Step outside

Now that I'm back sitting at my desk, the last few days are a snowy haze.  I barely know what day it is, or what day it was when whichever thing may or may not have happened.  Blurring the lines of the "weekend," I ran away to Seattle for three days of skiing, drinking and merriment.  I left my stuffy office and stepped outside for a breath of fresh air.   

When I return to Seattle as a visitor, it's different.  My days are packed with trying to see every person I miss.  Suddenly I have to prioritize people, and it's impossible to squeeze them all in.  This time was different though.  Nathan was in town from Montana, ready to ski as much as possible, so I wrote everything off and prepared to ski, ski, ski and let whatever else fill in the cracks.  It worked amazingly.

After a night at the College Inn (where the bartender still remembers my name) I whirled around Lina's apartment packing to ski.  Four of us met up in North Bend and headed toward Alpental for a tour toward Chair Peak.  It was a beautiful day filled with laughter and reminiscing.  Lina has been my hero since the day I met her.  She is constantly jumping from one place to another, so the fact that I stole her away for a day was pretty much the best.

Looking sharp.

The crew.

Good dramatic clouds today

Lina

Part of Chair Peak

The Tooth

Kaeli watching some brave skiers.

 Afterwards we stopped for some refreshment at the North Bend Bar and Grill.  I rode back to Seattle with Lina and talked about life and love and all the things you imagine girls talk about.

Photo by Chris Joosse

That night a group of us went to capitol hill.  The first part of the night was filled with cocktails and music.  The guitar was passed around as the rest of us tried to remember the words to the songs.  I treasure moments like these because this is no longer a part of my life.  I don't have these friends in Eugene, I don't have friends like them in Eugene.  I'm just happy that I haven't had to say goodbye to this forever.

The only surviving picture of the night.

We found ourselves at Ihop at 4:30 in the morning; I was eating bacon and eggs.  Two hours later I was finally asleep, and an hour after that, I was on my way to go skiing.  Nathan and I met up with Rip, who drove us to Stevens Pass where we found Bert and Max.  We lapped Yodelin a few times and found ourselves in an unexpected powder day.

Nathan made it to the mountain, but his ski clothes didn't . . .

Ice crystals

Sunday brought us to Rainier for a full day of skiing and sledding.  Nathan and I woke early to tour in the morning and four of our friends met us in the afternoon for some contraband sledding.  It was another day of tank top weather in the backcountry.

Rainier

Laps in Birthday Bowl

Bluebird.

Clouds hang low in the inversion.

Mountain boner.

Tattoosh range

Not long after we had begun sledding and the sun sank in the sky, thin clouds crept up the valley where we were sledding.  We played almost until dark, when the trees hung in an eerie glowing mist that seemed to go on forever.

Brendan

Sarah

SeanPaul

Ryan

Proper sledding technique.

Taking a turn

The Coat.

We had a mellow night at Lenny's before I was to catch the train in the morning.  It was like I had never left.  We sat at the same corner table, drinking Lenny's big beers and shooting the shit until the bar was closing.  In the morning I lugged my skis and my aching head to the train and stepped inside to go back to my real life.