What a good week I have had here in Wyoming. Mostly, it was just filled with lots of little things that made me happy. For this post, I'll go with the mildly boring 'synopsis' method that I employ when I don't feel the urge to write creatively. Where do I even begin?...
I think it all began when climbing a week ago with my roommate Andrea at the University bouldering gym. While working on a problem, we bumped into Mark Jenkins, author of National Geographics well known mountain gorilla story and overall badass adventurer. Just to give some scope to the situation, I like to think about this as, 'Laramie is cool enough that Mark Jenkins lives here'...Laramie is really cool!
Following a sunday afternoon of Laundry at spic and span, I began my new job as a lift operator at Snowy Range Ski area. The summit elevation of 10,000 feet provides striking views and on a clear day I can see quite some distance down the rockies. Sometimes the job is slow, boring, and cold, but most days the satisfaction of taking a ski break instead of a lunch break is enough to keep me content. Two days this week I ventured into a whole new world by checking out a snowboard and fighting my way down the bunny hill. By day two, I had worked up the nerve to go down a very long and gradual trail on the board. Learn by doing, right?! RIGHT. Half way down the hill I ate shit, essentially smashing the back of my head into the ground and sending my sunglasses flying about 10 feet. I got up rather quickly in dull spirits, and then spent the next three days unable to turn my head in either direction. Thus came my decision to rent skis for two days and enjoy my new free season pass on the badass trails that I can only do in skis.
The last few days in particular have provided BEAUTIFUL weather. In a place where wind chills can be debilitating, I was ecstatic to shovel snow at the lifts in a long sleeve shirt in temps around 40 degrees. Aside from getting sunburn every day, the conditions also allowed me to carve a gigantic snow turtle about 8 feet long under the lift. Something about a ski area is just special. It's not like a gym where people feel they must go every day to stay healthy. People ski or snowboard just because they like it and get satisfaction from it. Certain groups, like middle school kids, are extra funny to watch while boarding a lift. Other customers include parents teaching children how to ski on leashes that might have just learned to walk. I even met some older folks who lost there skis in their garage 40 years ago and decided to dust em off and hit the snowy trail.
Theres a saying in the mountains here that if you don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes. Sure enough, as I basked in 40 degree conditions today I got an advisory on my phone that an arctic front is moving in and the high temp for tuesday is negative 4 degrees without windchill.
Personally I like to think that below 0 degrees there's no difference anyway... But, I guess if you never had bad weather then the good weather wouldn't seem so good, right?
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