Back on the Snow! 25 years too late

So last Friday I did something I have not done for (I am ashamed to say this) 25 Years. I went Skiing.

When I was 5 years old my father taught me how to ski and by the time I was 12 I was a pretty good skier. In my teens I was completely unstoppable and then there was the “M” word. I was confined to a life of servitude and skiing was not in the plans. The last time I put boards on my feet was maybe 1983.

Now I had went Snowboarding twice in 2003 and that was totally different. The first time was OK but nothing I really got excited about and the second time put me in the hospital with a collapsed lung for a total of 12 days. But Skiing, that was my childhood passion. Man did I love to ski.

So there I was after 25 years, Laying in bed visualizing the slope, the skiing, the curves, the turns, the smells, the feels, Everything and it was as if I was there and never came down from the hills. The next morning I stopped by my buddies who owns a rental shop and he hooked me up with the best gear. I was nervous but the memory was all there. I could feel the slope. As I drove up the canyon in SLC I was very aware and bleeding of nostalgia. I was headed to the resort, Solitude, where I first learned to ski over 40 years ago. The hill had changed but a lot had remained the same. The little shack that stood at the end of Inspiration Lift (Long gone) was still there. The smells were the same and the sounds were all crisp. As I walked from the jeep to the hill the crunching snow gave me chills. All those years skiing came rushing back like a freight train and there I stood, at the lift line ready to climb on the lift. 25 years of talking myself out of liking snow melted like a snow cone on a hot summer day. I sat back and I was off.

The plan was to take a very easy beginners hill and make a few turns. Got to get the feet under me I kept saying but what I meant is I got to get the fear under control. I talked a lot on that first ride up the mountain, nothing much to do but talk. It cools the nerves, It defocuses from he fear. Then the top came and reality set in, It was time to deliver and I skied off the lift and stood at the top of the run. I looked at my friend that was there for me and off we went. I made a few turns and suddenly as if I was injected with super human memory, every cell in my body remembered and I started carving up the hill. Before i knew it I was hammering moguls, cutting the slope and tucking for speed. I WAS BACK!

By the end of the day I was exhausted, every muscle was burning and we made an intense 14 runs. All were on Blue or harder slopes and several were Black Diamond. In the end I had to fight back a tear just as I am doing now because I look at 25 years I went before I took this wonderful gem back into my life. I realized that all the years of telling myself I hated the snow were a cover for the pain of something I had purposely given up and now that pain is gone and I have moved one step forward. Another step towards the top of the world…

Into the Wild

Yesterday on a plane I watched the movie Into the Wild. Then today I saw this quote from Chris McCandless AKA Alexander Supertramp “So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more dangerous to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.” — Chris McCandless It really hit home as to why I do the things I do. It isn’t that I am another Chris McCandless groupie, hell, I just heard about the guy and as messed up as he was, his views on adventure and life seem very clear. He knew what he wanted and in the end realized what he was missing. More to come Here I am into my own Wild!

Life’s little challenges

It has been quite awhile since I posted here. A lot has happened. I am catching up on some due taxes and it is really stressing me out. Not that I can’t pay but that it seems like forces move against us to challenge us when we set a goal. This is just me whining like a baby and I will get over it.
I received my new set of Mountaineering boots, they are really badass.

Here is a picture of them on my feet.

Just looking at the gear has made my head swim a little. I know in the short run, some of the gear I can rent. Much of the gear I want to be my own. I did score me some nice base layers on sale the other day. I head out to SLC next week. There won’t be any climbing going on though. Maybe I can get in a little skiing and even kike up to some peaks above Brighton. It has been a long time since I climbed the shoots above Millicent Lift. I thought that my plans to hike Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea were off because my friend was going to cancel on me. He is back on so it’s all cool. I will have not only a running partner but a climbing partner. We might start off at the 10K foot level though instead of the 8K level for Mauna Loa. Its about 15 miles shorter and his time is tight. No big deal though. It all works out.