Saturday morning snowboarding

Old snow up there: hard, icy, covered in tree debris. Some exposed rocks. Wispy clouds hung on the summit of South Sister in the morning, then traversed the gap to Mt. Bachelor. At first we said, "It's fogging!" because the air seemed to condense onto our goggles. Then it turned to ordinary rain.

Sometimes snowboarding is swooshy and peaceful, but on Saturday it was loud. Board scrrrrratch, scrrratch, scrratching against the ice, and running so fast into the wind -- well, it was like hanging my head outside a car window. And of course every so often I'd shout whee-haa! Partly in fear of falling at speed and partly (simultaneously) for the joy of it.

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The competition was cool. I watched a little from the Pine Marten chair -- just practice, I think. Those kids fly!