Miracle March?

   Wow, last week was craaaazy! I think I was at Alpine Meadows every day for 12 consecutive days thanks to work, training, and the avalanche course.  Which was excellent, by the way.  Being an avid backcountry skier who has gotten by so far on common sense and instincts mixed with a small amount of knowledge, it was good to go in-depth on the specifics of terrain selection, snowpack analysis, and the ubiquitous human element.  An avy fatality in Tahoe the previous week was sobering to consider, but provided much good discussion as a case study of typical human behavior in relation to this year's sparse winter snowfall.
   The winter weather pattern in Tahoe, with the exception of last year when it snowed continuously from November to June, seems to consistently lack snow in December-January, and then the storms roll in with a vengeance from late February through March.  Now that there's only about a month left in the ski (resort) season it seems as though winter is here for a little while. Very funny mother nature!  As far as backcountry skiing goes, hopefully the season will go a little bit longer so I can increase my dismally low number of vertical feet hiked this season.  Or, if things do melt out sooner than normal, I can just go ride my mountain bike a lot sooner.  Either way it would be fine by me!
   Fortunately due to all this nasty rainy and windy weather here at lake level, Kit and I got memberships at the local climbing gym High Altitude Fitness just 10 minutes away in Incline Village.  They take pride in their climbing wall as the tallest indoor gym in Nevada, and have good route setters that re-set on a fairly regular basis.  Now that my shoulder is fully healed (minus some annoying crackly scar tissue) I can reach, pull, and push in any direction, aka start climbing hard! And that's just what I'm doing, trying to work back to where I was over a year ago leading 5.11 sport climbs and 5.10 trad.  The first 3 or 4 times at the gym were frustrating, seeing moves I should make and then not being able to actually do them from lack of strength, but last night felt like a breakthrough when I was able to complete a 5.11a on lead without falling! I am amazed and encouraged by how quickly strength is coming back--luckily technique never goes away or I'd be a lot farther behind.
   I am excited for climbing outdoors again this summer with Kit and all my other friends, getting back to pushing my boundaries to a new level.  Of course this all has to happen in between riding and racing my bike during free time, but luckily I feel like climbing is an excellent complement to mountain biking, especially downhill which requires so much upper body/core strength and balance.  So much that I'm going to keep it as a main part of my alternative "training" plan year-round.  Sure, I could be lifting weights too, but until I have a personal trainer telling me what to do this is a lot more fun. I'm lifting my own body weight--see?  If any mountain biker girls out there in internet land are interested in trying rock climbing just give me a holler!!