Tele morning

I began Sunday morning on the top of a mountain.  This is generally a good thing, especially when said mountain is nearly deserted and you are afforded spectacular views.  We were up at Schweitzer, near Sandpoint, ID, skiing this weekend.  While a ski area does not allow the muted quiet of a backcountry peak, early Sunday morning--before the dudes awake from their slumber--is a great time to be alone with your thoughts if you must be at a ski area.  

It was a rare bluebird day on Schweitzer, clear and cold.  No freezing fog or flat light.  I had beautiful views of Lake Pend d'Oreille as well as the Selkirk and Cabinet Mountains.  Lake Pend d'Oreille is probably my favorite lake in Idaho.  Over 1,100 feet deep in places--so deep the Navy uses it to test submarine prototypes--it is fed by the Clark Fork River coming out of Montana and was the starting point of the great floods of Glacial Lake Missoula during the last Ice Age.  

I was on telemark gear, so I could go slowly and enjoy myself.  I find that is one of the virtues of tele-skiing--you don't have to go fast.  It's analogous to fly fishing and yoga.  If you go too fast, you are missing the point.  

It was a rare morning.  Early on a Sunday, it was practically a religious (or at least a spiritual) experience, especially if you counted the burning in my quads from the turns as a kind of stoic discipline. Conditions were typical early season with some thin patches and the occasional shrub or rock getting in the way.  On the south facing slopes, the sun softened up the snow nicely and, while not powder, made the turns fun.
The only problem with tele-skiing is that you can't watch yourself make turns.  But then a religious experience isn't supposed to be about you anyway.

 

Lake Pend d'Oreille in the summer as seen from the top of Schweitzer. Photo courtesy of WL.

Driving home on Highway 95.