"spring" skiing

I am beginning to redefine what I think about spring skiing. In CO it was all about blue skies, soft snow, warm weather and a cold beer on the patio at the end of the day. Apparently spring skiing in the Cascases is arctic winds, freezing ice called snow, bullet proof snow pack (because it is rather warm, just very wet), and white out conditions. It's more about the wind burn than the sun burn I am realizing. Derek and I went out to Grouse Gap today for a nice tour and we were both feeling pretty hard core about it. It was a nice tour though and come May, we might see that thing I love called the sun :)

Am I really getting paid to do this???

I started my new job last week. I spaced bringing my camera on any of the hikes that I got paid to go on, but we'll be beack out there several more times before the season starts. It was a very intense week of training and I'm really glad we have 3 more before we start leading hikes. There is a LOT of information to absorb. Luckily, it is all very interesting, at least to me. I am currently studying up on all the plants, birds, mammals, etc. that can be seen at the Table Rocks. Last week we also learned about the fire ecology, ethnobotony, and Native American history of the region. This week we have firts aid/ CPR training, geology talk, we are learing the kits (the kits are games that we play with the kids to teach them about different animals that can be found on the rocks. We dress a student up as a turkey vulture, a lizard, or a ring tail cat), and whatever else we can fit into a 40 hr week. It's been a great time so far. Derek let me practice talking about all the neat stuff I've learned this week by hiking with me in the watershed this weekend. I bored him to death with every detail that I could remember. It was really helpful and I hope a few more people want to hike before I have to convey all of this information to classes of elementary and junior high school students. Must admit, I'm a bit nervous about that part!