Elk Crossing
The road down from Crystal has any number of "Elk Crossing" signs all the way into the nearest town, 30 miles away. I never expected to see an Elk there, much less one crossing. But on the way down today, there were three of them grazing off to the side of the road. They nearly caused a twenty car pile-up as half a mile of drivers all hit their brakes to see. The signs should be something more like "Danger: Car Crash due to Elk Sighting".
I arrived earlier than I have in my past three or four trips, around 10:30am, and the parking lots were jammed. I was dreading the lift lines looking at vast expanse of parked cars, but the lines were surprisingly mild. Sure, not like up and down weekday skiing, but okay considering.
I made two quick runs on the lower mountain to make sure the new skis weren't going to pop off the first time I turned. I guess it had rained all night, and the snow was sort of hard-pack with a little ice. The new skis ripped apart the hard-pack much better than my K2 Axis Xs would have.
Then it was up to the summit. What had been rain on the bottom of the mountain had obviously been snow on top. I took two runs down one of the bumped up bowls. It was all just giant pillows of fluffy snow. I guess that run is about 600ft vertical, all bumped. That's a lot of bumps for a guy like me and after two runs I was covered in a simmering 'summer in the city' shellac of sweat. So after a measly four runs I went inside to lose some clothes and cool off.
But I just wasn't feeling it. I was tired and lethargic and I just couldn't seem to get any enthusiasm. It wasn't a matter of not being used to the new skis - they did everything I asked them to. And the snow was great. I went and skied my old standby bumped-up run that I've been practicing on lately and it was plenty good today; fluffy and good. Still with no juice, I went in and drank a lot of fluid (I'm pretty sure that I was/am a little dehydrated) and had a snack. I did a couple of more runs and just packed it in early.
I'm not sure my problem was today. I've been sick with tonsillitis and in bed for the last three days. And for two of those, I hardly ate a thing. I'm sure that didn't help. Or maybe there's some acclimation thing going on. It seems like when I see 2 or 3 days in close succession I really start to feel good. Anyway, not important. I'm trying to decide if I want to risk the crowds on Monday or not. I guess I'll let the snow report decide for me.
December 31st, Days skied: 12
I arrived earlier than I have in my past three or four trips, around 10:30am, and the parking lots were jammed. I was dreading the lift lines looking at vast expanse of parked cars, but the lines were surprisingly mild. Sure, not like up and down weekday skiing, but okay considering.
I made two quick runs on the lower mountain to make sure the new skis weren't going to pop off the first time I turned. I guess it had rained all night, and the snow was sort of hard-pack with a little ice. The new skis ripped apart the hard-pack much better than my K2 Axis Xs would have.
Then it was up to the summit. What had been rain on the bottom of the mountain had obviously been snow on top. I took two runs down one of the bumped up bowls. It was all just giant pillows of fluffy snow. I guess that run is about 600ft vertical, all bumped. That's a lot of bumps for a guy like me and after two runs I was covered in a simmering 'summer in the city' shellac of sweat. So after a measly four runs I went inside to lose some clothes and cool off.
But I just wasn't feeling it. I was tired and lethargic and I just couldn't seem to get any enthusiasm. It wasn't a matter of not being used to the new skis - they did everything I asked them to. And the snow was great. I went and skied my old standby bumped-up run that I've been practicing on lately and it was plenty good today; fluffy and good. Still with no juice, I went in and drank a lot of fluid (I'm pretty sure that I was/am a little dehydrated) and had a snack. I did a couple of more runs and just packed it in early.
I'm not sure my problem was today. I've been sick with tonsillitis and in bed for the last three days. And for two of those, I hardly ate a thing. I'm sure that didn't help. Or maybe there's some acclimation thing going on. It seems like when I see 2 or 3 days in close succession I really start to feel good. Anyway, not important. I'm trying to decide if I want to risk the crowds on Monday or not. I guess I'll let the snow report decide for me.
December 31st, Days skied: 12
posted by Chris at 18:22
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