So it's really late but I wanted to dump out a bunch of stuff before I forget about some of it. First of all, you may or may not notice that I'm not home right now. I extended my time here a few days on a gut instinct. We've been basing a lot of our decisions on what feels right this week and leaving today just did not, so we didn't.
We were talking about the way things work around here and the energy that the trip is bringing and you are doing 1 of 2 things always- you are hurrying up to wait, or you are in total go mode, no stopping to even pee.
Yesterday was the second way. We woke up knowing it was going to be a great day for skiing. Lyns had to go with the film crew all day so we didn't have our mama bird with us but it was by far the best day of skiing I've ever had. We started off with meditation time with our guide Harland, who- by the way, has brought this entire trip to another level (more on that later, and by the way- another one of the guides told me that if he was ever lost in the woods, he would want Harland with him). Then we dropped into the field for the entire day. We got about 8 runs on varying terrain, we learned how to dig an avi pit to assess the snow conditions (pic below), and we had to rope our photographer into the beginning of one of our lines. It was great, I got to see one of my new friends take the line of her life, I got to ski snow over my head, and we really grew together as sisters. Oh, and I lost a ski.
How?
Well I was following one of the girls who is better at skiing than I am, which is how I like to get better at things, through a chute and I got some 'sluff'. Meaning the snow under me let loose a little bit and swept me off my feet. It was far from an avalanche and I was totally fine, my head was never even downslope of my feet, but I knew as soon as it happened that my ski popped off. It hurt only my pride, and after I assessed myself and the situation I soon realized that my ski could be literally anywhere in a basketball court size area across and up to 5 feet down. Harland came in above me and tried to find it but it was going to be a pretty lost cause so he called for another guide to come help and he and I tandem skied with me on 1 down to the heli pick up spot. 1-0 Alaska.
After 7 hours in the field we ate well deserved dinner and got home to belly laugh at all the awesome footage of banter we got without Lynsey.
After that the fun just continued. I got woken up this morning to 'hey wake up, we got called in right now to go skiing'... ummm ok, let me open my eyes a little bit first, but yeah, be right there.
So we showed up to go skiing and jumped into a helicopter with no breakfast or even coffee for a few runs. Actually we were late to our helicopter pick up because as soon as we left the house we realized that our neighbors had a litter of 7 yellow lab puppies in their front yard. Heli skiing and puppies. Did I actually die and go to heaven? Anyway back to skiing, I was a little freaked out still about losing a ski and how rushed the morning was so not my best run, but with some new found confidence to speak up about how I'm feeling I made everyone pause at the top of our second run for meditation time. After that I skied great, Harland took a great line over the top of a chute, and we got to watch Lynsey do her thing right after.
That was all the time we had in the field today, but when we got back to the house we got to do a Harland activity. I'm sure I keep saying this but these spiritual self growth activities that have been peppered in all week have really made this experience incredible. We had to find another stick, one that spoke to us again, and this time we assigned energy to it for something in our lives that we wanted to hold onto. The phrase that he used when describing that activity and the stick was that these were our 'prayer arrows' and while we worked out exactly what it was that we were trying to hold onto both through conversation and self reflection, we decorated our sticks with yard and nature and whatever else our hearts desired.
After prayer sticks we chilled around the house a little bit then went for a run down to the beach. Lyns and I got into some recreation and played magic fairy/unicorns in the woods. Have I mentioned yet this blog, how special of a person she is? Not only is she super strong both mentally and physically in the mountains, but she also comes up with some weird shit. While running we all had to name off 3 things that we desired and had to ask the ocean for our requests. After running, in the parking lot still, she and I broke into rap and dance for like 10 minutes. It was magical, and on tape. After running we all went out for pizza and I felt what it would feel like to have sisters.
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