Sometimes it’s easy to get focused on the great things to do inside the park, and as a matter of fact, there are a lot of great things to do inside the park, but there are some great things just outside the park too. With Badger Pass Ski Area closed for the season, a small group of us thought we’d ski up the Mariposa Grove road and visit the giant sequoias. Fortunately, the road the the grove had been recently plowed in preparation for getting the road open to the public, so when we got there, there wasn’t really anything to ski on. Disappointed, we opted for an instantly improvised Plan B, which turned out to be so much better than Plan A.

The transfer station just outside the park boundary isn’t a very auspicious trailhead, but there were several families there picnicking in the parking lot and playing on the snowbanks. We snapped on our XC skis and headed straight off into the woods guided by Tom’s unerring sense for fun, and it wasn’t long before we run right into blazes that looked suspiciously like trail markers along a nice wide road/trail, and then even trail signs with faded lettering and icons of XC skiers. Goal!

Now, we’d planned to ski the Mariposa Grove road, so we hadn’t brought a map or compass, but Bruce had this crazy idea that there was a road that cut over to the Giant Sequoias. Still, as we wound our way along this perfect little ski trail, we decided that we were probably going in exactly the wrong direction. Then, as we approached our third set of trail signs, Tom, who had been the most convinced of us all that we were NOT going to see the big trees said, “Now, this is the sign that will say that it’s 1.5 miles to the Mariposa Grove.” And. It. Did!

After just a little more skiing, we skied over the still half-buried gate marking the park boundary, and come across one of the most amazing sugar pines I’ve seen. (We haven’t been to the Rockefeller Grove yet, where the biggest of the big sugar pines are supposed to stand, but these were pretty amazing.)

A sense of anticipation drove us on. I couldn’t wait to see those sequoias, and then just as we started feeling like we were getting close, a fast running creek blocked our way. Tom sure-footed and confident immediately found a way across, but both Bruce and I vetoed the crossing as being too sketchy, and we decided to ski upstream for a little while to see if we could find anything more reassuring. The next opportunity was an fat downed log lying across the creek. In the summer time this would have been an easy crossing, but with snow piled high on the log, the footing seemed less certain, more slippery and more likely to collapse or do other unexpected things. Also, it was high enough that I imagined a tumble before a head first splash into the freezing water below. Tom forged the way – kicking his feet carefully to test the snow beneath him. Bruce bravely carried his skis across, but I asked Tom to carry mine so I could focus on my footing. It went just fine. Easy even.

Once that hurdle was crossed, we headed off again with excitement until we crested a small ridge and popped out just across the road from the Grizzly Giant. We had lunch, shared the view of the trees with a few people who’d walked up the road from the parking lot, and then even though there really is no place like the upper grove in winter, opted to ski back down our trail to continue the rest of our day, celebrating the whole while our extraordinary luck that the main road to the grove had been plowed.

It’s a cold almost-November day, 40 deg and raining, and everywhere I looked this morning, there were photographers, with their big cameras on tripods set up next to the road, wearing their rain gear and happily snapping away. Serious photographers are a unique bunch here – it’s like they bloom when the skies turns dark and cloudy, the rain starts to fall, and other people are grousing about the awful weather. But it’s easy to understand why. The clouds and fog skirting the big cliffs make them seem that much more majestic and mysterious. And no one, not even Ansel Adams, has seen just exactly this play between the clouds and the light. Heaven.

My own morning’s photographic exploits were more modest, and more furtive. There was a tiny dusting of snow at the top of our neighborhood this morning, hanging in the changing leaves along the side of the road, and I stopped to snap a photo out of my car window. (The visitors might stop randomly in the middle of the road for deer or bear, but me, I stopped for a couple of snowflakes. I need to remember to be more patient when others see something photogenic. But, for the record, I did check behind me to make sure I wasn’t on a blind corner, took only 2 quick snapshots and was moving again before anyone else came up behind me.) Snow on the ground. Ski season is coming up fast.

Over breakfast, I read Tom’s copy of TUNA News, by a nordic ski group out of Utah. Lord knows why we get their publication – something Tom did at some point. There is new ski gear in the catalogs we receive daily in the mail, and I’m contemplating new AT boots to go with the big plans I’m making for this ski season. I’m always excited about snow, but this year I’m preparing for long weekends in the high country, in Tahoe, or if I’m really ambitious, over on the East Side. October 22nd was my 4th Boulder Day, and it seems like a long time, but I finally feel like I’m in the position to get back into ski shape. The first few years after the boulder event, I just didn’t feel like I could take the pounding, and last year there were so many house projects that we didn’t seem to be able to find the time. This year, everything is coming together.

I’m now on day 20 of my new fitness program, and already starting to see some results. I’ve lost some weight overall – just a couple of pounds – but between fat loss and muscle gain, I can see some significant differences in the way that my body looks, and those pants that were getting too small are starting to feel comfortable again. Most importantly, I’m feeling stronger than I have in a long time. Years. Long enough that I’d forgotten what it was like, and what it’s like, is good.

The program I’m on is only 30 days long, and so I’m shopping for a new program. I checked out the Mountain Athlete program because, that seems pretty sport-specific. Lots of functional movement and sport-specific exercise. Tom mentioned a guy named Eric Cressey who is well-known for building strength. Tom also thinks that between us, we know enough that I could probably design something good for me without spending a bunch of money – which is certainly true – but for some reason, I work out a lot harder when I’m on someone else’s program. So, I’m still shopping (and taking recommendations if anyone has them), but committed to finding something in the next few weeks.

A serious program might have to wait until after our vacation to Hawaii though. Can you believe it? After years of planning mountain vacations and family vacations, Tom and I are finally headed to the beach, just the two of us. Running on the beach, surfing?, hiking near Haleakala, exploring the Road to Hana, resting, reading, and relaxing. I’m looking forward to the change of pace.

The other new season that is just around the corner is NaNoWriMo. Last year, not only did I finish the challenge of writing 50K words during the month, not only did I enjoy spending hours typing up a story that no one will ever read, I also managed to learn something in the process. Naturally, I’m excited to do it again this year. November is only two days away.

Lots of new things starting for me. New season. New fitness level. New commitment to play. New exercise program. New NaNoWriMo challenge. Life is good.

Yesterday, it was spring – warm weather, wildflowers, sunshine. This morning, I woke up and there was a kid sledding down the street in front of my house. Just a reminder that weather can change quickly in the mountains, and just because the calendar says it is now spring, doesn’t mean diddly squat in terms of what to prepare for outside.

This morning Badger Pass was buried under 18 inches of new snow (at 7200 ft), we had around a foot here at our house in Yosemite West (~5300 ft), and someone in the Valley said that they even had accumulations of 5 inches or so. I wonder if it snowed down as far as the bright fields of poppies that everyone has been so crazy about lately, and also whether any intrepid soul managed to get a picture of the poppies with some snow on them. That would have been a unique picture to get.

There was, unfortunately, so much snow that Badger Pass didn’t open today – much to the chagrin of DP who is here from FL and was hoping to get a day of skiing in during his trip. I hope he’ll be able to squeeze some time in tomorrow to get a few runs. Tom and I are planning to have dinner with him this evening at the Mountain Room. I love the food at the Mountain Room, and I’m looking forward to that for sure!

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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I admit it. When we pulled into the Badger Pass parking lot this morning, in the dark, I had serious reservations about this being the right time to go for a skate ski. But, we had done the backward calculation, and figured this was when we needed to start to make it in to work at a reasonable hour. The car thermometer said 15°F, which is a fair bit chillier than the 35° that we are used to around here. We hadn’t waxed the skis, being lazy and accustomed to the speedy spring conditions we were having, so that meant skating was a lot harder than usual as well. We skied part way down the hill toward Bridalveil Campground. Normally that is a nice turn-around point, but I stopped early – in fear of the slow conditions and the return climb.

Half-way through the ski, our faces, ears, fingers and toes were uncomfortably cold or numb, but the sun started to come out, and the sky had ribbons of pink and purple in it. During a short break, I realized that bird song was everywhere. Someday I’ll learn to recognize what kinds they were. And there were fresh tracks in the snow from coyotes and squirrels.

By the time we got back to the car, I’d gotten a nice workout, and was really enjoying the morning. It was still cold though. If you look carefully at this picture, you can see that my braids are all frosty from the cold air. Tom raced back to the car to grab the camera (and the new 50mm f/1.8 lens we just got on Monday), to take pictures.

We thawed out in the car on the drive back to our house in Yo West, and were treated to a beautiful coyote sighting. He seemed very preoccupied with something on the other side of the road, and stood still to pose while we snapped pictures. I love the Yosemite coyotes, and I think we’ve been seeing this one roaming the neighborhood for several months at least. He didn’t seem to think we were important at all – either as a threat or as a source of handouts – which is always nice to see. But I think he was happy when we finally pulled away and he could return to the road instead of falling through the deeper snow.

Then, just to top off the morning, I paused at Sentinel Bridge pull-out again to revisit the rainbow that visits around 8:30 each day. It’s like we’re becoming friends, that rainbow and I. I haven’t been stopping, the last few days, but Yosemite Falls was iced up in a beautiful fan pattern, that was already starting to come down as it got warmer out, and I was having such a great morning I decided to stop and take some more pictures. Tom and I keep promising ourselves that one day we’ll hike up the Upper Falls trail one chilly morning and hang out at Indica Point (Oh My Gosh Point) to watch the ice come crashing down.

Not too bad for a working day! It brings me back to being grateful for all the things that make my life so wonderful. An early morning ski with my favorite person in the world, skate skis, sunrise, frosty braids, cameras, new lenses, coyotes, waterfalls, rainbows, and, yes, even the job that got me out of bed at an unreasonable hour so that I could have a great morning like this.

Sometimes the powder is just too good to let a little thing like employment keep you from enjoying it right now, right away. The weekend was only a day away, but what if it rained or warmed up and the snow got heavy? We decided that the only reasonable thing to do was get up early and get in a quick run before work. Read the rest of this entry »