On Top of the World

What an amazing weekend I had!

I was in avi class Friday night until 10pm. Then I met everyone from the class at 7am at the university. We drove out to Bow Summit for our field day. They mentioned that we would not be covering much ground, which I interpreted as: we would not be climbing the mountain. I rented tele gear anyway as I wanted to get used to putting on the skins & climbing in the gear. We arrived and started climbing. We stopped often to view some dangerous terrain, to find a hidden pack with a transceiver, etc. We also did a compression test of the snow. Found surface hoar, depth hoar and a dangerous block forming on top of it all. Very, very cool. Anyway, as we were climbing all day, I did not realize how high up we were until we crossed the tree line. The views were out of this world - and of course, I forgot my camera!

Anyway, our guide had taken us into the run off zone of a potential avalanche. We discussed the various tracks that earlier skiers had taken and how they had subjected themselves to potential peril. At about 3pm, our guide discussed the ski down and how the snow pack was not friendly and it would be a difficult ski through the trees. I was a tad concerned as I've never skied backcountry before, but hey, I was excited too! So they all headed down the mountain. One very nice guy stayed back with me. He gave me some pointers on how to traverse the slope. I started down and realized that I could not do a turn in the trees. So I fell! lol. I fell about 10 times on the first half of the descent. After that, I got the hang of it and did not fall again. Once I reached the bottom, I was so exhilarated that all I wanted was to climb that mountain again! I was high as a kite all night.

Two things I learned from this. First I kind of suck at backcountry so far. So I signed up for another class this week. Intro to Backcountry skiing. The field trip is next Saturday! Whoo HOOO! Second, I think I'm an adrenaline junkie!!!

Anyway, Greg - I swam this morning with Shannon on my back, so I thought I'd count that as a workout. Shannon & I also hit the Edworthy paths today, she kept me company for my run. So I'm hoping that Saturday can count as my bike workout. :)

So many great things to do and such a short time to do it in. I'm completely in love with the backcountry. I'm hoping for much more adventure to come. :)

Leaha