Six weeks in Wyoming has come to an end. Its been very productive: 4 weeks of “science”, 19 days of skiing, at least 17000 vertical meters skinned up and skied down, 4 core shots, 2 wrecked toes, I-don’t-know-how-many beers, or burgers, or steaks, tons of fantastic friends – old and new – and a shit ton of cold smoke.
During our last days in Laramie, we squeezed the last drop of honey out of the honey jar. One night and two days out on Centennial ridge.
On Wednesday night, I and Martin decided to try out headlamp skiing. We went up to the ridge after work, and since the moon was out, we walked up to the top without our headlights. It was very cool, and (I am ashamed) scary. I know, I should stop being such a whimp, but I just couldn’t help myself from thinking about the four mountain lions that live on the ridge and how mountain lions actually do kill runners and mountain bikers. How about skiers? I have never walked up the ridge that fast. Maybe I need some more mountain lions in my life? I think I do, in so many different ways.. Once on the top of the ridge, my camera unfortunately died. I just managed to get one, very dark photo of the view.
The Question mark, our usual run, is very mellow in daylight. At night it felt almost rad. Nah, not really, but the tunnel of light created by our lamps produced an impression of going really fast, and it made every little feature on the slope into an adventure. It was truly great. I definitely need to do that more. With or without mountain lions lurking in the dark, but with a functioning camera.
Since the avi danger was still considerable, and increasing, and since we had followed the changes in the snow pack and didn’t want to end up dead, we decided to spend our last two days on the ridge as well. This time with our friends, in daylight.
Glorious.
Time to head back to reality: two research proposals due before the end of January, one full-time course starting on Monday, one conference to launch, and just the normal things I do for work. And no sunshine until March. Gah… aha.. ha. Procrastination, glad to make your acquaintance. No, you’re right, not really, but I think it is okay at least. I hope. I’ll just have to live off the endorfins stocked up in Wyoming. I’ve got plenty.
