy and moody at home, but up on the Mountain it was crisp, bright and clear.  Driving up, we spotted snow whirls way up top and worried that they meant wind, but it was still at Timberline.  The snow was crisp and sharp underneath, and we got three runs in on the Flood chair before moving up to the Magic Mile.

Four runs on the Mile, two on an older section with a couple of interesting drops.  Sunny, sunny day, gorgeous time.

Today was mist and half-rain, half-snow.  Crisp, icy snow underfoot and a fresh wax job.  Both DH and I are still feeling our early season conditioning muscles, so we weren’t pushing it.  Kruser was a nice run so we did it three times.

But the second time, I took a fall. A real yard sale of a fall, as we call it in skiing, with both skis popping off and poles flying.  Not sure how or why I fell, really, just caught an edge on a little halfpipeish V curve that really isn’t that difficult, except…something caught.  I found myself overbalancing and going down, twisting in midair to catch the fall just behind my right shoulder joint, popping out of my bindings (good, I was thinking as that happened, I so do not want to feel that pain), and landing hard on my back.  My head thumped but the helmet absorbed the shock and my roll had me ending up half on my left side.  DH took a slow, careful fall, I was half-up by the time he was done.  We checked in with each other, then I stumped up the hill to retrieve my first ski and we snapped back in.  The snow was actually pretty forgiving; not hardpack, enough to have some give.  Less snow or a fall like that on hard ground would have hurt more.

So far, there doesn’t appear to be much going on other than sore muscles.  The abs I’ve been working as part of my Pilates program are achy tonight, which suggests to me that I subconsciously engaged them as I fell, my shoulder is sore, my hip is sore.  But I’ve had worse.  As a result, though, I got chilled and wet to the skin (not just that, some other stuff), and ended up feeling wiped out for the day.  Not surprising.

We did three more runs after my fall, and then called it quits.  By then the weather was an icy, sleety, snowy mix.  I was chilled enough that I had problems bagging my skis in the wind and needed help.  But once in the car and warmed up, all was well.

I keep thinking over the fall sequence, though.  Not from fear, rather, from thinking about how to describe it.  One thing I have noticed in falling from skis or from a horse is that I seem to have the same experience of intense focus and looking around for a place to fall.  I never seem to be able to do that if I trip while walking, but skiing or riding, I can.  It was odd because I had the same sensation of picking my spot to fall–there–and working with it.  Ski pops off here, I land here, other ski pops off here, head bonks here, roll onto side and stop.  Very clearly delineated.

The only thing I can’t account for is how my pole got bent.  Not bad, but clearly bent, enough that it was catching a little bit annoyingly.  I’ve got a spare, so that’s taken care of.

Anyway, that was interesting.  This year’s skiing is definitely less aggressive, mainly due to illness and to working my way back from last year’s hip injury/long term hip maintenance.  Getting back into shape.  It’s coming along.

ETA–looking back, these were ski days 5 and 6….

Today I remembered to bring the camera.  Lots of dry, fluffy snow, and alternating sun and clouds, especially up higher.  I even got to see a snowbow (pictured above).

DH didn’t ski today because his knee is still bugging him.  Timberline was hopping from the beginning.  I did a warmup run down Pucci–still don’t have my ski muscles back up and in line yet.  But a day like today helps.  A quick two runs down Pucci, and I continued on down to the bottom of Jeff Flood–where I decided I wasn’t ready to go yet.  So I moved over to Stormin’ Norman and stayed there the rest of the ski session, watching as the lifties worked to get the Magic Mile up and running.  It was still covered with rime ice from the last storm, and man, the snow depth is amazing for December.

I got in five runs on Norman, which isn’t too bad given the crowds later on and all.  About eleven the slopes started getting really chopped up, and I didn’t want to push my luck for the Mile today.  I didn’t start to see skiers on the Mile until after I’d taken my gear off.  Oh well.  It’s only the beginning of the season.  We’ll see what the end brings.  There’ll be plenty of good ski time.  Just getting my legs back.

And in the end, to be rewarded with this view….

Priceless.

DH and I had many plans for this weekend, and one of them involved shoehorning a ski day around work/credentials testing today and work/ballet/groceries/etc tomorrow.  The weather for a quick yet pleasant ski trip looked auspicious for this afternoon, so…we went for it.

Spring skiing at its best.  You’ll have to take my word for it; no camera this time and that was probably a good thing.  While the temps were in the high 30s F, the winds out of the northwest roared through with gusts in the mid-thirties, at least by the official measurement.

I think there were a few stronger than that.  At least one gust pushed both me and DH back into the chair momentarily at the top of the Magic Mile.

Nonetheless, despite the wind it was comfortable, sunny with clouds wisping through the high slopes, and crystalline snow blowing drifts across the groomed areas to provide a bit of wind tillage to even out the surface.  Cloudbanks kept threatening to sock us in, but by the time they hit the ridge just on the west edge of the Mile, they’d break up into clawlike tendrils that briefly resembled roaring dragons.  We watched the clouds, fascinated, on each ride up the Mile.

Then we flew down.  A bit of wind assist, I’d say, and somewhat spooky with the flying shadows from the clouds skittering across the snowfields, alternating shadows and sunlight.  Conditions were icy with drifted powder, but a sharp, crisp ice rather than wet over ice.  The line between crisp ice and slush hit quite sharply.  Not enough to throw us, as it happened on a flatter part of the slope, but it was clearly a quick transition between softer snow and harder snow, and the softer snow was still cold enough to be slick instead of grabby.

Some days the wind on the Mile is just too sharp and cutting to bear.  Then the groom has to be good enough to want to ride uphill huddled over on the chair to preserve body heat.  It wasn’t like that today.  Sharp wind, true, wind strong enough to push me along with my back to it unless I dug in my edges, but still a capricious, warming spring breeze, cold and crisp with promise.  The same gust that pushed me back onto the chair also whipped a small chunk of ice into my cheek just before we got off.

Slipping off the chair was a bit of a challenge, not just because of the wind but because the ramp was a sheet of solid ice, but again, it was crisp and not wet over ice, which is a lot easier to handle.  And once we dropped over the edge and started down, between the wind and the firm snow, we both built up quite a bit of speed.  We started with 15 minute circuits (between riding up and skiing down) and ended with 10 minute circuits.  Not bad for a couple of old pharts who took up skiing later in life.

And then we came home to a warm spring afternoon.  I decided that today was the First Day for Hippie Skirt Wearing.

A clear sign that spring is here.  Hopefully we’ll get more lovely days like this up on the Mile (and maybe I can even sneak encourage the husband to try out Palmer.  He’s done Vicky’s.  Could be an epic spring for Palmer).

Yep.  Ski day #18.  Sweet.