The weather is warm, probably around 60ْF or so. The sun is bright off the snow, the sky blue with a few scattered clouds, clouds that seem to exist simply to help offset the blueness of the sky. There is no wind, just the gentle hum of the ski lift. No one else is around. The view from 9500 feet or so is spectacular. Lake Tahoe is to the northwest, sitting in it’s pretty valley surrounded by more snow-capped peaks and stretching off into the distance. Straight ahead is the spine of the Sierra’s, tree covered peaks with snow and rock peaking through, an occasional spire of rock jutting towards the clouds. Northeast is the Carson Valley, now resplendent with green fields and serpentine rivers, a flat expanse defined by more peaks and mountain ridges in the far distance.
I sit in the snow with my back being warmed by the sun. Ahead and below me is an open hill, quite steep and about 40 yards wide. Not a person in sight, not above nor below. Along both sides of the hill are open forests of juniper and other conifers, plenty of room to move between them. The hill veers gently off to the right several hundred feet down where I know it continues to wander. Some parts are steeper, some are more flat, sometimes wider, but always with the trees on either side. The snow is slushy from the sun, not the fast cold snow, nor the soft powder, but warm, watery stuff.
It’s time to move a bit. I stand up, which, on a snowboard means I start to move. Long, gentle curves, back and forth across the snow. I can get as much speed as I want, sometimes to cheat the hill and move back up a bit. Each carve sends a rooster tail of snow which I hear behind me, sometimes beside me sloughing down the mountain. Perhaps a few quick carves while going straight downhill to get some speed, then perpendicular to the run and off into the trees. I find a nice rock outcropping with a great view, so I sit and relax, listen to the chickadees and other birds flitting and chirping through the pines. An expanse of forest is below me, down to the lake in the distance.
It’s a bit of a challenge to get my momentum back up after stopping, I have to be careful that a slope is always very near. I meander slowly through the trees, careful to avoid the stumps and rocks and branches now visible through the quickly dwindling snow. Back to the main run. I shoot out on to the main slope getting lots of speed across the hill. Across the other side, I go through the end of a tree section on to another run, then carve back as the two runs merge. Back and forth, easy and elegant turns, I’m totally relaxed and comfortable on the snowboard. The wind cools me through my jacket which is open for ventilation. Ahead I see two paths diverge, I choose the left, to go back to the lift that brought me to this peak.
A little maneuvering and I’m back on the lift again for the eight or nine minute ride to the top. Now I sit facing the mountain, above much of what I had just descended. I read a bit, or enjoy the view while I sit and think and soak up the sun. This will probably be my last run of the year.
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