From Sibylle, Tristan and Nanda Devi

This winter, for the first time, Tristan is teaching skiing with me at Keystone ski school. Since he’s only 17, he can’t teach a class on his own yet (liability and other issues), but he’s team teaching with another instructor, which means they can assign a slightly larger class to the two of them and still give each student more individual attention.

I’m back teaching for my 13th year at Keystone. We had a fabulous day today—blue ski, sunshine, a bit cold perhaps, and new fresh snow is on the way. I heard someone announce on the national news this week “If you want to ski this Christmas, the Rockies are your best bet.” I have a feeling that, combined with all the snow we’re getting, should make for a busy season.

My training for skiing this year:

Running this summer:

I raced 5 trail races in the Breckenridge trail running series, ranging from 5 km to about 10 km. We had 2 races each month for June, July, and August. I missed one of the races due to a rock climbing trip to Canada, but won my age group for 4 of the other 5, which gave me the overall prize (a sweet pair of Nike trail running shoes). I ran 2 -3 days weekly, usually 30′ - 60′, depending on how steep and how fast. I then ran the Boulder half marathon on September 30 (my first half marathon, and longest race ever).

In October, I went mountain biking Near Moab, ran some more, and started a weight lifting class which met twice weekly. I worked on leg presses, leg flexion, leg extension, lots of core and abdominal exercises, and upper body exercises. I also attended a Pilates class when I could fit it in (more core exercises).

Despite all this training, I was still really sore after a day of skiing Vail’s Blue Sky Basin with my 17-year old son, Tristan. We had heavy, wind-blown snow and skied pretty much non-stop until I ran out of energy. He ascribes my soreness and tiredness to not doing enough pliometrics, says that I run too slowly, and that leg presses are too static.

So if you an to arrive here fit and ready to go, try lots of jumping exercises, running intervals, and planks.

Breanna on Ancient Art

Ancient Art

Breanna is walking across the narrow, exposed ridge that leads to the summit pinnacle. This, and the following photo, show why Ancient Art is one of the most popular towers in the Moab area. On the day we climbed it, one party was descending as we arrived and three other groups of climbers were on the route with us.

Our friends Bryan and his daughter Breanna arrived on Tuesday night. Wednesday, which was very cold, Bryan and Tristan climbed Castleton Tower and I went into town for a warm, dry rest day. On Thursday, Thanksgiving day, Bryan and Breanna climbed Ancient Art in the morning while Tristan and I climbed Sundial, a small tower near Ancient Art.

After the chimney pitch of Ancient Art, the route follows the ridge for one very short pitch that leaves the belayer precariously perched on the near end on the ridgeline in the photo. In the fourth and last pitch, either walk, crawl, or straddle across the narrow ridge and then climb the “corkscrew” pinnacle to the miniscule summit. Breanna stood on the summit—on one leg even, —but I only sat on it!

Another challenge is to get on to the tower itself from the ridge. The “diving board” type of object neatly blocks access from the ridge. Tristan neatly jumped and belly-flopped onto the diving board. Since it was up almost to my chin, that didn’t work (I gave it one feeble try). Instead, I crawled below and around to the left of the diving board and onto the pinnacle from there.
Either way, it was an exciting place to be!