don't call it a comeback...

Never before have I been so nervous for a low angle glade loaded with new snow.  I stood quietly for a moment above the mellow line I had chosen to be my first turns of the season.  It was my first mental challenge coming back from my most severe injury.  My mother will testify to the fact that I have been crashing and burning my whole life.  The local clinic probably thought my parents were beating me up because of the frequency of our visits.  I've broken over a baker's dozen bones, countless muscle and tendon injuries, knock outs and concussions to boot.  Needless to say, I have always bounced back, and I intend to do more of the same this winter.  Everything felt significant from my morning pack up, to the drive, to the skin ascent, and then just before the drop in.


^My own little tailgate party.  There were a good amount of folks getting out and getting after it.  Alta looked like it had been open all morning with Collins chair running.  It was good to see.
  
 
^This was a nice "winter is here" moment.  We have a little more precipitation coming Saturday that will hopefully be snow up high.  Last I heard it could be warm.  Temperatures are forecasted to pick up next week as well, but it is hard to believe that we will loose this snowpack.  

^On the skin up it was looking better and better.  It was a game of balancing snow depth, aspect, and a the rockiness of the underlying terrain.  I chose a little northy in Grizzly Gulch with an additional factor in mind, my health and strength.  I took my "half that" strategy for rehabing. In this strategy I ask myself what I feel like I can do today, and then I do half that.  So far it is serving me well.

^Looks good, huh?

^Then I did it. It was a great walk, and a good test of my strength of body and mind.  Once I got my head right and I got in, all things faded away.  I was back in the moment.  This top section was a bit rocky, and I took it real slow.  Where the turns disappear the slope rolls over more north into an open clearing that delivered me to the float.  Those few deep weightless powder turns in that clearing were transcendent.  I was so happy to be back in the saddle, that I turned into the mad man laughing at the trees.  I did one more lap, and then called it a day.  I think I will go ahead and call it a "good" day.