Day 6 - From Pow to Pure Relaxation

Today was a treat!  A whooping 49cm of snow fell on Whistler Blackcomb last night, and another 21cm during the day - so that's 70cm of fresh snow!  It was BIG SNOW, and days like that do not happen very often. To put it in scope, in just 36 hours, the mountain received almost a 1/3 of it's total cumulative snowfall since opening day in November. This makes for spectacular day for skiing!!! POW POW!

I skied Blackcomb Mountain with Dana, Kris and Ivan.  The snow was fantastic, but the lines were horrible.  All that waiting around in the heavy snow made for damp conditions, so it was rather chilly.  But when we were skiing, the snow was soft and pillowy, and it was pure heaven.  Especially towards the end of day.  I found my flow.

Powder days are lot of work, and we skied fast and hard. Skiing the bumps requires your body to twist and turn, and to find torque, your arms and shoulders work the poles with great force.  Your leg muscles are tense, and your core works hard to keep everything in check.  And it's a hell of a lot of fun!

So what does this have to do with yoga??  Well, yoga was my come down tonight, after a fantastic day of skiing.  I had the perfect combination today - skiing the deep pow, followed by a deep stretch with yin yoga.

Whenever I am having a quiet Saturday night, I like to go to Joanne's class.  She teaches a great yin class.  She has a way with her voice that almost puts you in a meditative trance. And the postures that we go into make me feel the stretch from the inside out.  Ahhhhh, so good!

Yin is super relaxing.  You are seated or lying on the mat the whole time, and you hold the postures for a long time for a deep release.  Rather than working the muscles, it loosens up your connective tissues.

My fave was when we did a crescent moon.  Lying on my back, I started off by putting my left foot over my right, and then extending my legs to the right.  At the same time, I clasped my hands, and also leaned to the right, so that my body was stretched like a crescent moon towards the right.  The release in my outer hip was incredible.  This targetted the exact muscles that I had just overworked with skiing, with all those squats and twists and turns through the mogul field.  Oh wow!  So deep!  It was almost painful to get out of the pose!

Even better, I incorporated leftover hot shots from skiing into my yoga practice!  Those tiny little packets emit a lot of heat, and it felt so good on my lower back while I was in a deep stretch!

Yup - powder skiing & yin yoga = the perfect combination!