I love being able to nip up to the ski area on a moments notice for a couple of quick runs, and still have plenty of time in the day for other activities. Our friend H came up with his kids last night, and we decided to drop our regular morning plans to hit the hill with them and H’s bro K for a while. The kids are great, and we had a fun time taking a few runs with them this morning. M and K showed me some of their tricks.

All too soon, though, it was time for Tom and I to head down to the Valley for the Yosemite Concert of the Mariposa Storytelling Festival, where they bring in professional storytellers from all across the country for a weekend of stories. Although there was a children’s storytelling session in Mariposa yesterday, these stories are mostly designed for grown-ups and there were only a few kids in the audience this afternoon. To imagine, picture one of the best storytellers you know – the person who can spin out stories that can make you laugh or cry, give them time to practice the presentation, and timing, and then give them a 20-minute time slot and a mike. The stories form the core of the experience, but there’s also a hearty helping of theatrics, songs and music. I laughed, a lot. We’d heard some of Kevin Kling‘s stories before, and enjoyed his performance very much, but my favorite story of the afternoon was told by Len Cabral about a boy who learns to tell stories. I’m a sucker for storytellers telling stories about storytelling – probably one of the reasons that I enjoyed Atonement so much (the book ending is so much better than the movie ending, by the way).

Today Tom and I volunteered as Gate Keepers for the Silver Ski Race, held annually at Badger Pass. Although I haven’t been around ski racing much, Tom has, and being a spectator at the Eastern Championships was a bunch of fun, so when the Head Coach of Yosemite Ski Team asked if I could help out, I said yes.

There are a lot of moving parts when it comes to organizing a race like this, and it was interesting to see. There are skiers, coaches, crowds of excited parents, timers, gate keepers, course maintenance folks, and who knows what else. The course was set with knee-high gates for the younger kids, and then they changed out to the full-height rapid gates for the older skiers. From the perspective of a Gate Keeper, all of the sudden a dozen people with bags and tools descend from the starting area, and start replacing gates. There isn’t much discussion, as everyone seems to know what they are doing, and then, voila, the gates are in place.

There was a wide range of skiers in the race, from the cutest little kids with bunny or unicorn helmet covers, to quick-footed teens who come through fast, slapping the rapid gates to the snow. We took a bunch of pictures, but it is hard to tell who is who with the helmets, goggles, and sleek-looking racing suits.

Skiing the gates looks like so much fun, it’s too bad that there isn’t a Masters Racing program nearby. The mental and physical challenge of running a course as fast as possible is really exciting. I guess there is NASTAR, which at Badger is set up both weekend days in the afternoon, and is wicked fun in it’s own right, but a slalom course with rapid gates is a different kind of challenge. Of course, the last thing I really need right now is yet another hobby.

This is a strange weekend for me. It is filled with activity options that wouldn’t normally occur to me as Things to Do in Yosemite. When I got here 5 years ago, my list was pretty short – climb, hike (to climbs) and backpack (for far away climbs), but the more I’ve lived here the more I get exposed to all of the other things that are going on in Yosemite.
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With all the snow that has been falling lately in Yosemite, Tom and I have been taking advantage of having Badger Pass basically in our backyard. Even on weekends that we have dedicated to working on house projects, we can often manage to sneak in a least a few turns. Not only has the snow been falling, but it’s been falling low and light, which makes for excellent skiing.

On a personal note, this year I’m starting to feel like it would be OK again for me to get shaken up a little bit, and take a few falls, if you know what I mean. I’m still pretty tentative, but on a relative basis it’s a huge step up from where I was last year. When the snow was firmer I got in a few runs on the NASTAR course, trying to go as fast as I could, and now I’m hitting some rougher terrain with more confidence, and taking some falls. I keep thinking it would be fun to ski some steeps in Tahoe one of these weekends, but of course there is always so much to do.
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