the horoscope made me do it

took the day off of work today - my horoscope said to so i did. it turned out to be a good thing and quite fortuitous timing-wise. someone is watching out for me.

so anyway we skied diamond peaks.

the early departure of 6 a.m.(mid-week no less) virtually gauranteed our reservations at the fresh line buffet. it was windy in the parking lot so we summarily dismissed any attempt at the main face for fear of soft slabs and possibly a premature death. the south shoulder always has some good lines near or in the trees on a windy day so we decided to indulge ourselves there.

breaking trail felt fantastic. crisp air. the effort. lactic acid. my mind focused on laying a perfect, efficient skin track. it all conspires to center me. sometimes i honestly don't know what i enjoy more - going up or going down.

the snow was variable for the most part - puffy puffs of fresh snow here and there, with a little windslab thrown into suspect openings that kept us honest. it snowed the whole time though and it was really picking up towards the end. actually, the best snow was there for our last run - of course. all told we did 5 trips up - 3 shortish runs (the schmere and a couple in the trees to skiers right of that gem) and two big trips top to bottom.

something cool that we did was traverse north up the ridge and across an open face to a point above a prominent gully. it was insanely windy above the cornice - but seemed a better option than walking below its 15 foot thick shelf. crazy gusts battered us from the west. goddamn continental divide anyway. at one point i wondered if it was possible to get blown off onto the slope below - the eastern side. how far down would i land? i wonder if that is hard or soft snow down there? it looks soft anyway ... it was so windy that my poles were hard to hold onto. i pulled my hood around to cover the right side of my face and skinned head-down and to the side into it. even then i thought i could feel my nose slowly freezing.

"how steep do you think that is?"
"what?"
"how steep do you think that is!?!"
"if i had to guess i'd say 40, 45."

even though the snow was slabby and i had to battle for every turn, that was the best run of the day. down right of the gully across the bench and into the avy runout that goes to the highway. the snow in that gulley was effing sweet. carving a tele turn at speed is a little like drifting a rear wheel around a loose corner on a mountainbike.

its a good thing.