making progress

Sunday brought day 2 of H's telemark experiment.  He did admit to his legs feeling a little sore and fatigued - although he's pretty strong, telemark skiing uses very different muscle movements than regular alpine skiing - but gamely strapped on the K2s and hopped aboard the bunny lift for more free-heeling. 

Sunday also brought bright sunshine and blue skies and while the actual temperature was colder than Saturday, the lack of wind and the heat from the sun made it much more pleasant.  So pleasant, in fact, that I abandoned H to the bunny slope and headed straight for Supreme.  The snow was great, the new six inches from Saturday's storm soft and fluffy.  I rode the singles line, chatting with all sorts of friendly folks (lots of midwesterners here on vacation and convention-attending dentists, as well as a number of East Coast transplants). 

At first I was just skiing easy, jumping into the fluff at the side of the trails.  But I kept looking over at Catherine's Area, which just seemed FULL of snow and NOT full of people.  The old me would never have considered hiking up and skiing over there without H; the new me ... took off her skis, hiked up to the traverse, traversed across the ridge and had an absolute blast playing in the snow-laden meadows. 

Those sort of runs take a long time, as you've got to hike and pick out where you want to go, and then realize that you've ended up not anywhere near where you thought, so I only had time for one before I had to rendezvous with H.  I found him on Crooked Mile, definitely tired but definitely faster and improved from the day before.  We had lunch at the Albion Lodge - which is the family lodge at Alta - and then H went off for his tele lesson at 1:00 p.m.

Me?  I went back to Supreme.  I did another hike up to/run down through Catherine's, then focused my energies on the trees between Supreme and East Castle.  I did get myself into a rather more narrow and steep Piney Glade chute but managed to pick my way out; later, I brazenly followed a ski lesson into another chute, figuring that if the five year-olds could do it, I certainly could.  It was all great fun, and a real confidence-builder for me.

I ended up skiing just past 3 p.m., then headed back to the main lodge to meet back up with H (whom I'd actually seen during his lesson earlier, on an intermediate trail off Supreme).  He was feeling encouraged after the lesson - which turned out to be a semi-private one, with only two students to the one instructor - having learned that he had decent form and just needed to practice-practice-practice.  We had a beer at the Goldminer's Daughter lodge to celebrate our respective days, then headed home tired, a little stiff (but not my back!) and pleased at the progress each of us had made.