my head is not starting today i need fresh mountain air. so here goes the weekly therapy, this one takes us back to the 2002 season...
The Drought
It hadn't snowed all week, it hadn't snowed the week before. Things were not looking good for the next week. Something had to be done. I hadn't skied in eight days. The last few days were nothing but a blur, I was poisoned, my skin was sweating alcohol, my clothes smelled like old alcohol and cigarette smoke, i hadn't been sober in the last week. My liver was starting to make funny noises and my hands were constantly shaking, i couldn't hold a full cup of coffee. something had to be done, things had to change.
Looking around me i noticed that the crew was in the same shape, we were getting up at 4pm and not really doing anything good untill 2am. I think we had upsetted ullr and this was is payback, he was poisonning us with this evil alcohol...
Something had to be done.
* * *
By showing up at the resort around 2h30pm, we managed to sneak in without getting a ticket. it took a couple laps on the t-bar to sober up and find balance. On the ride up i had already emptied my 2 litres of water, I would have none left for the hike. My head was spinning and i wasn't feeling too good.
We gathered up at the top of the lifts, the hike would take us a good 2 hours. The traditional peace calumet was lit, praises to the snow were made and the tour started...It didn't take long for me to end up at the back of the pack, gasping for air.
The conditions were discusting, it was a wind blown sun crusted concrete. sometimes you ask yourself how the hell does snow gets into these solid whip cream sculptures. Anyhow, in these condition it didn't take long for a mutiny. Everybody took they're way up the volcano. Some were going straight up, some were climbing on sharp volcanic rocks, the crew was all over the place. Bob (aka Talkin' Blues) was playing. i was trailing in the back looking at this anarchy. i was in no rush. time was on our side. The effects of the peace calumet were at its climax and i was floating by the lack of oxygen to my brain and the beauty of the surroundings. The empty valley, ridges and mountain were slowly putting on their colors. I stopped the music and took time to listen to the emptyness that was surrounding me. no cars, no tv, no nothing. peace, well as soon as the buzzing from my ears would stop and the pounding from my heart. It did. By that time most of the crew had reached the destination.
Once I made it to the top, the view was breathless. The partial coverage that we thought might ruin the show was actually stealing in, reflecting the winter light in a combo with the sun's.
Sometimes when I hike, on the way up there I often cross the idea of giving up. I am asking myself, why the fuck am I doing this. Every single time you summit, these questions are answered.
This time the feeling of accomplishement was even greater, i don't know if it was the colors or the vibes of the crew, but there was something mystical of our surroundings, we were the only invited in one of nature's greatest light show, that was starting.
It was fucking cold. Wet from the hike and standing on the highest peak around with the light dropping, we were freezing. We were on a volcano, so we dropped on the inside of the crater to protect ourselves from the wind.
Nico took his mits off to prepare an other magic stick. Putting his and on the ground to move, he noticed that the rocks were warm. Digging a bit on the edge of the crater, in a few minutes found ourselves in a nice heated skybox, like the ones they have in stadiums. The difference came where, we were the only one there, and that the show was surrounding us. Not much was said and the cameras clicked untill the disc touched the horizon and the show climaxed. Oranges turned to pinks then reds then to dark.
We headed down on the last strech of light. we had 1800 m of vert to cover back to the parking. The wind exposed aspect were discusting, but it didn't really matter, we managed to score a couple pow turns in one of the bowl/gulleys that we flew down to the tres marias, a volcanic gulley shaped boardercross type of run. My boards (194 bigs) were super stable and i knew the run almost by heart so i just bombed it. The sky was all dark and stars were out, the moon was just above the dark orange horizon.
* * *
We stayed in the hotsprings for quite a while, putting down a couple bottles, peace was made with the mountains. The vibe was quite different, everybody was at peace and in the next few days following that clouds moved in. in no time we were ridding pow again.
The crew from right to left
sam (extremo touring kid), nico, gorillo, me. (dood,behind the camera)
http://www.doglotion.com/images/realreader/louis3.jpg
sam and gorillo
http://www.doglotion.com/images/realreader/louis2.jpg
