Today was a long day..
Yesterday was a down day. We did some interviews, went back to Mud Bay to throw some stones, and did yoga in the most beautiful area. Our instructor played a harmonium while we practiced in a little fire warmed house right on the beach. We then headed out to 18 mile for dinner where Lyns opened up about the world of pro skiing.
'If anyone tells you they aren't scared up there- they're lying'
She continued on to describe how it feels to be standing alone at the top of a line and the pressure to nail it. 'Everyone is skiing at the very edge of their ability- of human ability, and that's why we come to Alaska, because it provides the grounds for that. But it's really all the snow. If you don't have good snow, you won't have a good run. Mother nature decides how good of a skier you are going to be that day.'
We then headed home and broke out into song and dance about cereal on the way. Obvious next step, stop at the one store in Haines, buy Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Lucky Charms, and have a cereal picnic.
Then today got interesting. We woke up and had stretchy, mobility, meditation time and went up for breakfast. On the way to breakfast we played Lynsey's manifest game where we had to talk like it was present day a year from now and we were describing everything that we had accomplished. Once at the house we were put onto what they call a 'fire drill' which means- gear on, ready to go- but sit around. We traveled half way up the road to our heli pick up spot and parked. And sat. And waited. BUT while we waited we did a spiritual self reflection activity (all of which have been the icing on the top of an already great trip). We walked along the beach- in our ski gear.. and picked up a stick that called to us. We then envisioned something in our lives that we needed to let go of and transfered that energy into our stick. After a second to ourselves to come up with what we needed to let go of we had a share circle about our personal 'let gos', and just the idea of letting go in general. We talked about values and how to prioritize them and all the 'shoulds' in life and how you need to ask yourself if what you are doing is because you want to.. or because you think that you should. I also think this transfers to skiing. Sometimes you just have to let go and let your skis take you where they need to. That is one of the things I love so much about skiing, is that you have to let go, and only focus on what you are doing as you are doing it- you don't have room for anything else.
After all that we ended up going back to base camp for a dance party, photo shoot, and rides around on something called a razor. It's basically an all terrain ATV but instead of wheels it travels on 4 tank like paddles. Unfortunately for us.. we drove through some mud. And by some, I mean a lot. And by mud, I mean there was definitely some manure mixed in there. So we come back from our razor jaunt smelling like shit and peppered in mud and we get the call. We're going skiing. So we immediately throw all of our shit back into the van (her name is Spruce) and roll out. We ended up needing to wait at the heli pad for a little bit but eventually got out into the wilderness.
Again, the entire experience was breath taking. You could see jagged mountains in all directions and the snow was the deepest, softest, lightest snow I've ever skied. I was blown away by the entire thing.
More skiing tomorrow. The sisterhood continues.
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