Yeah, see the smiling face?
ilg’s clever fall back onto a Teacher’s pithy quote?
well? it’s all grist for the mill of Awakening as Ram Dass might put it…
today’s skimo (ski mountaineering) workout was yet another roll of the dice during this broken winter in this crazy beautiful, remote corner of SW Colorado… yeah, Father Sky just Blessed, GRACED us
with a hella lot of ilgs’ fav element; snow!!!
in fact, set a PR in professionally shoveling it yesterday for 10.5 hours… if you follow ilg on social, you’ll hopefully smile at the way ilg played it; American doctors suggest to men over 40 that not more than 20 minutes of continuous snow shoveling is suggested.
20 minutes!
for men over 40!?!??!
omg
wow? fr?
literally at age 63 spent 10.5 hours yesterday shoveling what Maha Singer (our long time website coordinator) said translated (via ChatGPT) into moving 6,000 pounds … nearly 3 tons of snow ilg moved… bodyweight 148lbs…elevation 7,028’…
so, today, coming off that ultra effort, just wanted an easy skimo on non-tech terrain… found it on West Mancos Road, ilg’s go-to savior during this paltry thin winter… yet this time, had to start 2+ miles lower than usual due to thick snowpack on the road…
took off skiing uphill…
locked in…
the bullet blue sky literally singing overhead yet barely heard over the cadence of ilg’s Zone 2 breath…
climbing, striding into the high Aspen Beings…
deep fresh Sacred Snow kissing sweetly the bottoms of ilgs skis… though you may see headphones perched upon ilg’s head, most of the time, is spent on mute… ilg prefers the sacred sounds of my childhood skiing, snowshoeing with my Wolf Being; Apache… whence lil’ ilg would not consider it winter outside my country home until ilg could ski/s’shoe (in the old webbed, wooden versions of trad s’shoes, mind you) over the top of the standard 3.5′ barbed wire fences that define White Man’s territorial slaughter of the Diné, Ute, Apache whom lived for eons upon this land before us Bilághanà came and well, you know the story… raped their land, treaties, women, and language….
as you know if you follow ilg, this precious Being pictured above is Sandra Jean Lee of the Red Runner Water Clan from the TowerHouse Clan has been ilg’s Partner since Dewa was 3 years old … she is full blood Diné from Beclabito on the Navajo Rez… search my YouTube Channel for much more…
well, in the couple of hundred years since us White People stole the Indigenous People’s land? we haven’t been the greatest stewards…
so, today skiing upward into and beneath the Diné’s Sacred Peak of the North, Dibé Nitsáá (known as Hesperus Mountain to the Bilighanà) ilg strode with confidence uphill, heart rate hovering right where ilg wanted in in Zone 2… reciting Dewa’s Blessed Lineage Mantra, occasionally listening to podcasts…when skiing uphill for over 90 minutes, ilg at 63 does allow a few coustic/podcast interventions…sue me. warned ya’ll about this Pandora’s box back in 1982, no one listened when ilg said about the Walkman; Be CAREFUL here!!!
Upon reaching mile 4+ uphill, ilg flipped it…
Thought, well, been skiing uphill for over 90 minutes, quick flight back to White Thunder (ilg’s Rav 4, whereupon Sandra would be waiting)…
This is what ilg means by Ninja…totally got tricked by the long seemingly uphill terrain, yet, upon flipping it? nope.
long
sections
intermidable sections
of flat terrain required a weird bastardized technique of skimo skating (worse effort at best) along flat/false flats to get to where ilg could coast downhill…
I mean, look at my stats; over 1k of vert! you’d TAF that ilg could cash in on some of that climbing, yet? not much… peak speed going downhill was maxed at 16mph…
passion for my last remaining ski races choked out my initial and chronic disappoints on the long journey to White Thunder and Sandra…
in this silence of using my overcooked arms and lower back from 10.5 hours of snow shoveling yesterday? when ilgs old arms and low back were having NONE of this shit today?
in this silence ilg sank into Dewa’s Sacred Mantra, recollected ilgs tremendous treasury of hard workouts, epic adventures, and dreams yet to come…
by the time, ilg reached White Thunder and Sandra?
the silence had set ilg free,
once again…
get OUT
and DO
so as
TO BE!!!
These teachings are the "Rasas" or "sap" of Wholistic Fitness. You’ll find insights to ponder, student chi to keep your own chi topped off, and plenty of proven training techniques to test on your own body, mind, and spirit! Also, you’ll find my very popular Race Reports, and news of our Sangha’s (community’s) latest transpersonal fitness adventures!