who else is out there closing in on their own WF Sacred Sweat Trifecta?! I know…
Beyond the clatter of my preciously busy hometown of Durango, up high among vanilla-coated pines and naked aspens there is arising another, albeit softer, clatter. The sound is from ‘sport snowshoes’ dancing across wintery landscapes like the mystical hooves of Santa’s reindeer…
Over 250 skiers, snowshoers, and winter sports enthusiasts attended the event, according to Race Director, Mary-Anne DeBoer. The event is growing each year under the guidance of DeBoer and the amazing course groomers – led by cycling’s Time Trial Champion Clay Moseley of Los Alamos – which magically transform a powder-snow alpine meadow near the top of Cumbres Pass into a nordic racers paradise for only 3 days. Former KOM Champion, Steve Ilg states, “This weekend is like the aerobic, winter counter-part to a Tibetan Sand Painting…”
Jnana Mudra; the Gesture of Strength and Wisdom…which i engage during snowshoe racing not only to Hook Up internal pranic orbits, yet also to soothe the hurt of not accomplishing what i tried so hard to do at Chama this weekend; regain my King of the Mountain title…2nd place for the 2nd year in row hurts…however…
phew…Daddy just finished waxing 4 pairs of nordic ski’s (2 skate, 2 classic) plus snowshoes packed, loaded, and ready to reclaim my King of the Mountain Title over the next 2 days of nordic ski racing and snowshoe racing at the Chama Ski Classic…hum SAH!!! Live the Path, baby!
Last Saturday; in the start gate of a 10k freestyle…my head is down, mula bandha engaged, the start gate is just below my knee chakras, my mind with my breath, my Blessed Mala’s dangle like a door ringer for Hanuman to bring His Strength and Endurance and Loving Insight into my heart….sorry, however, there is no Higher Yoga Mat than the start gate of a nordic ski race…sing kirtans and do asana to trance beats all you want, however, to find your Highest Self? leave it to nordic ski racing to really lay your spiritual bones to the fire of tapas!
at this point in the story, ilg could attempt to relate the technical, high speed descents where one wrong mOMent on your skinny, edgeless skis could send you like a racing catamaran into a stout grove of aspens and/or pines waaaay bigger than you, or how i dug super deep to keep the next offending young gun or aging warrior from claiming my own sacred-sweat earned spot in the lineup….