In search of beautiful, fresh powder and new (to us) trails, we decided to go exploring our little Snowmass mountain. In the process, we took a wrong turn and we got stuck on a Double Black Diamond. Hell pit Gulch. Death Gulch. Nightmare Mogul Gulch of Death. Call it what you will, but we turned right instead of left and couldn’t get back across and were faced with the ultimate mental and physical challenges of our trip.
I saw the moguls and was like, fuck it. Let’s do this. We don’t have a choice so I might as well hit this shit head on and make it happen. I started in, and went slowly. The moguls were some of the craziest I’ve seen (doesn’t say a lot, but.. I’ve encountered doable moguls before.. these weren’t those.) Side to side on my heel edge I went, and I tumbled, caught my edge, fell back, fell forward, I even somersaulted and landed with my feet and board facing up the mountain. WHOOPS.
When I realized I was actually okay after landing that somersault safely, (tumble, flip, total loss of control, call it what you will..) I just laid there and laughed. Like.. Holy shit, I just did that! Let’s re-assess this situation! So I sat up, looked for the boys, and noticed how far behind me they were. Dude.. come on, you two! WTF are you doing??
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You literally have to zoom in to see them. Dave sitting on the left, Mike standing on the right. |
So yeah. They were WAY up there.
This whole time, I had been like, omg, omg, omg.. just keep going. Just keep going. Just take it easy. Stay calm. Keep going. Okay, we fell, let’s take a break. Okay, let’s go. Let’s do this, we’ve got this, we can do this. We have to finish at some point. Holy shit, we’re gonna die here. We’re never going to finish, this is never going to end. Keep going, come on.. keep going. Let’s just keep moving. Keep moving. It has to end at some point…..
Sound familiar? It was like CrossFit. Straight up, the mentality of a really hard WOD. Let’s compare it to getting through Murph. Or Kalsu. Or 500 burpees for time. No end in sight, until finally, it’s just there. It ends. And you’re done. And you’re like, holy shit we just FUCKING DID THAT!!!!!!! WE DID THAT!! WE LIVED!!!!
If it weren’t for what I’ve gained, mentally and physically, from crossfit, I would’ve fallen once or twice and then sat there and cried. I would’ve given up, let myself be defeated, and I would’ve needed to unstrap and trudge down the damn valley of death moguls, crying the whole time, with my board in tow.
But that didn’t happen. Instead, I was ahead of the boys the entire time, but they had their own crazy challenges to deal with! I had the advantage by riding down on my heel edge, but Dave has a hard time with his heel edge, and our friend Mike got his skis stuck at one point and had to untangle himself from a very difficult situation. We’re all really lucky that we walked away from that, seeing as how we weren’t prepared at all for that one!
So thanks CrossFit, for helping me prepare for the unknown. đŸ™‚ That was pretty awesome.
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Happy to be out there! |
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I DID IT!!!! |