snow, skis, and my sore ass

friday night j. and i and her friend j.o. drove up to south lake tahoe where j. has a share in a ski house for the season.

we got there around 12:30 and found the place was packed; there were people sleeping everywhere, and floorspace was in short supply. j. and i took over a walk-in closet, j.o grabbed half a bed, and we crashed.

we woke up far too soon to the sight of windy rain coming down pretty heavily, and groans of disgust at the weather from the other folks in the house.

since skiing seemed to be out, we piled in j.'s truck and drove up to higher elevations where the rain morphed into something resembling snow, strapped on snowshoes, and headed out along the -- mostly -- frozen echo lake.

as long as we stayed sheltered behind trees or ridges the weather wasn't bad, but as soon as we found ourselves exposed we got blasted with wind carrying a stinging load of ice crystals which scoured exposed skin like sand. we toughed it out for a few hours, then went back to the house for lunch and power naps.

the sun was out when we woke up, so we went back up the mountain again to find a place where j. could practice telemark skiing (she set herself the goal of learning to tele-ski this winter).

while j.o. and i goofed around on snowshoes, j. practiced her turns for a while, and we managed to stay out until about 5:00.

we went back to the house, made dinner, and then sat around talking to some of the other people in the house while j. and i put a sizeable dent in a bottle of scotch.

sunday dawned cold and clear and cold, and after breakfast we pilied in the car again and drove to the resort where j. and j.o. planned to ski. since it's been may years since i've skied, i planned on renting cross-country skis because the risk of injuring myself seemed smaller.

once i got set up with the skies i took off along one of the many truly beautiful trails that run through the woods, and other than falling down on the exact same place on my ass every time i had to go downhill and turn at the same time, things went well.

i took a break for lunch, and went back out again, and by the time i was done i'd covered about 30k, and was completely whipped.

all the cool kids seemd to be doing this new-fangled skate skiing thing, which was a lot faster than what i was doing, and looked a lot more fun, so i'll probably try that if i go up again.