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

Team Talisman Trip History

Myself and a group of my friends, informally calling itself Team Talisman, take a week-long trip [almost] every year together. In the name of history, I'm trying to recall all the places we've been since the first trip in 1996. Team Talisman guy, help me confirm or correct these destinations.

It's something like this:

1996: Keystone
1997: Park City
1998: Park City
1999: Breckenridge?
2000: Ski2k in Breckenridge
2001: No group trip, J&S, B&T, and C to Big Mountain
2002: Park City - the year of Doom for S.
2003: Steamboat
2004: No group trip, B&T to Crested Butte, C&R to Utah
2005: Keystone - the year of Doom for C
2006: Heavenly

Does that sound right?

I'd also like to record some more historical markers. For example, when I threw my boots into a snow bank at Snowbird ('97?) and when a bunch of us switched to snowboarding ('02?). Of course, there are our two injury years '02 and '05.

You can call me... Al!

I've been spending time reading the EpicSki forums lately. There are a lot of smart people over there who know a heck of a lot more about skiing than I do. Great resource.

I've been having an interesting conversation with a user there, sellis, who mentioned in a thread that during a ski trip, while her husband was stranded back at the hotel, she got several invitations from people asking her to ski with them. It had hardly occurred to me that such a thing was even possible. And to prove that it wasn't just her husband sob-story working for her, she agreed to experiment on another ski trip by spending some time alone and securing invitations. This is sort of like experimenting on random people - and who doesn't think THAT is fun?

Anyway, I'll write something more on this later - including some of Sellis's social observations. In the meantime, if you've ever been invited by random strangers to ski with them, please comment here with your story(s).

Don't look down!

So here I am, riding a chair lift with a guy who had pulled the safety bar down so fast I barely had time to adjust my ample ass. There's one other guy on the lift, but he's busy negotiating some real estate deal on his cell phone, so I decide to exchange the standard pleasantries with the slammer.

"Hey, how ya doin', nice day"
"Yeah, yeah"

He seemed a little nervous, edgy, whatever, which I normally take to mean the guy doesn't really want to talk. I know this because that's usually the way I respond when cornered on a chair lift with some weirdo. And by "weirdo", I mean everyone except my clones.

So I drop the small talk and go back to rock'n to my iPod in peace. But then he starts talking again. Talking up a storm, actually. Turns out his a Brit and he lives in Atlanta and he's visiting his brother-in-law and he finds the mountain to be very beautiful. And now here's the kicker: he's afraid of heights! And yes, yes indeed - he's gripping the safety bar with both hands as if it was his last best hope of survival.

He's on a chair lift. On a mountain. And he's afraid of heights.

Also spotted today: not one, but two women wearing stretch pants tucked into their boots and skiing on pencil thin skis.

As far as the skiing details go, there was about 8 inches of fresh snow. But it was a little heavy and on the lower third of the mountain it had mostly turned into that sort of solid kind of hard snow. Not exactly ice, not exactly hard pack. You know what I mean.

Skiing on weekends and holiday weeks kind of sucks. Really, weekday skiing is THE way to go. All the damn weekend skiers were out in force, and it was like playing Frogger - in Grand Master mode. No lift lines, though, just a bunch of crazy people.

I didn't get a lot of skiing in. I had a couple of errands to run before I could head down in the morning. And for some reason, I was getting tired. I guess that's from not skiing for a week? A week ago I was ripping, up and down. Not today, though. Maybe something to do with my terrain choice. I spent most of my time today on one bumped up blue run. It was pretty much empty and had nice soft bumps. And that's an area I really want to work on.

More snow moving in tomorrow.

December 27th, Days skied: 11

Your ad here

I gotta go take a deuce.

I'm going to take the browns to the superbowl.

If you have to ask, don't.

Fridged Air

I know it was going to be a hard day when my fingers had numbed up before I even pulled my boots out of the car.

Crystal has had horrible ice conditions for the past week and I hadn't skied since Monday. But today, Sturdavants was having a demo day and there were some new skis that I really wanted to try. I expected the snow to be icy, but I didn't really expect the 13 degree temps
combined with a strong wind.

I did get to try several skis, but I rarely go out in conditions that icy (or that cold!), so the test conditions were far from ideal. At least there was sun, or it could have been a really tough day. Not much else say. It was just up and down at top speed trying to get as many demo runs in as possible before my fingertips turned black.

December 18th, Days skied: 10

Give up skiing for Spa'ing?

I told my friend Susi a few days ago that my cuticles were dry and that I needed a manicure. Frankly, I hardly know what cuticles are much less able to diagnose their moisture level. It's just a phrase I overheard and thought I'd try out.

My phone rang this morning at 8am and Susi said "Get out of bed, we have pedicures and massages scheduled in an hour - it's my Christmas present to you!". Now, I have never had a pedicure nor a body massage. I have, however, slept in late like a lazy lump and I knew that was good, so naturally I tried to talk my way out of it.

Well, the appointments were at the fancy-schmancy spa here in town, Gene Juarez. Pricey! It was such a nice gesture on her part, I really had no good outs (as we say in poker).

What an idiot I was for even thinking about not taking her up on the offer! The pedicure felt great and transformed my feet from something only a mother could love into something almost fit for public display.

The massage was fantastic as well. I was so relaxed when it was over that I felt like I was on drugs.

And to clean up, I got to take this crazy good steam shower with ten shower heads giving you the 360 degree 'car wash' effect.

It was just awesome. Now I know how the spa ladies spend all morning in the spa, then go out a casual lunch. I may give up skiing and just try the spa treatments at different resort towns!

Stop The Music!

Have you ever asked your waitress to please turn down the music because you can't quiet hear the conversation at the table behind you?

Weekend Warriors

Overheard in the ski lodge men's room today:

Dad: "Take out your weiner and go"
Jr.: "I don't know how..."
Dad: "Just like at home... don't pee on your lift ticket!"

I got off to a rough start this morning by leaving my poles at home. $5 at the rental shop fixed that.

The sun was hot when by the time I geared up and got to the top of the hill. After two runs I was sweat'n bullets and went in to ditch a layer. A couple of runs after that and the sun disappeared behind some thick Northwest cloundage. I was freezing.

And so it went all day. No poles. Too hot. Too cold. Line around the block at the men's room. Packed lodge. Lift lines (some as long as 5 minutes!) Everyone was trying to get a taste of last week's fresh, I guess.

It's almost enough to make a guy swear off weekend skiing.

December 4th, Days skied: 7.

The Snow Won't Quit

Crystal got another 5 inches of fresh overnight so I went up today.

Both today and Wednesday, I skied my Sugar Daddy's, which I bought during the end-of-season sales earlier this year. These things devour powder and crud. I grew up skiing the blue sheet ice of the east coast and becoming comfortable with powder and crud has been a long process for me. The Sugars make it look easy.

The very first time I skiied in the Pacific Northwest, my old buddy Shannon took me to Crystal on a clear blue sky powder day. It's been 8 or 9 years; I wonder if he's forgiven me yet. Between the food of fresh, my needle thin 205s and my complete and total unfamiliarity with powder, it was a disaster. I was forced to retreat to the well groomed bunny hill - what a waste!

December 2nd, Days skied: 6.