Busted

We busted out of the cloud layer to witness a wonderful winter view of Red Mountain, Guye Peak, and Chair Peak today from Commonwealth Basin, just beyond the Alpine Lakes Wilderness line near Snoqualmie Pass.

And on the decent, for our backcountry ski/stroll/social tour, I busted my cable binding. Bummer.

It is very powder. I'm sinking!

Christmas day tradition: ski
Forecast: 10 inches of new
Destination: Stevens Pass

Matt and dp and I headed out EARLY to Stevens. We waited in line for the big cheif chair (have I ever waited in line for first chairs?) and then waited at the top of that for double diamond to open to take us into the back side. Matty counted: we were the 10th chair. There are no friends on powder days, so we made a plan to meet up at lunch and keep in the loop. I can't believe I skied all the way till noon. Endless untracked powder and DEEP. Over the boot and, with the genuine tele genuflexion, thigh high. Not as light as we had thought, with an interesting density inversion, but still delicious, although exhausting.

I overheard a non-native-English speaking couple skiing beside me. She hollered to her friend," It is very powder. I'm sinking!"

The sucker hole dp noticed as we drove up, and parked right up front of the stairs, opened into a beautiful blue day. Sunshine and powder. What a glorious christmas present.

By lunch we were all dragging. Matt and I even layed down on the benches at the table. We lingered, and munched, and stretched. And made a plan for more. dp and I skied the backside again with a few laps in Tye Mill valley. By three we met up with Matt who invited us for a "family ski". Undecided and indifferent, we debated. Then, Matt threw in the towel: "Let's ski!" and we took a fabulous final run of the day.

Merry indeed!

The light of darkness

I push off from the classroom shore
as windows tell of wind and tree limbs wave
shadows on brick walls.

The way is worse
than forecasted.
To breathe means aspirating raindrops
that fall so furiously I've got five squelchy
toes in fewer minutes.

I throw a wake through intersections,
eddy out in the pools below stop signs,
water standing rim deep.

I hear sirens, and then smell fire.
Smoke's a strange odor in a deluge;
what's not so wet it can still burn?
The next six blocks are blacked-out.
Christmas lights lost their cheer,
street lamps lonely in the inky tunnel
of a street.

Approaching home, I squeeze a river
from my soft-palmed gloves
as I brake to slow this flow.

Steven's Pass Season's Pass

Bonus.
Being handed my season's pass from the group sales coordinator on Saturday morning when the SkiAttle chaperones meet for a program walk through.

The kids are going to love it up here. I do.

Sean and I had a great day, dodging the fog (and thus avoiding the back side), and finding the joys of freshies on the edges of the earlier race course. My skis work well, the new boots are really great, and my shoulder handled the day well. Again, my legs are tired. Must have been Thursday's work out in the pool, followed by serious plymetrics.

We brushed 3 inches off the car at about 3 pm and headed back to town. Sean and I discussed education, philosophy, and dreams of smaller schools. He's a great teacher. He's going to make a great dad... his wife, Aliza, also a chaperone last year, is due mid January.

Back on the Boards

I said I would wait to ski DOWN until I got a ride UP. Oh well, the snow got the better of me. I just had to take my dad out on a little tour. He was visiting this past weekend and we were in Leavenworth for a Wilderness Medical Workshop with Remote Medical International . So when we drove over the pass on route 2, we stopped to head up Heather Ridge for a bit. The rehabed shoulder works well, the new boots turn like a dream, the p-tex repair and tuning I did over Thanksgiving was good to go, and the legs... they could use some work! Looking forward to picking up my season's pass this weekend and making many more turns this snowy season.