Dear ECS – Daddy, where are you?

Dear ECS,

Good question honey.  Where am I? 

I had only been gone a day or so, and we are chanting on FaceTime with you back in Addis and me at the Dubai airport.  You asked me – “Daddy, where are you?”  This was a question I thought about a lot over the next 10 or so days, for a backcountry ski trip to Kyrgyzstan.  I was disconnected from the online world, most importantly by far disconnected from you and your mom for a week or so, which felt like forever to me and forever squared to your mom as she was solo parenting and a worried about injury and avalanche.

Kyrgy is a country that I knew little about before the trip came together via 40 Tribes (http://40tribesbackcountry.com/kyrgyzstan-yurt-based-ski-and-splitboard-tours/).  Overall, the country was more different and exotic than I anticipated – there was a refreshing lack of English and transliteration in the shops and billboards, for example.  Why in this place of relative poverty are there dozens of jewelry stores in the market, yet the same market that has just a couple of fresh food stands.  That ratio doesn’t fit in my travel experiences, but I am sure that there is a good reason.  Just one that eluded me.

Why Kyrgyzstan?   Well, it is a burgeoning spot for powder skiing, aka the best skiing.  One illustrative example of the excellent skiing in the 7 days was when a weather system moved in for a couple of days of “ lightly dumping.”   This is the kind of snow that comes most often in the Karakol valley, near the borders of Kazakhstan and China.  The lightly dumping is a function of the frigid climate of the central Asia steppe, with very cold temps and a persistent dryness. It doesn’t snow a lot but the snow that does fall remains powder for the most part from the surface to the ground, in stark difference to fresh snow in Colorado, Utah and Tahoe.  20 cms go a long way in the Karakol valley.

The skiing was glorious, mostly wide-open alpine faces, sometimes steep and sometimes more mellow.  The powder lived up to everything I had hoped for, deep, floating and very memorable.  Getting to spend time with Uncle James and some new friends was great, we lived in a yurt for the week, with a wood stove for heat and the coziness of shared experiences.  Krgy food was better than I had thought, great flavors prepared really well by the 40 Tribes head chef, Norbek.  It was also fun to earn those turns, as this was a backcountry trip that had us putting in effect rugs on our skis/snowboards to go up, sometimes for hours, before switching over to downhill mode and zipping down snow.  There is a satisfaction that comes from putting in the time, work, and slower pace to take in the beauty of the mountains. 

Being in these mountains many thousands of miles and hours of flying from our home in Addis, and even farther from America, required quite a journey.  There is the literal journey of Addis -> Dubai -> Bishkek (on airplanes) -> Karakol (6 hour drive) -> staging village (hour drive in a Soviet era 4x4 van) -> the ski zone yurts (6 mile skin to the yurts). Where am i?  How did I get here? 

I found myself thinking more about the journey your mom and I started to build the skills for skiing in the backcountry about ten years ago.  Starting with classes about safe backcountry travel, and trips to the top of mountains, to huts in the backcountry, to talking with experts.  Trying to pick up tips and best practices.  This trip was a nice validation for your dad on that front, I felt comfortable in a part of the world I had never really even contemplated traveling to, because I had my gear and my knowledge and my friends.

But that deep knowledge is not enough, it is never enough.  You see honey, while I was happy to be comfy far from my prior areas of familiarity, I was also trying to learn and soak up as much as I could from the guides, true professionals, and the other skiers.   Their expertise and experience can be, and was, a fount of new knowledge.  The tweaks could be simple, such as a little adjustment to make the transition from skinning uphill to skiing downhill faster.  But it was also about more important and consequential things, observing group dynamics and snow pack.   What I hope is that you embrace this kind of lifelong learning.  I grant that lifelong learning is much easier when it is in your passions, like skiing is for me.  But we should try to bring that curiosity to everything we do, as best we can.

One last thought that kept coming into my mind up there in the mountains was embracing the moment.   With the skinning:skiing, ratio of roughly every minute of skinning earning a second of skiing on the downhill, those skiing moments were precious.  This scarcity makes me want to ski each turn, each run the best I can.  But that is not always the case, sadly.   From last week, I have a couple of ski runs I would like to have back, but that leaves me with more than a dozen with flow.  Skiing, like so many of the best things in life, happens best in a flow state.  I have found that holding on too tight doesn’t lead to my best flow, and consequently my best turns.   You flow more than I could ever hope for, being 2 years old seems to be great for flow, especially when combined with your preciousness and curiosity.  Keep it up sweetie – embrace that flow.  I travel thousands of miles to get to the flow state that you seemingly inhabit at all times.  

Good stuff, keep it up sweetie.   

love,

dad