Winthrop, WA Women’s Ski & Yoga Retreat

I had a great time at the Women’s Cross Country Ski and Yoga Retreat in Winthrop at Sun Mountain Lodge.  I met a lot of great people and learned a lot!

I am most excited about my ski lessons!  I had a total of three long ski lessons.  The first two times, my instructor was Libby and on the third ski lesson, my instructor was Emily.  I have to say that they were both great, but Libby was outstanding.  She had a way of expressing the nuances of the ski stride and other techniques that we could all grasp. She gave us drills and we practiced.  There were 5 women in my ski group and we all made a ton of progress.  I can now go down any hill confidently and I can cover more ground with less effort!  Here is Libby (in red) instructing us on the trails:

After I took the shot above, my camera literally FROZE.  It would not function in any way.  I should have put it inside my jacket under one of my many layers from the start.

Here I am getting ready for the trails. It was super super cold out there. 5  F on the first day and 17 F today:

We had three yoga sessions with a local yoga instructor from Mazama, Kaarin Kelly. Bev and I took the intermediate/advanced classes. I think Kaarin was a really good teacher, but I was hoping for a more advanced class.  I think the whole group could have handled more difficult asanas. And I really wish she would have had more variety, but the three sessions were pretty much identical to each other. However, I  still was able to make the best of the yoga sessions and really got a lot out of them, especially since I was so tight from all the intense skiing.

Here is a photo with Kaarin teaching (not the clearest photo, but I took it fast, while doing yoga, so as not to disturb anyone).  You can see Bev, too (in pink):

And it snowed the whole time we were on the trails today!  Wintrop must have got about 6  inches and another 2 feet of snow was expected to fall  in the Methow Valley by this evening.  Bev, Rose Marie and I left right after lunch because we were concerned with the driving conditions over Steven’s Pass.  It took us 5 hours to drive from Seattle to Winthrop on Friday, but today it took us almost 7 hours to get home.  At one point, we were in a total white out.  But all is well.  I are home and warm and happy.

View from my hotel room this morning.  I find this light interesting.  Everything looks monochrome or almost black and white: