We headed out this morning for a ski in the beginning of the storm. Tomorrow will be a powder day, but today was a wet slush day. Dense snow bending tree limbs, sticking to the bottom of skins and coating everything with a shaving cream layer of white. And then the water. There is water everywhere. We suddenly live in the Pacific Northwest rainforest or Alaska. Water on the trail, under the snow and in the raging Middle Boulder Creek. I don't want climate change, but if it changes the Front Range of Colorado to an alpine rainforest, well, there could be worse things.
We had fun, and despite skins that weighed 20 times their normal weight as a result of snow accumulation, it was a great skin.
On this Mother's Day, I'd like to thank my mom for always encouraging my adventurous spirit. Whether it was giving me chocolate – but not coddling me – during a 24 km nordic ski when I was eight years old or so, wandering the back streets of Leningrad with me for five hours searching for a hockey stick, or letting me go up ahead on a group hike when I was twelve so I could keep up with the adults – well, I was always encouraged to explore and seek out what was around the next bend. That to me is the greatest gift a mother could give her kid. Of course, that's not even close to all she did or does, and that may be the subject of a future blog entry. Happy Mother's Day mom, and I'm looking forward to the years to come with you and dad! You are an inspiration for me. Much love from Elaine and Dan.
Alta Backcountry 