après-ski

i never thought i'd describe -13 as "warm", but yesterday was bright and sunny and absolutely fantastic. the entire area was almost unrecognizable, actually: i'm not used to being able to identify much under all the snow, and a lot of it has melted.

i hadn't really woken up by the time we left for the ski lifts; it was in a dream state that i stared at the fantastic scenery and in a dream state that i made my first couple of runs. i felt... disconnected.

a part of that might be that "full speed" was somewhat slower than i'm used to - i noticed that on other people too. so either something was different in the conditions (the surface, the wind) or my nervous system has become used to crazy speeds. i'm inclined to assume the former.

pg had a really tough day, she's finally at that magical point of actually snowboarding*, but she's not clearing it. it was only on our second-last run that i noticed what i suspect may be hindering her: she's spent more time working goofy than regular, so she's uncomfortable with taking control with her stronger leg. either i'm wrong and she's goofy, or she's a masochist! we'll see if she can fix that next time, if there is a next time because she found an entire day of struggling to be quite disheartening :(

* when the nose of you board is down and you're switching between your front edge and back edge to control your motion / speed.

i didn't do too many runs without her - not only was i desperately trying to help her, but going slowly was an excellent opportunity for me to learn to switch. and i got it! i'm not 100% when i'm going fast, but even at low speeds getting it right is thrilling. and the wipe-outs are spectacular :P

by the end of the day neither of us really had energy to go out; between the late night, early morning and long hours on the slopes we both could have just passed out in the cafeteria. but it was such a lovely afternoon! so we agreed to go out and take it easy, like a sunday stroll sort of a thing.

it was magic. it was so intensely beautiful, there was a moment where i sat down to stare at the mind-boggling view and was content, every fibre of my being happy to just be in the moment.

...

we kind-of slept on the bus, but it was uncomfortable. i wanted to go out exploring on a saturday night but by the time i'd had a shower i could barely keep my eyes open... i'm such a fader.