Dan's Outside

No ski photos

Actually, I did take three pictures at the condo, but that’s it.

I take lots of photos when I hike and backpack but for some reason I can’t seem to get excited about taking pictures at downhill ski areas. I’m not sure if it is because my visual sense is a bit uncomfortable with the contrived nature of the downhill areas, or if I’m just concentrating on the physical sensations of skiing – but the result is the same: no pictures.
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February 9, 2004 Posted by gdanmitchell | Commentary | Comments Off on No ski photos

Back from Tahoe

I returned from my ski weekend at 10:30 this evening.

I left for Tahoe from Cupertino at around 4:30 on Friday afternoon – later than any sane person wants to hit the road for the mountains, knowing that everyone else will also be on the road by then. Surprisingly, the traffic wasn’t that bad on the way out of the Bay Area.

I knew that there was a chance of some precipitation on the way up but it was supposed to be light. We picked up some light rain in Sacramento but nothing much after that until we stopped for dinner above Auburn. When we came out of the restaurant it was, much to my surprise, pouring. We headed up Hiway 80 and soon the rain turned into snow and chain requirements were up. (I don’t need chains since I have four-wheel drive, but this still slows things down.) Before long it was snowing like crazy, to the point that it was almost impossible to see the road at times. We must have managed to follow the center of this little front since the snow continued all the way to Truckee. The full moon was out by the time we got over Brockway summit and approached Incline.

The storm was gone on Saturday morning and it was a beautiful, clear, cold Sierra day. We headed over to Squaw Valley. I spend a good deal of time on beginner runs (it is humbling to be a beginner again after cross-country skiing for over 30 years…) and began to get a feeling of control over the skis. As I say, I trying to “make these skis my friends” like I did years ago with skinny skis. I managed to make it down one good intermediate run by the end of the day – though not exactly it great form.

We went over to Heavenly Valley today. Again I spent pretty much the whole day on easy terrain, with a few harder spots thrown in. This was a very productive day for me. First, I remembered something that I learned years ago when I was a semi-obsessive road cyclist. I could descend mountain roads at very high speeds without panic. I learned to do this by doing a lot of descending while staying below the panic threshhold. I believe that by operating in panic mode too often, you train yourself to panic. By staying relaxed, you can train yourself to remain relaxed and not become tense. Today I decided to take that approach with the skiing and by the end of the day I was skiing without the constant fear of going out of control. I could let my speed build up and enjoy it and then manage to check my speed by turning and so on. Late in the afternoon I managed to take a few runs without resorting to snowplowing at all. A few times I found myself aiming for the steeper sections, confident that I’d be able to turn and check my speed or stop if necessary. Good stuff.
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February 9, 2004 Posted by gdanmitchell | Commentary | Comments Off on Back from Tahoe