lange bang

lange bange, maybe? lang bang? well, the second is closer to how it's pronounced.

do they still call it that? my ski boots are lange. my favorite pair ever were san marco, but they quit making them which doesn't surprise me since i have a hard-to-fit foot.

...which means any boot that fits me perfectly doesn't sell so well.

anyway, lange bang is what they call those bruises on the front of your shins; lange boots used to come up high and they were torsionally very stiff, hence the bruises. lange makes more comfortable boots these days but if it's early in your season and you're skiing a little aggressively, you still get it.

it's one of my favorite bruises.

we got seventeen inches of snow so they were deliriously happy up on the mountain and opened up all of the lifts even though it was midweek. which meant i got to ski peggy dow's, probably my all-time favorite. the view from the elbow of peggy dow's is a big favortie of mine, too, and now that i have a newer, smaller camera i'm bringing it along, so if i get ambitious i'll post pictures of that view as the season goes on.

i'm also experimenting with taking video while skiing, which makes me a little nervous, but i'd like to get just one video of one good run. i think it'd be cool.

right now i can't get a nice level picture.

it's cold on the number one chair (what the "new" people call the wilderness chair), and it is, i think, the slowest chair on the mountain. it's certainly one of the oldest chairs, and it's stuck waaaay over on the left side, the only chair that serves ricker mountain. when you're out there you're way out there, and they don't blow snow up there so you get what you get.

if you want to see it, here's the trail map, and here's the satellite image:


View Larger Map

it's contemplative on that chair. i get to think of a lot of things: art, music, lyrics. i have this recurring fantasy that comes unbidden right about at lift tower nineteen; never you mind.

today it was just about there a young man came flying off of that rock in the middle of the trail just as outlaw empties out under the lift.

we could hear him hit, and it was a pretty spectacular fall, with lots of post-impact flying but someone on the lift asked him if he was hurt and he said only his pride was injured, but that it was AWESOME.

and it is, too. the lift is also a place of prayer for me.


praise be to God, who watches the sparrow
God, who makes flourish every green leaf
teach me to love and make me to follow
hold me in joy and comfort my grief.