Wholistic Fitness

all photos and text by steve ilg

please do not share without asking…enjoy my backyard…

Snowshoes on my back  (5)

Skis beneath my slip-slide feet (7)

Mind surfs sky-like snow!  (5)

– coach ilg

after today’s ski training up La Plata Canyon, 1*29*11

La Plata (the Silver) Mountains as seen driving toward the hamlet of Mayday, about 16 miles from my front door…some of you may recognize this view from my cycling training entries.  Peaks L-R;  Madden, Star, Babcock

two miles into the ever uphill, yet gradual gradient of the famed mining terrain of the La Platas. looking westward toward Madden Peak, a favorite jaunt for mountain runners at 11,654′.

We’ve not had snow for weeks…which makes for impeccable skiing, shoeing, winter mountain biking, and snow traction running on the road thanks to snowmobilers.  i was out for 2.25 hours and only saw two massive-tire mountain bikers and 3 backcountry skiers. looking northeast toward Kennebec massif.

Bedrock Creek, sighing her winter soliloquy…so precious.  feeble ilg cannot imagine this one precious, wild life without Winter’s svelte, humbling presence.  in this age of climate change; ilg – author of The Winter Athlete – encourages people now more than ever;  Embrace Winters Grace!

A nice fixer-upper from the 1800’s for a young couple willing to ski a few miles and live with the vibrant disembodied Beings which are palpable among the pine wind whispers…

looking over my skis into La Plata Canyon…”of course i believe in God,” said a philosopher, “i just call him, Nature.”

i was riding up the chairlift with Dewachen (3) yesterday…we were silently absorbed in It All…when she looked up at me from eon-boundless eyes and simply stated, “Everything is nature, Daddy.”

“That’s right, honey,” i replied calmly after her Rinpoche remark finally stopped shuddering my cells,  “Everything is Nature.”

one of several avalanche chutes through which the road passes…precisely why this dirt road is closed during the winter…thank God. This one is near my turn around point of Lewis Creek, four miles in.

After topping out 1.50 ski hours later at an elevation of 10,091′  i turned my skis around to bathe in the 2,000’+ descent…hara, hara, mahadeva!

Washing away all the Outer Worldly bullshit in one fell, clean sweep of yet another nirvana-esque nordic ski/shoe among the Mountain Gods of Southwest Colorado.  please, sign up for your Private Intensive, before long…come, imbibe the direct Pranic Beauty which gave birth to Wholistic Fitness™ many, many moons ago…

May All Thy Sweat Be Sacred and May Your Stillness Efforts Reflect The Soundless Lotus Blossom Of What I Breathed Through On This Day  Of Days…

head bowed,

your feeble teacher