No Corn But Plenty of Pie Crust, March 31, 2021

 

I thought working from home would give me flexibility and freedom. If anything I feel more constraint than I ever did when working in-office. Today I was fried, too much stress from work and home and life in general. Impulsively I decided to go for a quick “ski” during my lunch-break to burn off the stress. I was hoping to harvest creamy corn, but I found only unsupportable crusts, and those crusts were challenging. Yeah, I know, "there  is NO bad snow, just bad skiers," but when the crust breaks when carrying speed, the snow grabs your feet and sends you over your tips and sometimes you face-plant. Usually I can re-balance and avoid a crash, but today one of those collapses sent me cart-wheeling onto the hard, crusty snow. My fall happened so quickly it was shocking. “Did I just fall?” "I don’t fall. There is no falling in back country skiing.” I quickly stood up and instinctively looked around to make sure I wasn’t seen, which I wasn’t, I saw nobody on the trail, but I still checked.   

You may have the impression that I had a miserable ski-day. In fact it was exhilarating. A sunny, blue-sky spring day. Beautiful. The trail was mostly snow free, and what snow remained was fully supportable (unlike my ski run) which made booting quick and easy. To shave off time to get back to work, I took a short-cut up the Big Cat Trail, which is the direct route up to Dude. Today that route was stunning. Sunny and grassy with great views over City Creek Canyon. There was an icy wind blowing and I was under dressed, but that spring sunshine on my skin felt like heaven. There is no miserable in back country skiing.

Views over City Creek Canyon along the Big Cat Trail. Those cliffs in City Creek Canyonm are much bigger than they look from the valley. The cliff in front of me is about 200 feet high, most of it hidden in this photo by the roll-over.   

Tough skin track.

The green is coming back, two weeks ago this was under 20 inches of snow.

Hoodoos in City Creek Canyon. 

When skinning I always soak my shirt with sweat, so I always changeout at the top to keep warm. On sub-zero days a shirt change brings instant warmth, but it is a strange juxtaposition to be bare-chest for a few minutes when the wind-chill and blowing snow are numbing.

Bad snow, bad skier.

WOW! Worst turns I’ve made since I started skiing 50 years ago.

I almost lost the drone when the battery died and it landed itself a quarter mile away. Before landing it was hovering over a neighboring drainage, and it looked like it landed in some trees, so I presumed it would be severely damaged. But that thing is smart, the obstacle avoidance landed it in a small opening in the trees. It took some searching to find it, everything looks so different when you change positions, but with some back and forth traversing of the tree-covered slope, the errant drone finally revealed itself. Kind of like a teenager. There was no damage, but its not water proof so a snow-landing required thorough drying.