Real Exercise, Lone Mountain Ranch Style

This morning Laurie and I drove to Lone Mountain Ranch to get some real exercise. I was happy to not be too sore from yesterday's snowboarding debacle and I thought some cross country skiing might be a good antidote anyway.

It was a beautiful sunny morning in the low 40s, just perfect for xc skiing. Unbelievably I had never been to Lone Mountain Ranch and I really wanted to rectify that ridiculous fact. This is one of the top nordic skiing places in the country and it's a 5 minute drive from the condo. How absurd that I have not been here yet.

Laurie and I bought our ticket and proceeded to the trail. We opted for the 10 kilometer out and back to Little Bavaria. On this 2 hour ski, we saw only one other skier. It felt great to be on xc skis again and the woods were beautiful. It took almost an hour and a half to get to Little Bavaria and about 30 minutes to return to the car. The downhill was a bit scary but a lot easier on the lungs.

We returned to the condo by 2pm and I decided I may as well get a few runs up at Big Sky in the nice spring sun. I managed 7 runs in 1.5 hours with 9,000 vertical feet -- 2 runs on Thunderwolf, 2 runs on Ramcharger, 1 on Swifty and 2 on the Lone Peak Triple. It was just nice to be out in the nice sun with no lines of course. Today I used my old Dynastar Cross 10s. I pulled them out of the closet and was thrilled to see that they were perfectly tuned and sharp.

It had been a while since I skied on these babies and I'd forgotten what rockets they are!!! Dang. I wanted a casual afternoon of riding but with these skis you really need to be on top of them. If you relax too much they can end up tossing you around. BUT, if you give these skis energy and crank 'em, they will give back smiles in spades. They can really make you feel like a ski racer as they hold an edge incredibly well and crank short turns like you're riding on a rail. They don't really want to do GS turns, especially at 170cm. Once I adjusted to the Cross 10's, I was smiling from ear to ear. My legs were a bit drained after the snowboarding yesterday and the xc skiing this morning but I managed to find the energy and enjoy the runs in the sun.

Here's a view of the Spanish Peaks (Mt. Wilson, Jim?):

The dramatic A-Z chutes (some of them) and the tram base as seen from the top of the Lone Peak Triple:

The sun sets behind the Lone Peak summit:

Tomorrow, it looks like Colin and I will be heading to Yellowstone for a day of photography and hopefully a dinner with our photographer friend, Tom Murphy. My body is already looking forward to a day off....