The last few weekends have been a great combination of skiing and cycling.
After a dismal January and February, March has brought some decent and occasionally wonderful skiing. I’m pretty sure there are only limited cross-training benefits from skiing to cycling, but I love to ski, and cycling is taking a back seat at the moment.
Paula Gilmour demonstrates Telemark (aka “free heel”) skiing technique near the Silver Fir lift at Snoqualmie.
For some reason, my mind has a tendency to describe the quality of snow using culinary terms. “Mashed potatoes” is an old-school term used to describe recently fallen snow that has been warmed: Very thick, dense, sticky, and difficult to ski. (In cycling…could chip seal be referred to as “raisin cookie?”)
Last weekend, we found ourselves skiing a surface that resembled, variously, sorbet, refrozen sorbet, sorbet with chocolate chips on top, and refrozen sorbet with mixed nuts. The sorbet was fun to ski, the other surfaces not so much.
