Fitting it All In: Night Skiing
Posted on Thursday, February 19th, 2009
All Photographs by Jeff Diener (www.jeffdiener.com).
“It’s four in the morning, lights in my face, that’s the time you know the place- cuffed in the room with the two way glass, cops cold dogging my ass.”
Well, I’m not Ice-T, and fortunately the cops are not cold dogging my ass, but it is four in the morning and I’m going skate skiing.
The only light in my face is my NiteRider headlamp, casting a broad light across freshly groomed corduroy. My eye lids feel like they are frozen as my eyes slowly adjust to the artificial light source. It seems like it’s snowing as hundreds of tiny snow crystals reflect off the bright beam. My motions seem uncoordinated and goofy as I push off down the trail trying to find my balance and organize all the necessary movements required to ski. My lungs burn slightly as they ingest the rush of cold morning air. It is not long before this seemingly ridiculous morning ritual begins to make sense and I am ripping through the lodge pole pines and Douglas firs on my way through a completely nocturnal work out.
Pre-dawn ski and climbing missions are nothing new of course. Enthusiasts all over the world have been donning headlamps and heading out into the mountains to ski powder or ascend a peak long before me. The difference for me is that I often don’t see the sun come up while on my mission. With the introduction of children and the development of a full time remodeling business, I sat idle, watching my ski time diminish to half days and weekends as I was enveloped by the increasing layers of “responsibility.”
That was until one night it occurred to me – fuck that – if I can race my mountain bike past tangled juniper bushes and over sandy slick rock in the middle of the night, then I can powder ski and skate ski with the same technology. Determined to continue skiing 100+ days a year, I stole away into the night to stubbornly get my turns. Remarkably, I found solace in these night time pursuits, lost in my headlamp’s singular beam as I peacefully skate or skin through the darkness in utter solitude.
Whether it’s 10 o’clock at night or four in the morning, I now enthusiastically charge my headlamp and plan my next night’s adventure. Tomorrow morning I will skate, high pressure has made the nordic track firm and fast. I have no competition for freshies, but for a marauding moose or two, my only companionship will probably be a wall of blinking eyes and steamy noses looking down at me like Wallace and Gromit’s wall of customers. Wondering, what’s with this guy? I’ll be back in time to change a diaper, get my son to school and maybe make some laps on the tram.
Alex Hassman is a Cloudveil and Rossignol athlete based in Montana.
My neighbor, Mark, and I have actually turned night skiing into a regular part of entertaining out of town guests. Local slack country runs we wouldn’t consider in daylight become an adventure story for flatlanders to take home. The Nose, the Chimney, and Elk Trail Faces (or Mommsen Faces depending on who you ask) are our favorites. Our wives support this behavior – we don’t know why.
i have seen this guy a few times. he is amazing. a great telemarker. i understand the need to sweat and care for ones family. way to go alex. i here your wife is pretty and pretty tough, as well. sign up those kids. great genes!! keep runnin.
i mean “hear”.
Good on ya, Alex! Cram it all in. We Alaskans resort to skiing in the dark, too. Headlamp is standard ski gear at this latitude.
Jack