December Journal:

12.13.02

A great wave is washing over the Sierra,
unleashing a magical fury,
silent and beautiful—a mysterious cloak draws over the land
goodbye
to the dirt, pebbles, boulders, grasses, roots, and creeks,
it is now the cold season,
and it’s time to get out the wide buggy-whips!

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12.16.02
Major Dumpage.

Snowing inches an hour—white-out, windy, blizzard. Cabin is getting buried. Watching the sea level rise to the base of the windows, feel like a submarine captain, slowly watching the old world disappear, and a new reality beneath the waves—under the cold surface, will be my home for awhile.

-
Right now: midnight dec. 16 - there’s likely 36” on the ground, it’s dumping and it’s not supposed to stop.

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12.17.02
Dumped all night: 30+” new in 24 hours on top of 10 before that and eight before that. It’s still snowing off and on. Going out for more turns. Paradise!

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12.18.02 (Big Wednesday)
Delirium. Soreness. Pain. Ache...Ow...Stretching. Time to sauna.
Got up for sunrise, skinning in near darkness, probably close to 9 degrees, to get to the S. facing powder before the sun. The last 200 feet of climbing I got into the sunlight. Frigid cold, I knew the powder was going to be around for awhile. I ended up skiing 5 runs there before dropping down to Sotcher, which was incredible: 2400 feet of dry hissing powder. Bluebird skies all day, dry powder, lots of vertical.
Did 7 runs, 9,600 vertical feet.
Don’t know about the weather—not sure about the Thursday storm being forecast/when/where/etc.....

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12.20.02
[Phone’s dead.] Greg, Brooke, and Todd skied down for the night. Super fun, we drank Tequila shots and smoked bowls until fairly late—it dumped 12”-18” overnight and this morning we broke trail over to the hot spring. Hard to leave the hot water but eventually we all began the difficult trail break out to town—ended up taking 5+ hours, and got pretty stormy towards the end of the day—descending the mountain in near darkness. It was an epic day.

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12.22.02
(In town) Dave D. and I went to a big party over at Kim and Kieth’s only planning to make a short appearence. We were there until midnight. It was a great party, went to sleep about 12:30, got up just after 4 a.m.—started hiking at 5:20, and skied sweet, deep powder in the trees on the Sherwins. Skied in over the mountain to home. Great Powder!

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12.23.03
[Phone’s still dead.] More snow is in the forecast w/ no end in sight. El Nino is here.

Skied 7000 feet today, 10 short laps behind the cabin. Dry, hissing, powder all through the burn and the forested slopes and gullies. Jumped down “The Stairs”—a sweet 8 foot drop to start, then closer to 15 feet on the second one, one after the other, with a bit more snow could blast straight through it and just keep going—it’s amazing. Coined the “white fir area”, with some sweet tree skiing, great rollers in the run right now. Coined the “talking tree area” next to the burn, the closest stuff to the house. Absolutely amazing skiing.

If I ski alone
in the woods in the powder
am I invisible?

But I feel the white fir bark
and they know
watching with a laugh.

the howl of coyotes
the steam of boiling water
the crackle of fire.

only wild emptiness and pure wisdom
only shadows and stars
only the sun telling time.

moments like tracks in the snow
scrolling down and travelling upward
leaving hoots and hollers.

my song is solitary,
my meditation constant
my words become meaningless.

the snow
the trees
the ravens led me home.

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12.24.02
Skied well over 5,000 feet of great powder today. Sweetest turns yet down to Sotcher. More of the same tomorrow.
More snow is on the way, though Christmas Day should be dry, Thursday thru the weekend sounds stormy.

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12.25.02
Phone’s dead. Power’s dead. Hot water’s frozen. Lots of dry powder to ski. Strange day. Wonder what my friends are doing?

3200 vertical feet of skiing and I’m back at the dark cabin. Going over to the store I switch the light just to make sure the power’s out there too, and to look for some lanterns, and the light goes on!...I’m mystified and head depressed back towards the cabin but lo and behold my lights are on now too....a day of interesting coincidences....everything that I’ve always taken for granted was taken away, while I was surrounded by endless powder—something I could never take for granted before...a christmas gift of mythical proportions?

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12.29.02
18”-20” new, snowing hard.
Base depths are 54-66 inches or more with the new snow. It’s dumping like hell right now—listening to Crosby, Stills and Nash from Woodstock—waiting for my cook fire to boil water, and just thinking what a damn magical thing it is to wake up to this...Not have to drive anywhere, not have to work, not have to do anything but live, and this means ski!

[Total snowfall for the month of December=128”]

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