Well here I sit, two weeks into vacation on the Christmas day. At the begining of the winter break, things weren't looking to well in Casper. There wasn't very much snow, the wind was blowing as always, it was getting warmer, and I had no job. Quite frankly, I had begun to feel a little depressed and took quickly to the negative outlook on life. I came down with a nasty cold and had to be put on some medication. So there I sat, drugged up, depressed, and not training how I ought to have been. The Casper highschool race was comming up and the snow wasnt doing anything but getting worse each day. I spent 4 hours on the mountain the night before the race. I skied for one hour extremely slow, and then shoveld for the other three hours. There had been people working day and night preparing the course for the upcoming race, but things still looked crappy at best. The NIght relay was a fun evening as it is always expected to be. Still by far one of my favorite races. Joe was staying at my house for a couple of nights and that helped ease some of my stress and negative moods. We woke up that next morning to fresh snow and news that the race had been cancled due to too much snow! I couldnt believe it! The night before the race was in jeopardy from lack of snow and 14hrs later the race is cancled because of too much snow! Needless to say, my mood quickly changed. I went up and skied a couple times since then and it was amazing. All of the trails, excluding the new biathlon range, were open, and there were gorgeous classic tracks!
I went up and skied for two hours yesterday covering several kilometers of trails that I haven't skied in a couple of years. The wind was howling like always and some of the trails had snow drifts several feet high, but it was still skiable so I was please. Iwent to church with my family Christams Eve. It was nice to see old familiar faces and catch up on times with some people. I was finally feeling the Christmas spirit. As we left the church, to our surprise that within the hour or so we were there, it had begun to snow and it was snowing hard! "Merry Christmas!" I shouted as we drove home, sticking my head out the window like a dog flapping his ears in the wind on a long drive. Finally I was completely happy! I woke up this morning with about ten inches of fresh powder in my yard. I looked out the window and the mountain was still covered by clouds. I knew I had to go up and play in the snow. I grabbed my snowboard and flew out the door, making a detour to pick up another friend to snowboard with, then was briskly on my way up the mountain. Hogadon was closed for the day so we were going to go carve some tracks and build a jump on one of the powder hills on the mountain. We got out of my jeep and the snow in the parking lot was over a foot deep. As we hiked, it only got deeper! We crossed the nordic trails where the snow was about up to out knees and then began to hike up a powder covered slope, were I was in complete shock to be trudging through waist deep powder!!! This is exactly the white Christmas that I was dreaming of! Once my friend and I reached out desired hill, I began to shovel away and strat packing a jump for us to fling ourselfs off of. I made a couple passes at it making because the powder was so deep it was little slow going at first. Once I had established a clear smooth runway, it was time to fly. I took of the lip of the jump and saw the ground getting further away. "HOLY Sh**!!!" I thought as I began to descend back to the ground and then "poof!" as i dissapeared briefly into the angelic white snow. That was my first large jump of the season and it felt great! I hard landed nearly 40 feet away from the jump and launched maybe 20 feet into the air. My andrenaline was raceing! So needles to say, I climbed back up the hill and did it again. The next two times were even better! The last actually scaird me some because I was about ten feet from landing on the trail, making my overall distance upward of 50 feet and the drop felt like it took forever. Thats exactly what I needed to clear my funk and get back into the swing of things.
I am going to go for atleast a two hour classic ski in the morning and then hopefully start working so I can actually pay rent! next month. If I had to go back to school now and end my vacation, I wouldn't be upset because this last week has been all that I could've hoped for and more! I hope everyone else is having a splending time out there! Talk to you all soon!!!
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