Wolf creek was a blast.

But really, are you surprised?

Saturday the snow was a little hard, but the bright blue skies made up for it. A nice mellow day of shreddin groomers and my legs were officially toasted. A dip in the hot tub, some ridiculously slow chinese food, and a good night’s sleep at a seedy motel in Pagosa, and I was ready to go sunday morning.

Sunday morning brought grey skies in Pagosa Springs, but the image of Wolf Creek Pass disappearing into the clouds hinted that there may be softer turns that day.

We got up to the mountain and were greeted by 2 inches on the ground, and many more in the sky coming down on top of us. I got in a few short runs before the telemark clinic sunday morning and each one was softer than the last.

There were only 6 people in the telemark clinic, and with 3 instructors Jeremy and I got a private lesson for little more than the price of a lift ticket. Our instructor Jeff was a “PSIA”:http://www.psia.org/01/home/home.asp certified tele-instructor, and spent the next two hours giving us what could only be considered a data dump of technique tips and form drills. Everything from “mono-marking”:http://www.telemarktips.com/Lessons06_07MonoTele.html, to dissecting the turn into its most basic elements, to the proper way to approach moguls on tele skis. It was a bit overwhelming, but I think he know exactly what he was doing, because my technique made a marked improvement after the lesson.

I told him I wanted to learn quicker turns for skiing better in trees and in moguls. He never exactly came out and told me how to make quicker turns, but after his drills and tips the rest of the day was an enlightening experience. What he drilled into us must have sunk in through my thick skull. When I finally just let go and started skiing, I was shredding through the trees like a pro.

I was giddy like a schoolgirl (and broke 20,000 vertical feet with ease).

Then again, the 6-8 inches of fresh snow that fell over the course of the day didn’t hurt either.

Although I’m still riding the rollers, and definitely got a workout at Dara’s spin class last thursday, I still have this nagging feeling that I may need to do some actual mountain biking instead of just cross-training. . . . Nah.

It appears as though “Dave”:http://bedrockandparadox.blogspot.com/, “Chad”:http://chadfbrown.blogspot.com/ and a “whole mess of other folks”:http://bedrockandparadox.blogspot.com/2008/03/more-bct.html got some good riding in this weekend while I was squeezing every last drop of gravity out of wolf creek.

I have this strange feeling that the APC may have been my only chance to come in before chad during a long race this year, as he is scooping up miles like they’re discontinued.

Chad: You are a maniac with the mileage, and I agree with Dave, take a day off son. And remember, when I am telling you to take a day off, you know you’re off the deep end.

On another note, details are up for the “Arizona Spring Fling”:http://groups.google.com/group/azes/web/azsf-march-2008. If you don’t know what that is, it’s a multi-day event starting in southern arizona and working it’s way up the hill to sedona and prescott, sposored by MTBR. It consists of tons of group rides, demos, drinking, and hanging out all along the way. I haven’t made it the past two years, but I am going to try and make it to a day or two of it this year. Unfortunately, I also had my heart set on the “SYDC”:http://nmes.wordpress.com/nmes-events/san-ysidro-dirty-century/ which is the same weekend. So much to do, and so little time!