Training Log: June 20

Its a Kirk Hill day. First hike after the Epic, we were going to go all the way up to the fire road, but about 2/3 of the way there, my body started saying "NOT YET!" Good golly. So if it were anything other than my hips, I'd keep going, but I have decided NOT to hurt myself training for skiing so that I am healthy enough to just hurt myself skiing. So I hiked down.

If you get a chance, get out there, the wildflowers are mind blowing! It's backday at the gym, and we'll shoot some video of new drills tonight... hold your breath, its gonna be awesome!!

Training Log: June 16: Epic Hike of Dooooom

So, when Mike Hickey told me that the S. Cottonwood trail connected to Mt. Blackmoor, the smart thing to do probably would have been to look at a topo of some sort, and just, you know, make sure.

Not that it doesn’t connect, it does. Sort of. You see, I thought it connected to the Mt. Balckmoor TRAIL at the LAKE. As we hiked along, it became apparent that I was wrong about this… and thus begins the story of an 11 mile hike that turned into a 22 mile epic…

Okay. Here is the map. Look in the middle to find Cottonwood Creek, the trail runs along side it. Now go to the bottom, you’ll see the trail split around Mt. Blackmoor. Now look at the right, the body of water? That’s Hyalite reservoir, where one of our cars is parked. The other one is off the map at the S. Cottonwood Canyon trail head, where there is a sign that says, “Mt. Blackmoor, 11 miles”. (Not the Lake, Kate, the MOUNTAIN.) Well, (sigh) they don’t call me SuperKate for nothing.

I probably would have been a lot less cavalier about this if I had known what was coming… Alright, here we go. So I hiked the first bit of this trail with Mama Jen a couple of days before, and it took us 3 ½ hours to do the portion that took Liat and I, uh… 20 minutes. Alright, 40 if you count it as an out and back. That’s what happens when you have little legs!

It started out so great, the weather was amazing, we left to shuttle the cars at 7:15, thinking we’d hike from S. Cottonwood to Blackmoor lake, and connect to the trail that goes over to the resivoir, and be done at like 12:30 or so. I told Tom we’d be home for lunch.

Liat is trying to show us here just how incredibly ugly this hike was. In fact, for the first four hours of the hike, we were going on and on about how it was our new favorite hike, it was so incredibly beautiful. We were laughing and joking and stoping to take pictures… the trail goes along the creek the whole way, there’s no one out there, and it keeps opening up into these amazing meadows, full of wildflowers…

Yes, I opened my book and recorded flower after flower that I’d never seen before, including a really rare wild orchid, some wild irisis… it was truly amazing.

I doubt that Liat would have been running through this meadow if she had known what was coming… but anyway… We were thrilled with the beauty. We were excited to take my mom on this trail when she visits. Even with the 8 or 10 skinny log stream crossings. It was that magical. And never mind that after about 2 miles the trail hasn’t been maintained. That’s why we work out! Over, under! Find the trail again!

The recent storms had wreaked havock, and some massive trees had fallen across the trail, bringing lots of little ones with them, and creating a bit of a pokey obstacle course. But no matter! Nothing is a match for SuperKate!

You know, it took about 7 miles for me to start to wonder if it was a good idea to keep climbing over these uncleared trees and venturing out where no one has obviously gone yet this season. I mean, the trail was easy to find every time we went around one of these massive road blocks, but it did occur to me that big time fast water stream crossings on tiny 8 inch logs and tree climbing might be a bad thing way out here… but no matter, lets forge on! It was still that beautiful…

Unfortunately, Wya is getting old. She is almost 10, and, well, she just doesn’t really dig the whole mincing across a little log over a raging river thing… so… she tried to swim it. Now, as you know, I just took a swift water rescue course, so of course, I am completely freaked out by two foot deep white water, because I know all about… (cue the scary music…) foot entrapment!! and strainers!! and all kinds of things that can getcha and killya if you aren’t super savvy. And, of course, I can’t explain to my dog that there is no way she can swim this.

But she tried. More than once. Luckily, she managed to get into an eddy and swim back to shore this time. I coaxed her out on the bridge. She wouldn’t go without me. I didn’t want to be ahead of her. But… she finally followed me out, and we walked across, and she got closer, and closer, and then she FREAKED OUT and tried to get between my legs to get to the other side. Thanks, Wya!

So, this is me wringing my shorts out after I fell off the bridge face down in the whitewater… and now I am sporting some rather awesome purple bruisage on my hand, thigh, knee, and shin from SMACKING it into the river bottom.

Lucky me, my savvy sister (who had to listen to me regurgitate my newfound Whitewater Rescue and Safety knowledge all the freakin’ way up the trail thus far…) was standing right on the bank with her hand out, and the second I realized that I couldn’t breathe because I wasn’t standing on the bridge anymore, but I was face down in that Really Freakin’ Cold Water, and I flipped over, her hand was there and she pulled me out. Thanks, Liat!

Whatever, it was like 75 degrees out, and I was fine. I gave Wya some peanut butter and a little bit of love, and we were off again. I figured, you know, I’d dry. A bit further along, we hiked up away from the creek, and I figured we were going up and over to the lake, now. (Um, I was wrong, but that’s not the point. The pretty picture is the point.) Liat spotted this amazing growth of wildflowers flourishing along the craggy banks, and it reminded me of the kind of garden my other sister, Beth likes to grow when she is at home in Topanga Canyon. (She’s in Germany for a year, so her little unibomber shack out there is sadly neglected… ah well…that’s another story…)

This is the first huge cairn that we came to, and I assumed that it pointed out something significant on the mountain behind it, it was beautiful, so we took a picture. I later found out that this is where most people turn around because this is “a bad trail.” Whatever. We kept going.

But I was beginning to worry. It was about noon, and we hadn’t even made the lake yet. I knew we were past it, and probably heading to the Mountain itself. Now, I have skied Mt. Blackmoor, as you no doubt remember, the great “Follow the skin track there will only be one” episode. (And by the way, (regarding that post...) its not a 16 mile trip, I think its actually an 8 mile trip. But whatever...)

So I was aware of the fact that if this trail was taking us up the backside of Mt. Blackmoor, we were going to summit, and then, I don’t know, glissade down?? And then catch the 4 or so mile trail out to the car. So… okay, total of 15 miles instead of 11. We could handle that, we hike fast, and we’d only be an hour and a half late.

I told Liat at this point that it was going to be longer than we thought, and she had pretty much figured, and we sort of chatted less (because the trail was a lot harder to find) and hiked on, picking up speed. You’ll notice that there aren’t any more pictures after this. Hmmm…

So the trail was like a faint line in the meadow, and we followed it from giant cairn to giant cairn… there is a huge meadow where there are three of them to mark the way, and that was really amazing, and it made me feel good to know we were on the right path, and not just on an elk path… (we had passed a HUGE skeleton earlier, just amazing, the vertebrae were like 7 inches across… sorry I didn’t take a picture…)

Anyhow, my concern was becoming that I wasn’t sure if this trail was just going to take us out into the wilderness, deeper and deeper, sort of end up out in Yellowstone somewhere, benighted with no food or jackets… uh…

After another hour, we came across an enormous Elk fawn, frozen, staring at us. Her mom was across the meadow next to this snow field, and she was SO big, I totally thought it was a moose. Alaska and Wya just flopped down in the snow at this point… and rubbed all over it. We kept going. We lost the trail. There were no more cairns.

I asked Liat the horrible question… what time is it? At this point, it’s 1:30 in the afternoon. It was supposed to be thundering by 1, we were supposed to be HOME by 12:30… and we are 5 ½ hours out and lost.

I was SO tempted just to scrabble over what I assumed was Mt. Blackmoor on our left, and scramble down and find the trail and get to the car… but you know, this is how you end up in the newspaper.

We could look for the trail… but it was already turn around time. I didn’t have a headlamp or supplies to get benighted, (although, yes, we had a water filter, first aid, matches and all that, just no blanket, uh… MAP, or jacket… plenty of food, though…)

So we decided. Time to turn around, and hike the (at least) 11 miles we had just done in reverse. We’d be out at 7:30. We’d be 7 hours late. Tom would be insane, the sheriff would be on his way… oh, man.

And then Liat had an inspired idea. We could run. It’s faster. So we sinched down our packs, and ran out. On the way out, Wya decided she’d had enough of this river crossing on a log nonsense and decided to swim it again.

She got swept in the current, pinned against a strainer, and her head went under. This is a 90 pound dog! I was standing there, looking at her, knowing I couldn’t save her, when the branch she was pinned on broke, and her butt swung downstream, allowing her head to come up, and she swam for her life into the eddy.

She came out of the water into my arms, and just stood there, staring at me. She didn’t shake off, or move, she just looked at me. Then I told her to hop up on the log, and she did, running across it at light speed, and falling off on the other side into the water again. She swam out on that side.

We had six bridge crossings to go. Each one, she ran, slamming into the supports on the ones with railings, nearly falling in on every one. She made it.

We all made it. We got home at 5:20, and it was so bizarre to see Tom mowing the lawn, slightly cranky that we were late, the kids playing on their bikes… life had been so dire only 4 hours before…

Anyhow, this is my protracted excuse for not working out since Saturday, because well… today (Tuesday) is the first day I have been able to, you know… walk around and stuff. (Wya, the amazing trooper, has been laying almost in one place since Saturday… she’s up and around today.)

And thus endeth the epic. And yes, I have a topo now. Thanks for asking. And, by the way, now I REALLY want to do the Ridge Run! Too bad its full!! It's only 20 miles!

Go, Speed Racer, GO!

Its Rollerbladeriffic! This is what I felt like tonight (but not quite what I look like... yet...although I am searching for some fabulous pants like that...)

Liat is loaning me her rollerblades and tonight I went for a quick RIP around the circle at our house, good to be on skates again! Funny, though, I am MUCH further back on my skates than I was before I spent so much time on my skis. I have moved from the center of the ball of the foot back to the front of the heel, so my skating was a bit wonky!

Interesting to find out in the fall what rollerblading all summer does to my ski stance. Better too far forward than too far back for now, I guess, though. (Over the handlebars, anyone???)

ALSO: MUST replace Liat's wheels! She's been stroking on the inside of the wheel, so when I went to roll from outside edge to inside edge, I almost ate it! Whew!

So, that's 22 miles...

Ungh... can't type. Suffice it to say: dog almost drowned, I almost drowned, we got lost, we hiked 11 miles and ran almost all the way back. We have pictures. Its an epic story. But I'm going to bed, so tune in tomorrow for the details.

It CAN'T be a vice, the Pope did it!

Thanks to Jill from Big Sky for sending this in, its a GREAT article in Skiing Heritage magazine on the Pope skiing, way back in the 20s all the way to 1987!

By the way, if you don't read this mag, you should, its incredible. One of the men who got Lifetime Achievement Awards from PSIA this year at Academy started this magazine, and he knows his stuff!

Oh, NO! Ridge Run is Full!

Oh, I am so bummed! I was getting on line to post that I want to run in the Ridge Run this year, a 20 or so mile run along the ridge of the Bridger Mts, and its full! And not only is it full, the WAITING list is full, too!

So sad. So, I'll try to register early next years (it filled up in 11 hours!), and this year I guess I'll volunteer to help out. Sadness all around.

Want to ski, want to ski, want to ski

So... everything is melting! And I can't find anyone to ski with! Ahhhh! If you are out there, and you don't mind hiking for snow... email me... Beartooths... wherever... before its all gone!

Training Log: June 13

So I hiked S. Cottonwood Canyon with my most loverly rather preggers friend, Ms. Mama Jen, and all four of our kids, out to the meadow past the bridge (dodging horse poop the whole way). It took us three and a half hours! Good golly!

Ethan and Duke were Anakin and Luke Skywalker, Isabel played the part of Princess Leia, and Bodhi, of course, was the Transformer Wing Saber. (Although he pronounces is Wing Saver).

But it was a lot of fun, we saw an amazing variety of wildflowers, and it was great to be out hiking no matter how fast!

Mini Epic hike tomorrow from S. Cottonwood to Blackmoore... We'll continue and do the peak if Liat has time. Otherwise, I think its about 13 miles.

For those of you who are counting: Its Back Day! Yay! Liat and I did some new exercises on the Bosu Ball for stability and resistance, we will video them tonight and post, they were great core strengtheners, and worked well on the back as well!

Lat pull downs, assisted pull ups, upright row, hyper extensions, bicep curls (preacher, and incline dumbell), abs on the ball and to failure on the incline bench (this is really fun, we will video this for you as well!)

Here are a couple of pics from the Sourdouh Trail mini hike last weekend:

That's Bodhi on his Trike with the Leaf Hat, and Tom carying his girlfriend, Isabel, who Bodhi is determined to marry. Either her, or Milla Jovovitch from the Fifth Element, he's not sure.

UPDATE: "Freeze That Fall!" renamed! "Recover Into Balance"

***UPDATE: Megan brought up a good point that I want to make sure and share with you regarding this type of training... Once you have gone past the point of recovery, you should NOT fight to save yourself, but take the fall. Let go, and fall. Otherwise, you can really hurt yourself over stressing your tendons in your knees while you try to overcome the force of the fall.***

These drills are meant to train the core and stability muscles to recognize "uh, oh!" the second you get out of balance, and recover back into balance, before the bobble becomes a full-blown fall.

Knowing when to recover, and when to let go... well, that's beyond my expertise at this point. My suggestion is to listen to your body, and utilize those well trained core and stability muscles to hold and get back in balance quickly. If it doesn't happen, let go, and take the tumble!

To see the drills and video, visit this link, or scroll down.

Do you know... where the Kate has gone...?

I'm here! Sorry I haven't posted in a week. We had a bit of family time, and a bit of an accidental (but needed) training break. This used to freak me out... oh my god, its been two day since I went to the gym, that's dangerous, what if it becomes three? Then five??? Then it will be a week and i will be OUT OF TRAINING! Which means... all kinds of horrible things.

But I had a chat with Mike, and we talked about staying sane, staying in it for the long haul, and then I let these couple of days sort of stretch out... and its good.

My plans for the weekend, epic hike on Saturday, epic ski on Sunday got derailed, and this time, rather than panicking, and getting down, and lashing myself for being less than perfect, I took care of some things around the house (Tom did a bit of demolition, we took down the wall between the office and the kitchen, which is SO cool...), I wrote a bunch of sculptural proposals, (I worked on one for our Bozeman Library, and one for Red Bull!), and got them in, and I went to the movies with my hubby. (Knocked Up, excellent, go see it, Ocean's 13... well, they are pretty, so its worth the drool factor, but aside from that... It's fun, not nearly the movie Oceans 11 was.)

I did do two hikes, one on Sourdough trail with our kids and my great friend Jen and her brood, and one with them today (with Duke in his Batman Cape) up Leverich Canyon to the old mine. The kids did great, its not quite what you'd call a workout, but it beats sitting at home!

See you on the snow this week!

Okay, so that was the happy, upbeat, positive side. Let me also say that I ate peanut butter cookies this week, drank 3 RedBulls, and gained 2 pounds. So while it was a nice vacation, (although I still did my Balance 360 drills, its time to GET OFF MY EVER SPREADING ASS and get the H E double Hockey Sticks out there!

Oh, Canada: Training Tips from Up North

So Josh Foster and I have been chatting about skiing, what it feels like, how we approach it, and so on, and he sent me these really great photos along with a sort of distilled version of the CSIA's version of the "core concepts", called "Movement In Motion" Read on, its very interesting!! (And yes, that is Josh in the photos...)

Here's the ski tip that was published to go with the photos. In the CSIA we talk about four planes of balance, vertical, lateral, fore/aft and rotational. Rotational balance is more of an axis than a plane but we lump it in there anyway. The pictures demonstrate lower body movements in all four of these planes. These images all also in line with a concept that we (the CSIA) have called Movement in Motion. This concept describes the relationship between the Centre of Mass (three dimensional balance point of an object, not a fixed point) and the Base of Support (pretty much the feet) in terms of effectively moving downhill. Gravity provides the motion, the skiers contributes movements (in those 4 planes) to deal as effectively as possible with all the stuff happening in a ski turn.

Here's how I look at it, it's a bit out there so see if you can follow it, think of your centre of mass being a basketball and your base of support is a cafeteria tray. Visualize your basketball hovering over the center of your tray. If the tray and the ball were to move down a slope together and they were turning - at any point on the arc if the ball was to drop it should land in the centre of the the tray. This would be accomplished not by manipulating where the ball (COM) is but by positioning the tray (BOS) throughout the turn to support, deflect and capture the COM. Do you see the link between this and the photos?

Here's another way to look at it, balance your ski pole in the palm of your hand with the grip to the top. You won't move the grip to keep it balanced, you'll move your hand. Grip = COM, hand = BOS.

An active BOS and a stable COM is the key to balancing on a pair of skis, you've got to ski with your lower body.

Okay, Kate again: I think that the basket ball/lunch tray is an amazing analogy, because it shows that no matter how the center of mass is moving, it needs to be stabilized, ready to be re-oriented, but still connected to the base. Reading this, I think a lot about what it is like to balance on the Balance 360 board, how its the tray on top of the ball, but to stay stable, the unit has to move together, in symbiosis.

Thanks for sharing, Josh!

If you have thoughts on this, please post a comment here! (Our skiing community is a bit shy, we've been commenting mostly by email, which is fine, but I'd love for people to get the benefit of all this wisdom!!) (PS, you can post anonymously!)

Weigh In

Wow, I haven't weighed in since May 5! I am 155 lbs today, but I haven't been clipped recently, so I don't know my body fat percentage. I'll clip later this week and let ya know. Hold your breath!

Training Log: June 7

Had a great meeting with Michael today. So set the tone for a rockin' day in which I got so much done! Got some film to watch, too, psyched for that.

Hiked up Kirk hill (again) today, there was about an inch or two of snow still since our last big storm blew through... someone was reporting 18" of fresh in the Beartooths and 24" in the Big Sky area!

I had some exciting news happen (which I can't tell you about yet) so I can't go ski in the Beartooths again this weekend. I think we are going to ski the Great One off of Sacajawea Peak instead on Sunday morning. So excited!

Went to the gym tonight and ripped out an awesome workout with Liat in an hour flat, we did the total leg machine (so cool), a set for quads and a set for glutes, seated calf raises, standing calf raises, face down hamstring curls, squats in the smith machine, dead lifts in the smith machine, full squats (all the way to the heel rest) on the bosu ball, which were GREAT and which I will post video of next week, and abs of doom. We did ab crunches on the Swiss ball holding a 10lb medicine ball over our heads, obliques with the swiss ball on the floor, and incline bench abs where you catch a 12lb medicine ball and go back with it, crunch up and toss it to your partner (who is standing on one foot on the bosu ball.) We did those to failure, and then just sat there at an incline holding the ball to failure. Yeah!

Training Tips: AJ Bear on the Swiss Ball

Here is some great video sent to me by Andy Docken. This is world cup skier AJ Bear working out on the swiss ball. This first video is a one legged jump, from one foot and landing on the same foot.

This is a drill that we use in figure skating as well, to at 36" platform, but from a static position, to develop explosive power in the calf, and train maximum muscle recruitment from a 0 energy position. I can tell you from experience, this is scary to do! We start on an 8" box, and move up by 10" until we are jumping up to the height of your kitchen counter.









The rest of these drills are exercises on the swiss ball, and, as Andy warns, BE CAREFUL! I'd train a bunch on the Bosu ball before going here, but I think that the requirements for balancing on the swiss ball are great for skiing and rock climbing as well, incredible core strength and body tension to keep stable on a very movable platform.

Your thoughts? Post em here!

Training Log: June 2-4: Beartooth Mts!

Oh, MAN! How fun is THIS PLACE?? Okay. Lets start here. I spent seven (count em SEVEN) hours getting ready. What the heck, Kate? Well, I learned well from my mom that you plan ALL your meals out in advance, and pack them in big freezer bags, and label them (Sat lunch) etc. And I made myself a great little luxury bed in the back of the truck, and packed regular clothes separate from ski clothes...

Yes, I know its insane. But hey, I was well prepared! Didn't take anything extra, and got to spend all my time playing rather than stressing. So there.

The drive out to Red Lodge was amazing, I've never been out there. Rolling green hills and the occasional house or cow, lots of horses. It took about 2 1/2 hours to get there, and then I met up with Josh Spohler and John Faunce to ski the Gardener Headwall.

Driving up into the Beartooths was amazing, you can clearly see the glacial cut of the valley, and as you drive up and up and up, you finally plateau, and its like driving on a road on the top of the world. A very bizarre experience, I've never been on a road in a place like this, I've only hiked in... it reminds me of stuff I saw in Alaska.

So we get there, to this turn out, and there are ALL these people with their skis on! Good God! And I realize, this is like sport climbing for skiers! Super easy access, and you just have to hike out whatever you ski down, so you only pay for the turns you make, no protracted 12 mile skin in before you summit and get your 12 turns.

Holy CRAP, its like Mecca! Yeah!

So the first day, we skied this, the Gardiner Headwall, and I opted to take my new Volkl Attiva's out for the day, even though they weigh more than TWICE what my other skis weigh. But I figured, what the heck, train heavy, ski light, right? I'm glad I took em, it was the most like water skiing so far!

I was nervous as we hiked over, and Josh said it was because of exposure, but I actually really really like exposure and that fall away out in space here is my humanity feeling, I think it was because I haven't skied in front of him in months, and while we are friends, he's also a bit of a mentor for me on skis, and I want him to believe I can make it to the D team, so i didn't want to ski like an idiot in front of him. The headwall turned out to be not quite as steep as I expected, which was great.

Thanks in part to the fact that there was no skinning involved, I didn't ski like a complete imbecile like I usually do in the back country, but i was a bit in the back seat, not wanting to go over the handlebars anymore. So I skied it a bit more conservatively than i would have liked, and I think the skis drove me most of the day.

We did three laps on the headwall, (Josh and John did another, but I wanted to save my legs for the Reefer the next day) and Josh just put a bootpack in that sucker and we hiked RIGHT back up what we skied rather than taking the long way round. Coolio.

Josh's super hard core incredibly beautiful mom skied with us. I was so psyched, the whole day was low key, nothin' to prove, just ski and have fun and eat lunch and get a sunburn. (In my ARMPIT. OW.)

That night, a bit sore, we drove down to our campsite, bid Josh's mom adeau, and headed in for a BBQ at Zoe and Scotts, (old friends of Josh). They both race bikes, and Zoe teaches skiing at Red Lodge. She rips it up from what I've heard.

Dinner was awesome, they have a beautiful old farmhouse that they moved to their rather large property in the middle of nowhere, and Scott rebuilt it by hand over the course of about 7 years. What a serene existence, I gotta tell you. They were super fun people, and the night was a relaxed blast... I gotta say, I haven't sat outside in the evening air and drank beer till the sun went down without a care in the world in...uh... 6 1/2 years? Or so? I've been away, but I was always worried about the kids and Tom and if it was okay that I was gone...

This time, Tom stayed with the kids by himself for the first time ever, and we both felt like it shouldn't be that big a deal, so even though I didn't have cell reception, I was not worried even a bit. How nice. I can't tell you how nice.

That night, after hooking up with Claire (also from the Bridger ski school) we headed back up to camp (despite repeated protests that we could stay with Zoe and Scott, and we would have but all our crap was back at camp...), and tucked in for the night.

Wait, wait, before that I remember Faunce sitting on my tail gate at like 11pm sort of screaming in Josh's direction "mmff grr long board lets GO mudda fuckah down the hill you got this ACTION!" and Josh going "Faunce, you need to be more quiet!" and Faunce going "Wanna PIECE of this? Get your board, lets go FAST! Mfff mff grr" and Josh saying "Good night, Faunce." and Fonzie then proceeded to tuck his extreme ass into bed and snore away.

Here are some pics from the campsite the next morning, Faunce miraculously NOT nursing a severe hangover, Claire and Josh rarein' to go... and Roz, not eating her breakfast...

The next day we trucked back up that amazing mountain and parked over by Reefer, a long moderate chute that winds around and dumps into a beautiful bowl. We skied the bowl all day, I think I did five laps total, in different chutes, two of which were pretty steep! And then Josh told me to get out of the backseat, esp on the steeps, so my last 2 laps, I was actually skiing for real, which was great, and fun and felt powerful, but I skied over our bootpack (whoops!) like five times. Duh.

It was interesting to try and just ski, not think, and listen to what my body was doing. I did not feel my mass traveling down through an arc created by my feet this time, but I did glance down and notice that I wasn't A-framing as much as I usually do. The snow was really heavy and wet, so I thought most about progressive edges (from Andy's carving clinic) and that elbow below hand pole plant to level and stay moving down the hill. I got wound a couple of times, but the last two felt more aggressive, easier, more simlutanious. I also did my first back country hop turn! Go Kate! Of course, I did it because I sideslipped off the lip I was supposed to sort of huck off of, and I was up against some rocks, and I didn't want to waste a turn by doing a little falling leaf to get back over away. So I just prayed I wouldn't pull a SuperKate and managed to bring 'em around and ski out. Okay. I skied out with a big dumb grin on my face, doing large radius turns and spraying snow behind me. For those three turns, I was a rockstar. And then I nearly ate it. So I knew I was back in the front seat! (If a bit of a superkate, anyhow...)

It was a great day, sunny, warm, fun... we ditched our packs at the bottom and had a nice warm lunch rock to lay on after every lap. Josh kept his eye on this big crazy storm system that was threatening, and eventually, around 3pm we hiked back out.

The hike was long, but I am super psyched to report that it wasn't painful. I would say that it took a bit more than moderate work to hike it out, and I would have skied a couple more laps if the gang was up for it. I am really amazed at that, this is the first time ever I haven't been in pain, sucking wind, and just hoping my legs would have SOMETHING left by the time we got there. I felt strong, fit, and ready to go all day. YEAH!

And Ms. Claire completed her first back country adventure, hiking hard, spinning laps, and basically kicking ass all over the place. Sucks to be a hot skiing babe like her, no? WOW.

We threw on our shorts and had a beer by the side of the road while we watched this incredible storm system approach, covering the Teetons in a purple black cloud and just looking fierce. While it was still sunny for us, that storm was fast approaching.

Time to go home and hug my hubby, snuggle the kiddos and take a shower! YUCK! Man was I a sweaty mess! But I felt so so so damn good.

The drive back was just as spectacular, minus the ipod, which had died. It was so much fun, we are going back next weekend! But we are gonna take the kids and do super low angle stuff. Very excited!

Off to the gym tonight after a day of thunderstorms and movies...

Buh - bye! Beartooth Pass Bound

SEE ya! I'm going skiing this weekend! Heading up for my first time EVER to the Beartooth pass, camping in my truck, got good food, Tom's Ipod (we decided not to get me one afterall... kinda spendy and, you know... not so much with the cashflow right now...) anyhow, SO psyched to be on skis again, re read my entire blog last night to put skiing back in my head, the way I have been thinking and feeling, and I am taking these tips with me:

Simutaneous feet in crud and powder
Hand below elbow on pole plant
Feel old inside hip click as you step onto new ski (in direction of new turn)
Stay out of "rotated uphill and inside"
Feel body mass move through arc described by feet
make turns match

and, of course, HAVE FUN!

I have lots and lots to post about already, but I'll be back on Monday with my latest back country adventure!

By the way, Tom is alone with the kids all weekend by himself for the first time ever so: first: Thanks, Tom! second: Good luck with that! third: drink lots of beer! You'll be a better parent! fourth: God I hope he lets me go skiing again after this!

Ooh, and I didn't post my training log for yesterday, so here it is: hiked Kirk hill to the fire road with Liat at a snails pace for some reason. No work out today, packing! (And I didn't want to be sore, because I know Josh is going to kick my ass)