First Chair of the Season

Happy Friday y’all! Not gonna lie– that expression doesn’t mean a whole lot to me now that I’m not working 😉 I even got confused the other day and asked a friend why he was working so late on a Sunday night. He responded by kindly explaining that it was, in fact, a Tuesday. Oops. Tough life I lead.

Anyway, I took advantage of my three months of freedom by heading up the hill yesterday to catch my first day on the slopes! For those of y’all that live outside of Colorado, you may not realize that the Rockies have gotten hammered over the past week with snow. Naturally, everyone here was giddy with excitement because it was starting to look like another dry season, and no one wants a repeat of last year!

My new helmet and goggles, thanks to Will. You can’t see ’em, but the center of the flowers are skulls 🙂

It was the pull of the snow that got me up there, even though it was definitely a questionable maneuver in light of my recent back issues. I’m still banished to the elliptical (although I did get sassy and hopped on the stair master once this week!) but my doc said I could try skiing to see how it felt.

Long story short: it didn’t feel so hot.

I drove up with Heidi and her husband, Chris, and we oggled at the temps as we drove over Berthoud Pass. It was around 9am and I kinda grimaced when I read “10 degrees” on my Pathfinder’s thermometer. Naturally, that was the warm spot! The temps kept dropping the closer we got to Winter Park, and by the time we arrived at Mary Jane‘s parking lot, the car was reading a whopping -8 degrees outside. Yup, we were going to have some fun!

After a bit of a debacle with my right ski boot (can’t take me anywhere!), our bundled-up bodies headed over to the lift and headed up the mountain. Although it was– quite literally — frigid outside, the day was stunning. All the fresh snow was sparkly white and the sky was a bright blue, giving us that quintessential “bluebird day.” As per usual, the Mary Jane side of the mountain was less crowded than the Winter Park side, so the lines were minimal and the slopes were fairly open.

Unfortunately, it was definitely freezing and more importantly, my lower back was absolutely NOT having this day o’ fun. After a handful of runs, I realized that I needed to ease off and take a break. Once we all got inside and ate our lunch, I knew then that my back was all sorts of pissed at me. I called the day and sent Heidi and Chris back out for some more shredding while I sat in the lodge and enjoyed a rousing conversation with a 57-year-old woman who just purchased her first smart phone. I snapped a photo that she could send to her boyfriend, and we somehow continued on to a conversation about fracking and the environmental drawbacks. Only me y’all.

The lift back to the parking lot

Because of my tete-a-tete with the mountain yesterday, my back was all sorts of angry with me. Lame. Luckily, I am heading to my doc today for my second visit this week. I went on Tuesday and we both agreed that our previous course of treatment wasn’t working. Some of my mobility had returns but my extension was still non-existent and painful. He suggested non-surgical spinal decompression, and while it sounded absolutely terrifying, I agreed to give it a try (Don’t laugh, but I totally had a mental image of Braveheart when they pull Mel Gibson apart at the end!) We put it on the absolute lowest setting, just so we could see how it would work for me. Luckily, it gave me a few millimeters of extension back, so I think it could work! I’m excited to head in this morning for a more legit treatment…

….after all, I’m going to Park City next week and I NEED to ski when I’m there!

What’s your MAX cold level for outdoor playtime? Willing to deal with temps in the negatives?