Stretch, Hydrate, and Watch Out For Tree Wells

Topic: Pre season conditioning
Type: Bikram Yoga
Where: Bikram Yoga U-District in Seattle, WA
Conditioning Buddy:  Chainsaw (names are changed to protect the innocent...but jokes on him because I'll still post pictures).

Hi Folks!

Now seems like as good as time as any to talk about pre-season conditioning.  Chainsaw and my normal pre-season conditioning routine has been comprised of watching a lot of snowboard films like, The Art of Flight or just recently the art meets prayer flag utopia meets some really authentic 70's urban outfitters catalog wardrobe film, Valhalla.

"Hello Dah-lings!  I've got food for 20 winters...if you like herring. I looove herring"

But recently I've added a new component to my film watching routine and started doing Bikram Yoga.  If you don't know, Bikram yoga is a style of yoga where you do the same 26 postures each class with a breathing exercise at the beginning and end (each class is 90 min long).  

A young Jason Bateman (left) with Bikram himself.  

Apparently Jason Bateman thought Birkram yoga was pure hell.  This pic has little to do with my blog other than it's a fun fact and Jason Bateman is one of my favorite actors.

What Bikram Yoga is most known for I think is the heat.  The room is heated to 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 C), with a humidity of 40%.  Yes, yes it does seem hot and it IS very hot.  But if the studio is heated probably it can feel amazing.  The heat actually protects your muscles and gives you a deeper stretch (which I really need...typically I can barely touch my toes).  Yes, you do need to drink a lot of water before and after class but that's something we should be doing anyway.  Practicing Bikram yoga has helped me to become more mindful of not only my water intake but also about what I'm putting into my body (bu-LEAVE me there is nothing worse that practicing with a stomach full of frozen yogurt with chocolate sauce and gummy bears...I really didn't think it was going to be a big deal...but it was!  It was).

I started doing Bikram yoga because I had/have THE WORST BACK IN THE ENTIRE WORLD OF ANYONE ON THIS ENTIRE PLANET.  I remember being 8 years old and saying more or less like a pirate, "Argh me aching back!"  I figured if I wanted to still be walking by the time the U.S. got a female president, then I better start doing some sort of yoga.

My dear friend and part-time spirit guide was going to a Bikram studio that was right by her work, so I went too.  At first I couldn't care one way or the other WHICH type of yoga I was going to but after learning more and trying different styles of yoga I realized Bikram was the the right style for me.  Why? Well actually it was because it was really hard.  

Normally I'm like any other person who wants to put the least amount of work  into my workouts while still giving myself the illusion that I am exercising.  Oh I've spent many an hour on an elliptical while watching marathons of America's Next Top Model on a mounted TV.  

But Bikram yoga has been different.  The fact that it's a structured 90 minute class makes it so you can't leave.  Well some people leave but I can't leave. My pride is just too much to where I couldn't handle having people watch me drip out the doors in the middle of practice.  In the class, I go in knowing that I'm going to have an hour and a half dedicated to just ME and just improving my body.  Nothing else is going on in that hot room.  No TV, no music, no gossiping with friends.  Just your body, your mind, and not as much water as you wish you had brought in.

Chainsaw usually closes his eyes and scoffs whenever I try to get him to come to Bikram yoga class with me.  He says,"That's just stretching".  But it's not just stretching! It also builds your stamina big time.  On our first day of the season Chainsaw's legs were ready to go home after the first run but even I was surprised that my quads felt like they could keep going for...well...forever I guess.  What a treat.

Me not doing a very good job demonstrating Triangle pose.  I mean, come on, it was really hard in those boots...and the snow was uneven, so.  

Thanks to poses like Triangle, that you hold for a mere 60 seconds at a time, your stamina truly does build. And honestly it's also a mental thing.  

There have been times when I've been hiking up some side-country and thought, "Right here is far enough.  I could just drop in right now.  Who needs to go all the way to the top?" 

After you get into the routine of Bikram yoga regulary and you can spend 90 minutes in a hot room making your body do things it doesn't want to do...well other things just don't seem that bad.  And the pretty helpful Birkam phrase will go through you're head, "If you can, you must".

So I end up hiking all the way up to the very top of the run and get to take glory pictures like this.

The posture series is designed so you get a full body work-out.  EVERYTHING is exercised from your bones to your skin.  I started doing yoga for my back but I was also concerned about my knees.  After snowboarding for 15 plus years I had put a lot of wear and tear on my left knee in particular.  A couple seasons back I really did question how many years my knee had left in it.  But now with the Bikram I think the ol knee has a lot of life left in her yet.

Ok, ok, ok I'm just about done talking about the Bikram yoga.  All I have left to say is that any sort of pre-season conditioning is great.  With stronger legs it helps you stay in-control, helping everyone right? (I've been run into by Chainsaw onnnnee too many times to the point where I'm a little OCD about out of control skiers).   Plus the more stamina you have and the longer you can ski then the more money you're getting out of the purchase price of your left ticket or season pass.  

Pre-season conditioning = Good economics

Whether you choose to do Bikram yoga or not I hope you remember to stretch, stay hydrated, and watch-out for tree wells.  It's a long season and I can't wait to see everyone still skiing at the end!

Crystal Mountain is Barely Open!

Destination: Crystal Mountain
Date: December 1st, 2014 (opening day)
Snowfall: 0" 24hrs. / 24"Season
Chairs open:  Mt Rainier Gondola / Green Valley Express Chair (2)
Ticket $: 30.00
Hours: 10:00-3:00pm
Traveling companion: Chainsaw (names have been changed to protect the innocent)

Hi Folks!

I found out two days ago that Crystal Mountain was having their opening day today (Dec. 1st). They got a foot of new snow in 24 hrs. and I guess that was enough to open just the tippy top of the mountain.  Now, before I went I knew nothing about Crystal Mountain other than it was a mountain in Washington and that they were only going to charge 30 bucks for their tickets! So I was in.

First chair was at 10:00am so naturally we rolled in around noon (best not to stress). The drive from Seattle to the MT. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest area wasn't bad.  The roads were dry and the scenery beautiful.  The one thing to note is that when you get to the bottom of Crystal Mountain road it is a 6 mile windy trek to get the base of the resort.  No big deal, just something to expect if you never been. (Actually be extra careful because on our way down we saw a car flipped on the side of the road).

Since it was opening day and only 1 lift was running, the parking lot was pretty empty (plus it was noonish remember and some folks had already left) we didn't have any trouble parking and sneaked in reaaalll close to the ticket window.  As we were tailgating/getting our gear on, a real local looking guy exclaimed,

"Sorry dudes I skied everything.  It's all gone".

He proceeded to give us words of discouragement telling us that it was all skied out and what snow they did get in the big foot dump was all wind blown anyway.  As he rolled away in his very local looking Toyota Tacoma, I was left with visions of dust on crust and a soundtrack played through my head of an iron file on metal (I guess that's the simile I'll use to describe the sound of my board on pure ice).

I will admit I was discouraged.  Kiiiiinnnndaa wanted to say, "Welllll, I mean, half the journey is just getting up here.  We'll get 'em next time?".  BUT it was a bluebird day, so I didn't say that, and we carried on.  That local guy probably didn't even know how to ski anyway.

Now, let me tell you, the guy working at the ticket window was an absolute delight.   He gave me 10 Crystal Mountain stickers, which is truly the way to my heart.  We bought our tickets on what they call "Go Cards", which have the look of a season pass.  You get to keep the card and then load money onto it on-line (the interwebs/the net/the world wide web).  This way you don't have to stand in line at the ticket window each time you go AND you get a $5 discount.  Discounts are the second way to my heart next to stickers.  But stickers, stickers will always be number one!

Sticker and Go Card (please don't steal my GoCard number...if it matters)

So since there really wasn't that much snow only the MT Rainier Gondola and the Green Valley Express Chair were open.  View map below to get yourself oriented. 

We headed up the MT Rainier Gondola, which was a real treat.  

Chainsaw was really nervous that our boards would fall off the gondola.  It really did look like they would.

My look is more like, "Gondola's are my life".

As soon as we got up to the top of the MT Rainier Gondola our minds were blown.  Why??? Because we saw this...

Yes Folks, staring us in the face was Mt. Rainier itself!!! So grand, so majestic, I felt like I could just reach out and give it one big hug!

I had never seen Mt. Rainier close.  Normally this is what it looks like from my apartment window...

Long story short, getting to see Mt. Rainier that close was worth the price of admission.

NEXT the shredding began.  Since not much was open we had no choice but just to go straight down any available spot we saw.  There were a fair amount of people fighting for the same terrain...but still it was a comfortable amount of people.  Nothing was groomed so there was the illusion of powder and you could see people kicking up some fluff...but still, even through the gondola's glass walls, you could hear the all too familiar scratch of edges on ice.

As I strapped in and pointed my board over the edge of the Green Valley run I fought back any preconceptions of what I was going to encounter and banished "local looking parking lot guy's" words to the back of my hippocampus and just went for it.

And what did I encounter????  Well not ice that's for sure but not real good snow either.  Just something in between and that that something inbetween was just the best thing in that moment.  There would be moments of true powder.  And then of course there would be other moments of "Oh shit, that was a rock...and that was a rock...and that was rock".  But regardless, when I got to the bottom I always thgought, "Let's do it again!!!"

It kind of reminded me of spring skiing, where the snow was soft in some parts but most unpredictable with trees and rocks showing through.  BUT the sun was shinning and that truly was the most I could ever ask for. Chainsaw and I talked to a lot of locals on the lifts and they let us know that it is rare for the mountain to be sunny.  Which is what we were use to after skiing Whitefish Mountain Resort for the last couple of years.  At WMR you definitely have to rely on your Jedi training to get down the slopes.  But apparently it's the same at Crystal with our local lift mates adding, "just stick to the trees and you'll be fine". A refrain I also often heard at WMR.

Chainsaw and I skied until our unconditioned legs gave out (well until Chainsaws did...see my next blog for my story). AND we even got 1 tiny little hike in where I got these turns...

Since there still wasn't much coverage we had to download on the gondola where we got to talk to more grizzled locals who confirmed our suspicions that if we ski more at Crystal our winter will be epic.

Take away?  

Can't wait for Crystal Mountain to open fully.  The terrain looks amazing and the drive from Seattle is very doable.  Next I've got to find some discounts for regular season tickets...cause next to stickers, well you know.