Snow is so beautiful. It is so dynamic. I love how it changes everything, coating creeks, boulders, hillsides, transforming them into wintery lumps. It clings to branches, rimes over tree trunks, blows into cornices, crumbles and slides in avalanches, develops sun crusts, wind crusts, runnels, and hoar. It can be powdery bliss, crusty crud, swooshy corn, and about a billion other things, and it can be all those things at once, changing throughout the day, minute to minute. You can go from skittering over ice to sinking into feathery fluff simply by entering a shadow or dipping around a bend. Snow has sparked a deep fuse of curiosity in me, and I have decided to spend as much time playing in it as possible. The only hang up is that I do not know how to move through it with grace and style yet- but don’t worry, at least I have a smile on my face as I fall repeatedly.
For the past couple of winters I have been spending as much time as possible (at least a few weeks…) up in Tahoe trying to teach myself how to telemark ski. I call this my Most Unskilled Ski Bum In The World Project. I will never be a shredder, I will never go off 50 foot jumps or learn to do a back flip. I will never learn to huck cliffs or fling myself off cornices. In short, I will never be an amazing skier, but I have found a ticket to consistent bliss. I like the whole process- from sticking skins onto my skis, hauling myself up a slope, sliding down into my first turn and inevitable face plant, all the way duck walking […]
