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Perfect

Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2017 1:55 am
by Harris
Today I was riding up an empty lift. The conditions were crap; a very wet tracked-out 6 inches that was balled up. It was snowing wet flakes that soaked everything they touched, the goggles needed wipers, but in a world otherwise I was in a heaven, listening to my Pandora set on "the Fix" radio, it felt like the place I belonged. I felt serene in the peace and at home to ply my personal trade in this crazy, over-populated world. There is nothing like mid-week skiing even when the runs are far more challenging than easy.

Re: Perfect

Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2017 9:19 am
by teledance
Any day skiing beats just about anything else.

Re: Perfect

Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2017 10:43 am
by lowangle al
I've had a few of those "perfect" days this season. It's a good feeling when you know you couldn't have had a better time. The perfect day involves turns. If I didn't get enough turns in it's not totally satisfying.

If skiing is like sex, the tour is foreplay and the turns are going all the way.

Re: Perfect

Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2017 11:30 am
by fisheater
Harris, that sounds perfect to me. I just wish I had appreciated "perfect" 20 years ago.
lowangle al wrote:If skiing is like sex, the tour is foreplay and the turns are going all the way.
:lol:

Re: Perfect

Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2017 6:24 pm
by Harris
fisheater wrote:Harris, that sounds perfect to me. I just wish I had appreciated "perfect" 20 years ago.
lowangle al wrote:If skiing is like sex, the tour is foreplay and the turns are going all the way.
:lol:
I used to ski 120+ resort days a year until 1987; then my knees went to shit. Chondromalacia. And in a way, telemarking had been my life since I was a 13 year-old, and I was getting burn-out, and gravitated towards sport climbing. In fact I quit skiing outright for 5 years, had moved from the mountains to Boulder and then to Oklahoma for work, had some necessary knee surgeries, and started skiing a few times a year thereafter. A couple years ago I was able to take a work transfer out to Seattle (daughter was off to college), and now at 48 I can ski 2 days midweek and night ski a day on the weekend (work schedule), which is as much as my old legs can handle. My legs can't do top to bottom runs anymore, and after 3 or so hours I'm all wiped-out, but I can still turn the boards well, which makes me happy as hell. Being away from the mountains for so long has made being able to ski regularly again even sweeter, and no matter how bad the conditions are, even if it is raining, which is a common problem skiing here, I head up.

Re: Perfect

Posted: Sun Mar 05, 2017 12:07 pm
by Cannatonic
Harris, sounds like a great day to me, I don't see the word "rocks" or "rocky" so the snow couldn't have been that bad! Wet snow is better than ice. Where are you?

Wow, my body is similarly banged up to yours. There's nothing like being forced out of skiing for a while to make you appreciate what you still have.

Re: Perfect

Posted: Sun Mar 05, 2017 1:46 pm
by lowangle al
Hang in there Harris ' my knees hurt a lot more 10 years ago than they do now, but I only have torn miniscuses. I tried something I called "skiing my age". I changed my style from jump turns and heavily weighted turns to smooth turns without as much flexing of the skis. I had to learn to carry more speed and let the skis run, which is something I needed to do anyway.

Three hours at the resort was about as much as I could handle too and that was always in soft snow. I was consoled by the fact that if my knees couldn't take resort skiing they would hold up to the BC.

My day yesterday was less than perfect. Good snow was hard to find and then I broke a cable on my riva binding and had to walk out. Luckily I only had to walk about an hour of a four hour tour and had already gotten through the area that I would have been post holing in. It was a bright sunny day though and I still had fun.

Re: Perfect

Posted: Mon Mar 06, 2017 11:02 pm
by Harris
Cannatonic wrote:Harris, sounds like a great day to me, I don't see the word "rocks" or "rocky" so the snow couldn't have been that bad! Wet snow is better than ice. Where are you?
I live in a southeastern suburb of Seattle called Fairwood. It isn't as cool as Seattle proper, not ghetto like a lot of suburbs south, and it puts me in great range for traffic-free ski and MTB access. Traffic is a big deal here; the traffic is stupid crazy. In fact, if I didn't have my "weekend" during the workweek I doubt I would ski or could handle being out here. The ski areas get so absurdly crowded on the weekends that they run out of parking and turn people away. And it is insane Gaperville.

Not too many rocks, but when is snows it comes in wet, deep buckets. They outlaw snowball fights here. Joke. Growing up in CO where it stays generally cold and the snow is most often lite, I was totally unprepared for the bottomless depth of the wet snow, or when not bottomless, it is supremely "catchy." Then it rains, freezes and turns to boilerplate. And then there is the fog; it always seems thick, and one is skiing the harder terrine blind. You rarely will see a zipper-line bump runs form; it snows too much and the place is crawling with entry level, side slipper jibbers. It has definitely expanded my arsenal learning to ski well here. The cool thing about here, even preferable to many CO areas, is the terrain. A lot of good steep, cliff bordered terrain. When it is good, it is amazing.

If I had my pick though I'd probably live in an farmhouse in Bridgton ME where my sister lives. The skiing may be routinely icy, but the resorts are actually pretty good, skiing is part of the community aspect, and I love the mellow, friendly atmosphere. There is a lady who works at Flat Bread in N. Conway I'm completely enthralled with. And there are still a lot of telemarkers out there.