Costumes, Telemark and Backcountry

Lots to report this week. first of all, our snowpack here in CB is transitioning to spring conditions, going isothermal, but not quite. One day you are carving corn and the next a blizzard. Friday started out balmy, as we taught 17 media folks a backcountry refresher course - from Ski to Men's Journal to the New York Times. Quite a mixed group, some fresh to the BC and some experienced veterans. Lots of development on the women's scene, as both Powder and Skiing Magazine will be doing women's issues next season. Powder Mag is interested in covering our Kashmir expedition next month, which would be rad. After the course, we headed up the infamous Red Lady Bowl - full of molybdenum deposits, a steel hardener, and years of fighting of the town against the mine. The BLM pulled a fast on last year, selling 155 acres of our public lands and favorite ski terrain for $5 an acre with no public notice. With a 1/8 acre selling locally for 500,000 bucks, it was not only a bad deal for America, but could then be resold by the mine to developers! Hopefully this case will make it all the way to the Supreme Court, because it sets a real prescedent for local lands.

Well, back to skiing Red Lady Bowl, we skinned up with the media group, with the upper group making it to just below the top. Sunny skies turned gray and the corn turned to crusty cement as we meandered back down. On the final pitch, we set up a mock avalanche rescue with two backpacks as bodies. The group was quite impressive, and had them both dug out in less than 7 minutes.

The next day dawned the sunny finals of the US Telemark Extreme Freeskiing Championships, held on Crested Butte's infamous Dead End Chutes and Body Bag Glades. My friend Karen Reader, had made it to the finals, and we were able to cheer her on as she ripped Dead End in the morning run. I had to run to teach our Babes Mini Telemark Steeps Camp. 17 women had signed up, so it was a busy day. The girls were fast learners - amazing to see a lifetime's worth of improvement in four hours. When i returned to the base area, i discovered that Karen had fallen in the super finals, but not just a fall. she had cartwheeled hundreds of feet down dead end and over all the rocks and cliffs. As i madly dialed her phone, she casually described that she was without a bruise from the episode.

Sunday brought snowy skies and high winds, suddenly the spring of Saturday seemed like a distant memory. The "funnest day of the season" was now dampened by the weather, but 250+ folks couldn't resist the challenge, so they added a few layers to their skimpy costumes (or not), and charged up the North face on skins. I thought my lungs would jump out of my chest, and the belt of my neon Bogner one piece only added more pressure to the situation. The skies cleared as i reached the summit, ripped my skins off, and charged down Hard Slab, and Old Pro. Throwing a shoe on the last steep really pissed my off, as I was so out of breath that putting on my ski became an Everest-like task. Miraculously, no chicks passed me and I skated up the finish to a screaming crowd of friends and 7th place out of 88 women. Costumes were amazing as usual - my favorites being Lady Godiva, Ducttapeilicious, and the screaming chickens.