Keystone day 4 photos
Mar. 29th, 2010 05:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jinianI went cross-country skiing! I had never been, and by virtue of compulsive reading I discovered that there were free beginner classes at 1:30 on Thursdays. We'd gotten there at 1, so it turned out to be convenient that I'd failed to eat yet. I signed up for the class and got a grilled turkey and cheese sandwich, yum.
Our class started out in the beginner area. It's also the starting point for a couple of the trails, including a dog-friendly one, so that made things a little more interesting. Luckily, even the dogs were more competent than we were. We learned classic cross-country skiing, which the shuttle driver later confused me by calling "diagonal stride" -- I still don't see what's so much more diagonal than the "skating" people were also doing on shorter, wider skis. Your skis stay parallel, and on these very groomed trails that was easily accomplished by keeping them in the grooves. It was so warm that the grooves were mushy, but they were a lot better than nothing. The movement feels enough like ice skating that it was really a problem for me to try to keep the skis parallel by myself.
My knees felt congested? suffused? uncomfortable! so I sat down a bit to stretch them, to the consternation of my instructor. They were lots better afterward, though. Combined acclimation to activity and more movement in the latter part of class? I also contorted my way out of my cozy camisole and tied my jacket around my waist, because it continued to be very warm.
Soon we all got to hare off alone, which was wonderful. There was one scary thing that I found, though, which I decided to call the Totem Appall. Jeez, people, totem poles are spiritually important to some people, and what is that, the Brazilian flag?
I STILL LOVE TREES AND SKY
I think these must be incense-cedars, based on their bark. Because I am a dork, I think this looks like a magical gateway. Nothing very evident happened when I crossed between the trees, though.
Well, I got to the place where I took this panorama. (Such as it is. I took at least two more photos for it, but they don't seem to exist any more.)
I finally managed to get high enough to see Lake Tahoe from above! A raven, the only one I saw during the trip, pointed it out. I was all set to go up a nearby small hill in hope of finding a better view, but a large black dog with no human companion barked at me a lot and I desisted. (Did I say that wasn't a magic gateway? Things got awfully mythic all of a sudden.)
I headed back after that. Unfortunately, it took a lot less time to get back than I'd thought it might, even with a break sitting at a picnic table in the sun and throwing snowballs for an adorable Labradoodle (who had terrier-type hair, surprisingly). The Book of Atrix Wolfe served me well again, though, and I was so hot from skiing to start with that I didn't get very cold even when the temperature started to drop. Only two of the six people who were supposed to be on the shuttle were there, and both of us had been waiting for over half an hour by the time it arrived. I suppose misjudging the time in one direction or the other is inevitable, but we were grumpy and when the shuttle driver said he could take us back and come back later for the others we said YES. I hope they were chastened, but I never did find out.
I never managed to do the "kicking forward" or the gliding motion that you're supposed to, which I imagine would make skiing an efficiency improvement over hiking. Neither is very knee-friendly, and I'm not good at coordinating lots of different physical actions without more practice. But! I did it! And my knees were only a bit touchy afterward -- I think if I'd been able to stretch them better the next day instead of cooping them up on the plane home they'd have been more or less fine then.
Our class started out in the beginner area. It's also the starting point for a couple of the trails, including a dog-friendly one, so that made things a little more interesting. Luckily, even the dogs were more competent than we were. We learned classic cross-country skiing, which the shuttle driver later confused me by calling "diagonal stride" -- I still don't see what's so much more diagonal than the "skating" people were also doing on shorter, wider skis. Your skis stay parallel, and on these very groomed trails that was easily accomplished by keeping them in the grooves. It was so warm that the grooves were mushy, but they were a lot better than nothing. The movement feels enough like ice skating that it was really a problem for me to try to keep the skis parallel by myself.
My knees felt congested? suffused? uncomfortable! so I sat down a bit to stretch them, to the consternation of my instructor. They were lots better afterward, though. Combined acclimation to activity and more movement in the latter part of class? I also contorted my way out of my cozy camisole and tied my jacket around my waist, because it continued to be very warm.
Soon we all got to hare off alone, which was wonderful. There was one scary thing that I found, though, which I decided to call the Totem Appall. Jeez, people, totem poles are spiritually important to some people, and what is that, the Brazilian flag?
I STILL LOVE TREES AND SKY
I think these must be incense-cedars, based on their bark. Because I am a dork, I think this looks like a magical gateway. Nothing very evident happened when I crossed between the trees, though.
Well, I got to the place where I took this panorama. (Such as it is. I took at least two more photos for it, but they don't seem to exist any more.)
I finally managed to get high enough to see Lake Tahoe from above! A raven, the only one I saw during the trip, pointed it out. I was all set to go up a nearby small hill in hope of finding a better view, but a large black dog with no human companion barked at me a lot and I desisted. (Did I say that wasn't a magic gateway? Things got awfully mythic all of a sudden.)
I headed back after that. Unfortunately, it took a lot less time to get back than I'd thought it might, even with a break sitting at a picnic table in the sun and throwing snowballs for an adorable Labradoodle (who had terrier-type hair, surprisingly). The Book of Atrix Wolfe served me well again, though, and I was so hot from skiing to start with that I didn't get very cold even when the temperature started to drop. Only two of the six people who were supposed to be on the shuttle were there, and both of us had been waiting for over half an hour by the time it arrived. I suppose misjudging the time in one direction or the other is inevitable, but we were grumpy and when the shuttle driver said he could take us back and come back later for the others we said YES. I hope they were chastened, but I never did find out.
I never managed to do the "kicking forward" or the gliding motion that you're supposed to, which I imagine would make skiing an efficiency improvement over hiking. Neither is very knee-friendly, and I'm not good at coordinating lots of different physical actions without more practice. But! I did it! And my knees were only a bit touchy afterward -- I think if I'd been able to stretch them better the next day instead of cooping them up on the plane home they'd have been more or less fine then.
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no subject
Date: 2010-03-30 01:11 am (UTC)The glide/kick thing is the same thing as rollerskates/rollerblades. Go do that for a bit and then go back to the x/c's and it'll make more sense.
Or get snowshoes. They're slower but you can cover far more interesting territory on them. I think snowshoeing is simply amazing.
no subject
Date: 2010-03-30 05:06 am (UTC)It's not a technique issue, unfortunately, but a disability one. My knees were damaged pretty badly in a bike accident some years ago, so if I try to kick as advised they overextend quite painfully. The gliding may just be a balance issue, actually, but it's not helped by the knee problems.
Snowshoeing was definitely on my list, but I didn't get to it this time. Next year!
no subject
Date: 2010-03-30 05:18 am (UTC)Also, if done right, cross-country doesn't upset my knees (it's theoretically good for some folks' knee issues), which is Nice.
no subject
Date: 2010-03-30 05:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-30 05:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-30 06:35 am (UTC)Oooo skiing...
no subject
Date: 2010-03-31 12:54 am (UTC)Got it. Yeah, that's going to be difficult with knee injuries -- that's what stopped me x-c skiing, esp. skate-skiing.
Snowshoes, definitely.
no subject
Date: 2010-03-31 05:00 am (UTC)(There's fair lot of snow left in the mountains, but I expect earlier-season snow might be better for knees -- less with the hard underlayer and melted-out voids underneath.)