Izaak Walton Inn -- Girls' XC Skiing Weekend

This weekend my buddies Leanne, Allison and I stayed at the Izaak Walton Inn in Essex, Montana.  Essex is nestled in the "Middle Fork" area on the boundary of Glacier National Park.  The Inn is a really cute lodge and a great place to stay and play in the snow.  It is an older lodge so the rooms are characteristically small but cozy and super pleasant.  There is a bar in the basement with pool, ping-pong and Brazilian young bartenders studiously making drinks from the book.  It's a great place to go for the weekend.

Me and my friend

We skied twice on Saturday -- once before dinner and beers and once after.  There is a lighted 1k loop that we did 4 times in the dark.  It's really a great place with nice groomed XC ski trails. 

It's a little harder to get the skis on after dinner

2 degrees is plenty warm

Leanne has a 10 month old so I felt privileged to be part of a weekend away with her.  I forget sometimes how much harder it is for moms to work in this type of weekend.  It was great to catch up and hang out.

winter wonderland

I think I will now start training in earnest for Susitna.  Through Sunday.  Then I will taper.  This weekend was good training because I figured out that my Camelback doesn't freeze very quickly at all if I blow the water back in after drinking.  This is even without putting it under my jacket.  It got pretty cold this morning too.

I have a cold

I have a cold because I packed more action into this past weekend than my body was really up for. First, I participated in the "Whitefish Whiteout" (recreational division, not the one where speedsuits were the norm). This was a "ski mountaineering" race. Although I did the easier division, I still got last place, which was because I largely side-slipped (which is not skiing but more like tenously making it down in the slowest manner possible sideways) the black diamond downhill run, but I had fun.

Dave and Amber did really well, I hope they don't kick me off the C Team

You can't hurry 69

It's hard to tell but there were a lot of speed suits (spandex unitards)

I also competed in a roller derby meet -- I went almost straight from the mountain to the bout venue.  This in of itself wasn't too physically taxing, other than falling down a lot, but the part where we stayed out really late afterwards probably did me in.  Evidently, I'm no longer 21.

I'm wearing the red helmet

Roller derby is not unlike playing dress up as a little kid

Nonetheless, I got up and did a little XC skiing with Ted early-ish and then met up with my Canadian buddy Brenda for some skiing.  She convinced me to try a difficult black diamond tree run and while I made it down it was probably something she regretted.  I became paralyzed by fear of falling in a tree well (death traps made by our pondorosa pines and snow) and spent some time engaged in a mental breakdown.

Some snowboarders did this to Jesus, not us

It was a great weekend but no surprise that my not-so-young-anymore body is revolting.  Almost everything I did  this weekend was pretty random and outside the real of anything I would have ever thought I would ever do, even a year ago.  I hope this keeps my mind young despite the truth my body speaks.

I'm like, so totally excited now. Yes, for Susitna.

This weekend I went to Utah and hung out with Meghan Hicks and a couple of her friends in the Uintas of Utah.  Meghan lives in Park City, which is a fun little ski town, and put together this adventure that was too good to pass up.  Indeed, we had a wonderful time playing in the snow and I even turned off my cell phone for more than 24 whole hours (to make up for the time spent at Deer Valley on Friday where I was glued to my stupid smart phone, returning emails and phone calls and generally fitting every bad stereotype of lawyers). 

I had the opportunity to practice running with a sled.  My friend Andrew loaned me his sled, which was pretty awesome because he has logged probably 1,000 trail miles on this sled.  He has won the Susitna and won the Yukon Arctic Ultra and done all manner of arctic nonsense.  He gave me some advice too.  I feel really lucky to know so many people (three!) with experience doing these oddities.  

Up until this weekend I was looking forward to Susitna but never thinking it would be enjoyable.  After spending a weekend in terrain that, though at 8,500 feet or so, resembles my fantasy of Alaska I am downright stoked for Susitna.  There's something exhilirating about open snowy expansive terrain.  Of course, we had great weather this weekend and I expect that's a critical factor in the "fun" thing.

Pictured above was our weekend home -- the Colton Guard Station.  For a USFS cabin it was pretty luxurious with a wood stove and an actual propane powered stove, like a real kitchen one, and it was really clean and lovely.  I am motivated to do more of these weekend trips and would like to try renting a nearby cabin before winter is over.  Perhaps the dogs can pull the sled.

One of the things that struck me about the weekend as well is how lucky I am to know such cool people like Meghan.  She, like Jill (one of the three!), is someone I met through Keith and Leslie who I basically met through blogging.  These are all people whose paths I would likely cross anyhow given our common interests and often similar race schedules, but it's pretty neat (and efficient) that one can make such awesome friends in such a strange way.  Anyhow, Meghan is a uniquely cool chica and little does she know that I spent my morning run planning our Himalayan vacation for 2012 or 2013.

Powder Sunday with the C Team

Yesterday the self-named "C Team" (Dave, Amber and I) went out for a ski tour/powder day in the "Middle Fork."  Avalanche danger was high due to weird weather we've had, but we promised ourselves we would be careful and pay attention and not take risks.  The snow we found was pretty stable except for a little fracture and it was perfect skiing.  There was a skintrack set already and we ran into the folks who set it (including a guy I know - how cool to run into people you know in the backcountry) -- they were doing laps on the mountain we went up once and skied down in powdery bliss.  However, getting up was frustrating as I was forced to learn kick-turns pretty quickly on the go.  At one point I informed Amber that "I just want off this mountain" which she found entertaining.  However, forced to do many more kick turns, suck it up and just keep going, I improved in a short period of time and gained confidence on the side of that silly mountain.  However, I didn't actually take pictures due to my level of "worked up-ness" which is a shame since it was so beautiful.  Dave took some and I lifted these from him.

Amber doing something



Amber doing her tele turns

My ski down and out was pretty ridiculous as I was fatigued after the emotional drain of kick-turn central.  However, it was still fun and a great powder run.  The sun was out and it was a beautiful day.  Getting all the way back to the car involved going through relatively tight trees on a slick skin track but I managed to make it home in one piece, though with a lot more bruises than I care to admit... all in all a fantastic day but I really need to improve every single aspect of my backcountry skiing.  Practice... Regardless, I got in 6 solid hours of "training" for Susitna :-)

A woefully inadequate photo retrospective

I began trying to remember whether anyting notable happened in 2010 and whether I can find anything meaningful or interesting to say about my year.  My initial thought was: "no, in fact you rarely do anyhow."  Then I thought: "but it was a lot of fun."  Below is a photo retrospective of some of the fun.  I chose one photo per month, stealing the idea 100% from Jill Homer, however unlike Jill, they are not super thoughtfully chosen and only represent but one picture that I like or that has meaning to me.  There are obviously many more but these are some highlights of my year. 

JANUARY -- great run with great ladies in the Grand Canyon

FEBRUARY -- It's always fun to see my friends in Banff

MARCH -- my ski buddy Corey (who snowboards actually)

APRIL -- a super fun road trip to Spokane (for a 50k) with this motley crew of males (Brad, Footie, Erich and Jordy)

MAY -- the Park and trail running with Quinn

JUNE -- the Park and more trail running

JULY -- Angie and our infamous snow hike of 2010

AUGUST -- more fun in the Park with friends



SEPTEMBER -- a hike to end all hikes

OCTOBER -- I actually did a race

NOVEMBER -- Yanksgiving in Banff

DECEMBER -- my first roller derby bout!


A pretty good year -- can't complain.  I hope 2011 is also a good year.