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.The plan involved a 5 am wake up alarm, a quick drive to the unsecret spot, an hour long hike, breaking trail to the top of the ridge and then a single, quick descent before driving in to work. It wouldn’t exactly get me to work early, but I wouldn’t be too late either.
Contrary to those who like to say that backcountry skiing involves “earning your turns”, implying that the only reason to hike up is in order to come down, I actually found the hike up to be my favorite part of the morning. The fresh snow, the brightening sky and golden colors of morning made for magical scenery. The chickadees were out in force, chirping at us from the snow-covered
firs. We marveled at the small scurry scurry animals bounding across the snow. And there is something a little exhilarating and clandestine about sneaking out for some skiing on a working day.
The descent itself was a little disappointing. It has been 2 years since I’ve skied anything that steep and I ended up doing all of those terrible things scared people do when they ski – leaning back, using my upper body to turn, etc. I fell down a lot.
Good thing the weekend is coming up soon. I need a couple more runs to shake out some of that rust!