Spotted! (#sol23 Day 18/31)

Mike and I went on an alpine adventure today. It was, as we now all know, my first for-real backcountry (well, technically sidecountry, but still counts!) ski adventure since ankle surgery, and it was a much longer outing than last Tuesday’s evening test run.

Today was a beautiful sunny Colorado day with deep blue skies, crisp white snow, and not too much wind. I judged The Ankle as being able to do a couple ups so we went up, skied down, went back up, and skied an even better down and then skied all the way out. I was so excited to be out and up and breathing air above 12,800’ that I kept shouting out my post-surgery reflective milestones: That was my first kick turn! That was my first skinned-up downhill over rocks! That was my first skin rip without taking off my skis! Those were my first hiked-to powder turns!

I was pretty amped. Mike was shockingly less excited than I was about marking each and every moment so I switched to calling out tracks that I could see in our other-human-free backyard: A mountain goat went across that ridge! Big bunnies up here! Are these little paw prints in the skin track a fox or a coyote? Check out that set of feathertips prints on that ledge! Is that the moon sliver just over the horizon?

There was a lot to happily observe and gratefully take note of out there today. However, the best tracks that I spotted during our five hour adventure were definitely ours. ❄️❤️