It's The End of The World As We Know It?

I mean, I still feel fine.

Apparently the Mayans were wrong.  More likely, they weren't forecasting the end of the world at all.  Maybe we're just not all that good at interpreting their message.  Or maybe they just got tired of forecasting and went exploring.

In any case, it was good to wake up yesterday morning and see that the world was still spinning.

Still feeling a bit slow-in-the-brain as I transition from a string of work to some time off for the holidays.  Thursday being the first "day of rest" was interesting--I woke up feeling like my skull was stuffed with wool, with a little marble rolling around in there somewhere trying to keep things under control.  It wasn't until I got to the top of Mt. Taylor for a late-day ski lap that the wool cleared out and the marble started to feel more like a bowling ball.

A little windblast to engage my brain.

I spent most of the morning stumbling around the house trying to remember all of the things I should be doing instead of stumbling.  

All as a result of a week spent teaching a professional level 1 avalanche training seminar for NOLS instructional staff.  What a great community to work with!  Totally engaged, energetic participants with an overactive drive to get shit done.  Couldn't ask for a better setup, except for the lack of sleep.

My typical schedule looked roughly like: wake up at 03:30, brew coffee, prep classes/do paperwork for a couple of hours; get dressed at 06:00 and warm up the truck; arrive at the NOLS base a little before 07:00 for breakfast with the crew; teach, ski, thump on the snow; dinner at 18:00; home around 19:30 for some family time; repeat...

Not much sleep to support a whole lot of activity, but I loved it.

It all came together with ski tours in the Park.  We had been getting blown around on Teton Pass for a couple of days, but my group's day on 25 Short was all sunny powder.  As Andy Bassett put it, "At least the view doesn't suck up here."

Fun day.  What a place to live.