Too Soon?

Perhaps my fly fishing post last week was way too premature.

Sugarbush got about 15" of snow late last week and we had some excellent conditions over the weekend.  One trail - a steep double black that hadn't been groomed after last Tuesday's rain - was a bit treacherous due to ice, but we found lots of great snow.

I spent some time on Saturday on a snowboard with my students.  We do this once per year.  It is an opportunity to do something different, learn a new skill, and also to remember what it feels like to be a novice or near-novice on the mountain.  My students especially like the fact that I strap on a board myself and make a fool of myself, falling repeatedly.  I am getting better, bit by bit, on a board, but doing it once per year is not the way to become proficient.

On Sunday, we skied all day, and with a small group, we motored around the mountain.  The highlight of the day was probably a trip into the side-country - the Slide Brook zone at Sugarbush.  The top half of the descent had good coverage with soft, sweet snow, no ice, and access to unskied lines.  The lower half had thinner coverage, so it was important to control speeds and look at ski placements carefully.  At least half a dozen times, moving at a good speed, I had to fully pick up one of my skis to make room for a single ski to navigate through obstacles sticking up through the snow.

All in all, it was a fun weekend, but it's about to get better.  The numbers seem to be all over the chart, but for the first time this winter, a major storm seems to have VT as ground zero.  The skiers here are ecstatic.  The snow should start tonight, intensify in the morning, and we should see a second intensive phase tomorrow evening.  At my house, there is a winter storm warning with a forecast of 10"-18" of snow.

One local forecaster is estimating that many ski resorts could see three feet of snow by the time the storm ends on Wednesday.  Tomorrow is going to be somewhat windy during the peak of the storm, but I'm angling to miss a day of work tomorrow or Wednesday to make some turns in the new snow.

This coming weekend is my last weekend of teaching, and it looks like we will have spectacular conditions - something very different than last year, when a March heat wave devastated an already-low snow pack and cut our season short.

So, my thoughts are once again focused on skiing and a lot less on fishing.

Last Friday night, we did the second of five workouts for the CrossFit Open.  In the first workout, I finished in 168th place among 50-54 year old males in the northeastern US.  In week number two, the workout included barbell shoulder to overhead presses (5 reps per round), light weight deadlifts (10 per round), and box jumps (15 per round and step-ups were a legal substitute for jumps, although they were slower).  I completed 6 rounds plus four reps for a score of 184.

That was the 93rd best score in my division for the week, and I've now moved up to 137th place overall.  We will see the third workout this Wednesday.  I'm still waiting for the inevitable - a workout with a movement that I simply cannot do, and we'll see how that affects me in the standings.  I'm far from an elite athlete in this "sport", but I somehow seem to be as competitive as ever.