Gone

I have been in Paris for 4 days now.

The week was a little agitated. The afternoon before I left, I received a phone call from a potential employer asking me to come visit their company. It is located about 2 hours and a half from Hamilton, and it was too late for them to wait for me to come that day. I told them I was leaving the country the next day, that I tried to postpone my ticket, but it would be much much cheaper for me to just fly back even next week... Which I offered to do of course.
I haven't heard anything from them since, which is probably not a good sign.
Anyway that kept me anxious as I was trying hard to keep packing. It really looked like a great job... We'll see

The trip went well. We woke up at 5am, which was the time we were supposed to leave for the airport. I realized a new PR getting ready in less than 7 minutes. Who can beat that?
Oggy drove a little faster than he should have and got me at the airport by 6am, in time to check in with no rush.
So there I went. It was hard to say goodbye, even just for a few weeks.
Then things went smoothly except maybe for the 2 kids who couldn't stop kicking my seat during the overnight flight. But I got both my huge bag and my skis, I was barely late at the arrival, and I had my personal driver Milouze ready to pick me up.

It's funny how I didn't imagine I would feel depressed coming to Paris. Probably because I didn't want to be here now, with no real idea of where I will go next. Or because of the sad circumstances that make this country now forever different to me.
But I have to keep moving. A lot of things to take care of, and also I have to try to enjoy this forced exile and to find a way to come back to my new home.

Season 32

I'm back... and season 32 has started.
Now that I am officially unemployed (or should I say "actively looking for a job") I can workout, go out and do all the stuff I never had time to do!
Well not quite.
Work has not let me go yet. I still have to finish that paper.
Life has not made things easy either interfered with my motivation over the last couple of weeks.
But the earth didn't stop. Time is ticking and days flying by. I have to get going.
Has I write these lines, I have 4 short days left in Montana before my forced vacation in France.
The snow finally came (not too much but almost enough) and with this I declared started my 32nd ski season.
I know, the first winters were not quite ski-seasons, and it might be more accurate to start counting from the day I actually stepped on skis for the first time. But see, I don't remember when that was.
Anyway. My rule, created a couple of years ago, is that I have to ski at least n days during season n. It gets more challenging every year which is really cool. Of course, beyond the nth ski day, it becomes the more the better...

So here we go: n=32 (I am so geeky I know)
and here went day 1 and day 2!

Day 1 was on November 28th at Lookout Pass with Oggy and Junior. They always open early because they always get tons of snow first. I haven't gone there for the last 2 years: it's not really my favorite hill. They do get powder, but when it happens, the road gets really bad, and it's not quite steep enough to really take advantage of it. I guess this time it wasn't an issue. No fresh snow, and barely enough coverage on the lower portions of the area. I can't believe they even opened some if it. It was baaaad. I still had my workout since I had the good idea to take my teles that day. It was cold enough too... For recovery we headed to the Syme hotel in Hot Springs were we met Oggy's brother and the brother's girlfriend. Nice hot water soaking, decent dinner, great breakfast, and back to the Bitterroot Valley.
So I am still not super fond of LP, but I have to admit I love being able to ski in November...

Day 2 was a short, sunny, very cold day. On Wednesday, December 2nd, I headed all by myself to Lost Trail. It hasn't opened yet but they had already started working on grooming the runs. The Gnome Collector, who had called me the day before to brag about a trip to Big Sky, actually showed up too. Ha ha. I was ready to go when he arrived so I figured I would see him on the hill later.
I chose to hike up Speedway to the top of chair 1. As cold as it was, I had taken off 3 of my layers by the time I reached the halfway point. I should always hike on freezing days.
I picked Thunder as my first run. hmmm. Nice fresh powder, but not too good of a base. Quick feeling with my pole indicated about 4-5 in of depth hoar, a 2-3 in easily breakable icy layer, and on top probably 6in of fresh snow. So I could feel the rocks underneath more than once. Not that great. The snow was quite heavy too.
I reached the forest road where I put the skins back on. I figured there was no point in going further down, it would only get worse.
On the road, I found the tracks of the Gnome Collector and followed them. They were going all the way to the top of chair 1 and then snowboarding down the South Face, which is what I also did (wait SKIING! me not snowboarding!). It turned out to be quite good!
Unfortunately, because of a poor choice of socks, the blisters has started and I decided to head back to the car instead of climbing for another run.
And my conclusion for day 2 is : Lost Trail is still the best area around here.

So what is coming up now? Well I have one more chance to go before I leave: that would be on Wednesday. Mrs K talked last night about going to Lolo Pass. That would be nice...
But will I have time? I have to take Buster to the vet, find him a cat-sitter for January, write my paper, pack my stuff, interrupt my phone, insurance contracts, go to the bank, write my paper, pack my stuff, write my paper...arrrrrrrrrrrgh