Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Waiting

Still no snow.  All the ski junkies in the area are doing snow dances, hanging out prayer flags, and basically doing a lot of whining, but to no avail.  It's like this every year that winter is late in coming.  We all start to panic.  

Last year was an epic year.  122 inches of snow in the valley, and well over 450 inches in the mountains.  It seemed that every ski day was a powder day.  In fact, for me it was the first time that I had ever experienced trying to ski in too much snow.  It is hard to move when the snow is mid-thigh deep.  We learned to follow the snowboard tracks until the terrain got steep enough to gain some momentum.  We knew that there had to be some use for snowboarders.  There was a certain amount of enjoyment in skiing past them as they floundered in the deep snow.

The snow will come, it always does.  It may not be as epic as last year, but we will still get in plenty of ski days.  In the meantime, I will keep riding.  I still have slim hopes of making 3000 miles for the year.  Not bad, considering I had to spend so much time off my bike because of my "little problem."  It all depends on the weather.  There is snow forecasted for the weekend,  and the low next Monday morning is predicted to be 4 degrees.  I rode once when it was 9 degrees, and it was the most overdressed I have ever been for a ride,  I literally wore everything that I owned, including my Patagonia puff jacket.  I was miserable.  You might want to check out my post monday night to see if I actually rode, and if I did a better job of dressing. 

1 comment:

Unknown said...

We're not getting much snow in the mountains around Portland, OR either. Of course I purchased a 10 pack of passes for Meadows ski resort. Like you said, it will come. We've weathered low snow years before, and even had a great time searching for the hidden spots with the pockets of powder. I'll stay posted for the Monday posting. Stay warm and ride safe. Say Hello to the best artist in north Idaho for me.