Bluebird and Carved Turns
It feels like I haven't been writing here in ages. But let me tell you; my mind is shining like the most brightest Sun! I spent the past weekend at Pyhätunturi with my mom and dad and my aunt, skiing. Unbelievable but true, it's been three years since the last time I was skiing. And four years from the last time I was in Pyhä, my home of skiing. After Jussi and I got the dogs our free time has been quite limited so I haven’t really had the time to go skiing. But because I get to be outdoors everyday with the dogs I haven’t even missed skiing that much. I guess I deserved a break from all the years of competitive skiing since now it felt so damn good to be back on the slopes. And check out the weather we had! Zero complaints.
"Once I got my boots on in the morning and clicked them to the bindings of my skis, it felt like nothing had changed."
Funny thing. Once I got my boots on in the morning and clicked them to the bindings of my skis, it felt like nothing had changed. It is amazing how our muscles and neural pathways remember everything we do or have done. Well, I do have a lot of turns and manoeuvres in my memory bank for sure but since it's been three years I thought it would have been at least a bit odd at first. Quite remarkable feeling I would say. Only my legs were not so used to this kind of physical stress anymore so I did have to start slowly and have a little break after the each lap. But during the first day it got easier and my leg got out of the shock, haha. And the second day was even easier. My dad was joking that I'm not gonna make it through the whole weekend but I definitely proved him wrong!
I had my two favourite skis with me on the trip. The yellow fellows on the left of the picture are my old darlings from the time when I still was racing in giant slalom. A looong time ago. But I have never had better racing skis than these Fischers and I'm so glad I have taken good care of them so that they are still in a perfect condition and always ready to rock n' roll with me. In Pyhä, the slopes are wide and long so it was the best decision ever to take them with me. The plan was to carve few laps on Sunday morning with these ones before the slopes get soft but I ended by skiing with them until the noon, it was so much fun! "You can take the girl out of giant slalom but you cannot take giant slalom out of the girl."
And on Saturday I actually woke the skiing bug up with my PuSu skis (on the right side of the picture) that are so called backcountry skis and that's why easier also on the slopes when the weather is warm and the snow gets slushy. As we drove to Pyhätunturi from Kuusamo in the morning the slopes were already soft when we took the first laps. My PuSu's are special and very dear to me. PuSu is a Finnish ski building brand that my friend Jani owns. They make the skis from wood, sustainably. I actually own two pairs of PuSu's since they used to sponsor me some years ago but these ones are unique, designed and made just for me. When I still participated freeski competitions these skis were my trustworthy companions. I could always count on that they would perform in all conditions and help me do better in the competitions. Here is my short documentary film that I made about freeskiing with PuSu in 2017.
The weekend was absolutely brilliant. I love Pyhätunturi and I love skiing, especially with my dad, my one and only coach, so everything was perfect. I'm quite sure now that I won't have another three year break before the next time I go skiing. The summer is already so close that this was definitely the last chance to go during this spring but it was a good timing to go and wake the skier girl inside me up again. I promised to myself that I next season I will go skiing more often and also take Jussi with me sometimes.
What's next?
I'm sorry, I know I promised you guys two weeks ago that I would give some updates on our renovation already last week but I was too busy to put any thought into writing and I skipped that. I hope next time I would have even more to reveal about the house project because things are moving forward! At least on the planning level. Oh, life would be so much easier without money and budgets. However we did publish our new plans considering the kennel on social media. We decided to leave out name of Shaman Huskies and keep the life with the dogs and the business separate. So from now on you can follow our sled dog life from our Instagram account @metsienkutsu and there you can read more about the change if you are interested in that. But that's enough about that; until the next time!
Life is the best, enjoy!
xx, Inka
P.s. Here a little memory lane from previous years in Pyhä (2014-2017)