whoa it's been a long time since I've posted. Let me summarize the last couple of months:
- bad ankle messing with my running
- discovered cross-fit lite -- I'm not officially a cross fitter, I just do lots of things with kettlebells on intervals. Its kicking my ass and actually making me stronger even though I'm not running
- riding to work regularly -- joined a gym for the cross fit lite and the shower
- starting to swim again. reconfirmed the fact that I tend to get a chlorine contact high.
And this month? This month is fucking crazy travel month. I'm out of town every week. Good thing I'm not training for anything!
This next week is Strata Conf, which is a great conference in a crappy place (San Jose). But I wont be going outside the whole time, so who cares about location ? :) Next week down to Burbank, the following week in Orlando, the next in Glendale. Serious wacky miles.
But forget about all that. Today I want to tell a story about today.
It had been a great day. I took the kids up to their ski lessons like I do every Sunday. After dropping them off at Summit Central, I drove the quick mile to Hyak, where I decided that with 13 inches of new snow and 25 degrees, I was going to board, and not skate ski. I rode little pillows for a couple of hours, after the first two turns I knew I had made the right choice, even though I really want to skate more this year. Hyak is such a great area, with such a local feel. I love the way they don't groom anything. And they have just the right spacing in the trees, really easy to link up some nice sections.
Then I returned, picked the kids up from lessons and we ate lunch on the patio. It was sunny and snowing at the same time, and not cold at all. After lunch Kiran took off with his buddy Rohan to throw themselves off of the Summit Central black diamonds, a set of short, steep slopes that were very nice with the fresh blanket of soft, light powder. I was riding up with Leela. We all shared the same chair so I could 'keep an eye' on the boys, but Leela and I were doing laps of a series of blue runs.
That was fine with me, I was feeling pretty mellow after my morning. Leela doesn't like being that high up in the chair, so she snuggles up to me on the way up, which is really nice. I know from going through this with her brother that these days of cuddling are coming to an end, so I'm soaking them up.
I was just kicking back, enjoying being with my daughter, when she turned to me and said "Papa, I want to go down Nosedive". She said it with the absolute conviction that she says most things. Just like her mother does.
Perhaps I should set some context. Nosedive is one of those short, steep black diamond slopes that Kiran and Rohan were charging down. Both boys are solid intermediate skiers, linking turns in the bumps, just starting to get into the rhythm of skiing. Leela is very much a beginner. She winds her way down the slope, going in and out of 'pizza' turns. She's little, and her whole body turns at the same time. Plus, she's cautious. She doesn't usually like steeps, her legs get tired and then all hell breaks loose. So for her to want to go down a black diamond was somewhat unexpected.
"Well....ok. But why?" I asked -- I was more confused than anything at the sudden change in behavior.
"Because I want to go down a black diamond today." Previous experience arguing with Leela had taught me that at this point questions and logic were useless. She is so much like her mother that way:) Besides, who am I to tell her that she shouldn't try going down a black diamond, on today of all days? The conditions were what we used to call "hero" conditions. We used to huck ourselves off of anything that scared us on days like today, because the snow was deep enough to cover all flaws, in the terrain or (more likely) in our technique. Besides, she's tiny. If it came to it, I could carry her down and slide the whole thing.
That was that. She got off the chair and promptly pointed herself at Nosedive. I was behind her (I had to get in my binding) and so she pushed off down the semi catwalk that led to Nosedive and promptly went off course into...Revenge.
Revenge is a real Northwest black diamond. It's steep, bumpy, and always has a surprise sheer ice patch or two somewhere on it no matter how much powder has fallen the night before. Kiran had just successfully skiied it for the first time today, and it was such a big deal that his instructor gave him the 'most aggressive' award. Kiran was having a breakthrough day, and Revenge was the crucible that he had just conquered. It was also apparently going to be Leela's first black diamond run.
"Papa am I off course?" Well, yes, sweetie, you are. The analytical part of me was sitting back, watching the experiment unfold. The father part of me was just happy that she was small enough for me to pick up if I really needed to.
Leela proceeded to initiate her first turn into something really steep, and hit surprise ice patch number one. She slid out and down the hill a bit, coming to a stop with her skis all tangled up. I was above her and I carved around her to get to her skis. I was untangling her when a father and his teenage daughter came skiing up to Leela and I splayed out on the slope.
"Everything ok?" he asked, clearly wondering what kind of father would drag his obviously non expert daughter down one of the hardest slopes on the mountain.
"Yeah....she said she wanted to go down a black diamond..."
"And here you are!" This time he said it with a grin. All was forgiven.
"And here we are. We're good, just...resting" That pretty much summed it up.
"She's so cute!" gushed his daughter as she came by. Yes, she is, I thought. And what a trooper. Leela wasn't freaked, or whiny, or any of that. She was trying to get up on a sideways slab of ice. I slid her down to a nice trough of powder and stood her up again.
"That was the only patch of ice on the mountain today, sweetie" I lied. "Nothing but turns in powder from here on down." She started doing her little pizza turns, winding down the hill, ducking behind the bumps. I rode above and behind, resetting her when she slid out two more times.
Just then her brother came up. "Papa! Are you insane!?! What are you thinking taking her down Revenge??" Great. Safety officer Kiran to the rescue.
"Well, she wanted to try a black diamond..." this time it came out weaker, and he pounced on it.
"And you thought you'd try this one?" Oh boy. Now he sounded just like his mother.
"Leela, you're doing great! Way to go!" Kiran shouted words of encouragement down to Leela and took off after her, shooting me a glare for good measure.
It's amazing to see how far he's come in a season. His turns were crisp, his pole plants quick, his balance solid and centered. He quickly cut down to her and kept up the encouragement.
"It's ok, Kiran, I've got her, you go back with Rohan". I finally convinced him to take off, near the bottom of the slope. Leela was really in a groove now, turning and turning and turning. I decided that the bad part was past, and shot past her to hit some nice pillows on the side. She came after me and we ended up on the long traverse back to the chair.
What an amazing day with my kids.
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