Got up early, picked up Thomas and Eric S., drove up to Crystal, met Kevin, Leah, Eric L., and Erin, and spent the day sliding down fairly good snow. Not exactly fresh powder, but it was nice and crunchy, and no ice. This was my first trip of the season; it took a couple of runs to remember how everything works, but by midday I felt like I had my groove back. In fact, we did a couple of black diamond runs, and while I was thoroughly beat by the end of the second I also felt I was making progress. Shorter skis would help, I think (as Barry has been telling me since last year); my Völkl 191s are plenty fast, but the speed is actually a hindrance on the really steep slopes, and the extra length is harder work to turn. Also, I need to find some way to strengthen my quadriceps muscles.

Very cold today. I kept my hood/mask on all day, and could have used an extra fleece layer on top.

Talked to Eric S. a bit about my laser range tracker idea. He suggested making it helmet-mounted, instead of chest-mounted, so you can point it wherever you are looking. I had discarded this idea in an attempt to keep the laser below eye level, but apparently it’s less of a problem when you are using a diverging lens like this project will. It would have been great to have one of these gadgets today; plenty of foggy near-whiteout patches.

La Bête’s left headlight died on the way home. Not much fun winding down dark mountain roads that way. Oh well – it’ll be easy to fix.