Back to business as usual

Starting on Friday, things got a little crazy again in Tahoe. A beautiful bluebird powder day always brings the folks out to the slopes, without exception, so I made sure to leave the house just a little bit earlier than usual to avoid getting caught in traffic. Little did I know that I barely missed a huge backup by only a few minutes--an instructor that left Kings Beach 10 minutes after I did wound up barely making it to lineup at 10. Yikes! Nobody expected that!
Aside from missing traffic, my other goal was to be in line early for the lift opening so as to maximize my pre-teaching powder runs. It worked on all counts, and I had a grand 3 runs before all the crowds really hit. Then, off to teach the beginner class! Turns out I only had one student for the day so that made life really easy. She even got so worn out that she quit early...well, I did explain that doing "just one more run" when you're beat can lead to injury...so I don't blame her. Skiing uses all kinds of new muscles that can tire out easily with the inefficient movements of a beginning skier.
3 PM and I'm off, what to do next but go for a hike? One of my favorite sidecountry stashes beckoned, hopefully still reasonably untracked, so I shouldered my skis and plodded onward. Caught up with a group of guys who were going out that way and asked if I could tag along just for safety's sake, so we all headed out together. It made for the best run of the day, as all 5 of us managed to find untracked lines through the deep fluffy powder! Satisfied with the day's finale I headed back to the locker room just in time for the evening CPR class I had signed up for. 4 hours of classroom learning ahead of me, I snacked and settled in to refresh my mind on such an important lifesaving procedure.

The rest of the weekend was a blur of teaching mainly kids in private lessons; mostly fun, sometimes a little trying. This morning I went to Level 2 ski training at Alpine--countdown is 3 weeks to the exam and I feel just about ready (if I can find some decent skis to use for the exam). Tomorrow through Thursday I'll be increasing my avalanche safety knowledge in an Avalanche 1 course offered to us ski instructors at a greatly discounted rate. Hooray!! Stay tuned for updates on the experience!