Midsummer Daydreaming

I just finished reading Instant Karma: The Heart and Soul of a Ski Bum by Wayne K. Sheldrake. It's an autobiographical rambling account of milestones in Sheldrake's life, spent first as a ski bum and then as a part time ski bum, teacher, and parent. I have never read about so many ski injuries happening to one person and overcoming major league surgery to ski again.  Anyway, it's a good summer read, but what really caught my attention was the word "estivate."

Estivate refers to the act of passing the summer in a dormant state much the same as a bear does in winter and that kind of sums up my summer and how it relates to skiing. Summer started on a high note with two possibilities of skiing in South America. But, gas price increases in the airline industry pretty much squashed those adventures. But that doesn't mean you can't dream about it.

Not long into the film Steep, I think it's Doug Coombs who says "If I'm not skiing for five days then I'm dreaming about skiing." And ain't that the truth.

After watching Steep I even ordered a copy of Anselme Baud's Mont Blanc and the Aiguilles Rouges. Last March I spent a week skiing around Mont Blanc, not, of course on the 50+ degree slopes that Baud and the other ski mountaineers challenge but you can see them - from afar.

But you don't have to do 50 degree slopes, all you have to do is ski your ability- push it, push it just a little more and run it out and then look back up at your ski tracks. Baud says the extreme skiers certainly have tales to tell but, just like us, and: "Like skiers and mountaineers across the world they will dream from time to time of that unforgettable descent on that unforgettable day and the signature carved into that snowy mantle."

Remember to dream those unforgettable descents while you estivate these days away.

Mont Blanc Massif by Mike Doyle