Eleven studio days straight in a row – AWESOME to be sooooooo inspired to create. I ignore my phone and computer each day til noon (and often after that). The first sculpture in a new series has me captivated while the woodchips and sawdust pile up. Yes! I’ll have photos but this post is going to be about my day off!!
Sunday morning before sunrise I packed water, food, ice ax and crampons for an early season accent of Black Mountain. What a GLORIOUS day!!!
Engorged with melted snow, the waterfalls were bigger than I’ve ever seen – breathtaking!!! We hiked several thousand feet above Paradise Valley to Pine Creek Lake, which was mostly covered in ice. Snow gullies and talus slopes led to the summit of Black Mountain above the lake where Joe Joe, Ari and I napped and hung out for two hours before glissading down the snow bowl to the lake. I promptly jumped in (twice)…! REFRESING to say the least…! We spent another few hours lounging at the lake while Joe tried to catch fish (I saw him catch himself but I shouldn’t mention that…)
The rock, the water, the sky, the moss, and the views are simply out of this world – like something from Lord of the Rings. The summit was infinitely easier to tag than the last time I was up there 3 years ago before surgery to remove the debilitating five-pound tumor. Luckily my health and fitness have returned with a vengeance. Even with only 2 hours of sleep, the summit felt like a walk in the park. I could have Snoopy danced (and would of but I didn’t want Zaydee to get too excited for fear that she would dance her way onto the cornice and disappear. Instead we made snow angels (Zaydee too)
Click the link below for a super short snow angel’s video -be sure to watch Zaydee...!
View the Black Mountain album on my Facebook page for more photos of our adventure.