I will write enough to say that this past week was very challenging. The “family” as I call it in Alta, Utah is incredibly tight-knit and we lost two people in the course of about a week. Compton lost his life in a motorcycle accident and Jake was pushing himself (as usual) in Glacier National Park when he fell over 800 feet. It’s devastating to lose people, but there is a tangible, albeit small, amount of solace knowing that they were doing something they loved. Rest in peace bros, you will be greatly missed.

And it tends to do, time rolls on…Not without some tears and a few beers to remember some amazing times skiing powder with those guys…I was working all last week guiding my last trip with CASA Tours. We had 3 weather days stacked up right on top of one another. In fact, my last 2 weeks were pretty much one huge weather day. The last week of August Brian Stevenson, Spencer Francey, and I went to Lonquimay and had a phenomenal day of ski touring in Araucaria trees…That was the last sunny day. After that, all of Chile got pummeled by yet another Pacific weather system and it was down time all around. We went to Pucón (check the lazy reblog below), checked out some hot springs, and I tried to get work done for SheJumps and this incredible competition that is happening in Pucón in October.

So when weather day after weather day was stacking up and our clients were beginning to get frustrated (hold on, let me fix the weather for ya! Just kidding), things were starting to feel foggy for me. I couldn’t put my finger on it…I knew that it was the stress of losing 2 friends in a week, but it also felt like it was the mid-trip blues. A point when you are not quite sure where you belong…You want to live somewhere, find some shelves, plug in your chargers and leave them there.

Yes last week, as I like to say, “is what it is.” But I had a turn for the better, no pun intended, during the last two days when, without abandon, I hiked. Ando sola ahora…Maybe I didn’t hike that far compared to some people (ahem, Greg Hill), but it felt damn good to give the ski area “the bird” and start trucking. I just went solo and then I happened to meet some super cool people along the way. The experience, however routine it may seem in my own mind to go ski touring, shed light on a few things I think I was forgetting. Have you ever been thinking negative thoughts and then stub your toe? That’s sort of what was going on with me…I think…Well I am taking all of these lessons not with a grain of salt, but with gust of fresh air—err fresh “volcanic” air hehe.

Two days ago, after skiing Volcan Nuevo I was skinning over to Valle Hermoso with my new French friend, Camille. I remember the exact negative thought about a frustrating experience I recently had when I slipped on some ice and my ski actually came loose (turns out I didn’t have the Dynafit toe piece completely cleared out of ice). I slid about 10 feet and self-arrested myself with my feet on some rocks. It would have been gnarly to crash into them with my body, and thankfully my other ski was just about 10 feet below that…but it was an incredible reminder and one-way (for now) ticket back to reality. It was like the Universe saying “Hey Claire, what the $#@! are you thinking about ? Do you know where you are and what you are doing?”

So yeah, that happened. And then…this happened:

top of Volcan Nevados de Chillan…

It’s just so beautiful here you just can’t be bummed out for really any amount of time!

On the summit of Volcan Nuevo ^

My new friend Camille super stoked on the pow turns we just got from the summit of Volcan Nuevo!