This weekend I experienced the wonder of the weather inversion that members of the outdoors club had told me about. On Saturday, Mo and John picked me up at 7:45 am to drive to Silver Star for the Carter Classic. It’s the big team race/fundraiser for the adaptive ski program. It was a damp, grey morning in Vernon, but as we drove into the mountains we rose above the blanket of fog into bright sun and blue sky. It was a warm sunny day of spring skiing, perfect for the race. The peaks of the Monashees were brilliant white in the distance. I had a few good runs before and after the race.
The SSASS room was swarming with racers and workers when we arrived. Andy, the wonderful, generous but completely spacey man who presides over the whole thing was in his usual state of semi stammering dither. Pete and Noreen and a few of the other very competent organizers were going about their tasks. I was given two jobs before I finally settled into my role as screamer. I stood at the bottom of the racecourse between the timer and the people who told the racers their times and yelled the bib number and time from the former to the latter. And if you think that’s not an important job, you’re wrong. It was vital. The Carter Classic is a team race, four members on each team, one of whom must be a student in the adaptive ski program or a graduate who may or may not be on the SSASS race team. Each person gets two runs down the course. After they hear their first time, they have to estimate what their second time will be and the winner is the racer who comes closest in their second run to the time they estimated. So you can see how important it was that the person yelling the time after the first runs had a good voice, which I do. Many people complemented me on it after the race. To add to the confusion, there were prizes for best team costume as well. The winners were three women dressed as Super Chicks, with flowing caps with chicks painted on them. Their man, whose well into his eighties, wore a cape that had a softie chick stitched on it and the words ‘Chick Magnet’ painted in bold letters underneath. All this mayhem was followed by lunch and prizes. Everyone was given a free ticket for the draws, so by the end almost everyone had won at least one of the many prizes that had been donated by Vernon businesses, except me. It made me think very seriously about ever buying another 649 ticket.
Today I awoke to the same damp, grey day in Vernon. I enjoyed the usual slow breakfast, read and coffee and then got ready to go cross-country skiing at Sovereign. Again I drove through the low-lying fog into brilliant sun. This time I had the camera with me and took some pictures.
Tomorrow I will meet the first of the two Korean kids I’m going to tutor in English for the next few months, until I go to Korea in May.
Some of the runs at Sovereign Lake Nordic Centre
The run I was skiing on
The view from the road to Sovereign Lake looking down on what should be Lake Okanagan, Kalamalka Lake and the town of Vernon but what appears to be one frozen lake with Ogopogo, the Loc Ness Monster of Lake Okanagan, trapped in it while rising
Another view of the fogged in valley from Marie's deck
The magical hoar frost that crystallized on everything at the fringe of the fog. There was some in my yard, but nothing like this.
Grass transformed into lace by the frost
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