What happened to winter??

  It seems like I've fallen off the blogging wagon for a while with too much going on around here to keep track of. The last time I go around to posting anything was at the end of January, yikes! What happened in between? Well, first some work over President's holiday week at Alpine, where I had a fun group of kids from the UK for several days. A visit from Mom the following week, including a stay at the Clair Tappaan Lodge on Donner Summit, two 4+ hour days on XC skis at the beautiful Royal Gorge, and a fun "Nachtspektakel" ski touring dinner event at Diamond Peak. Then at the last minute I got pulled into a telemark Level 2 exam last week with a co-worker from Alpine when they needed a couple more folks to make running it worthwhile. I managed to pull myself together enough to pass, even though my plans for this winter had not included taking that exam and was not feeling prepared at all. It wound up being a fun time, and I got some good skiing and teaching feedback. The next two days were spent skiing powder: an awesome resort day ripping around on my new Praxis Concepts (a valentine's day gift to myself--BEST SKIS EVER!!) and then a backcountry day on Hidden Peak which was nice and untracked but the snow got a little sticky due to warming temps.

Standing atop Hidden Peak on the west shore of Tahoe

   There were a few bike riding days in there too; a couple of dirt jump/dual slalom sessions in north Reno, a trip to Alta for some downhill riding on the western slope, and back over to Reno a few times to ride DH and XC at Peavine and one trip to Geiger for some steep and loose trails. With my first big race coming up this weekend, the Pro GRT at Bootleg Canyon, I'm feeling hopeful that I'll be a bit more prepared for early races than the past few seasons. Even though my fitness isn't the greatest right now I was still able to plug along for an 11 mile XC ride with tons of climbing this last Saturday and then ride downhill laps the following day. Mentally I've been able to push myself as well, trying new lines and hitting things that would never have happened in previous years (see photo) much less in the middle of winter! We'll see what the results look like after this weekend's racing, but I feel like I've struck a much better balance between enjoying winter in Tahoe and getting time on the bike this season.Of course it helps that most of Jan and Feb were much like spring, without a lot of powder to ski, and very conducive to wanting to ride bikes!

Catching air above Reno