Fishing and Skiing the Edges

Snowing again. Cold on cold. While there is snow, I go. I hit the mountains to ski. Leave the fly rods home. I prefer to keep my fingers warm with my  big ski mittens. I never did like those fingerless fishing gloves.

As some of my friends tell me, my skiing is more like a walk in the woods. But, that is fine. I like my pace. I can see things better going a bit slower. Not that I usually see all that much but I can see the edges. I like the edges of things.

There are definitely similarities in fishing and skiing edges.  The main "runs" in a river and on the slopes can quickly have every square inch fished or skied. It is practically impossible, unless you get up early, to fish the main runs of our more popular rivers or to catch fresh powder on ski runs. Every square inch gets fished hard. Every square inch of powder gets skied off early.  When that is the case, the best option is to fish and ski the edges.

Sometimes I walk up to a river. I look up and I look down river. Fly fishers are all over the place and stacked in the main runs. I then have to  look for the edges in "marginal" water. I look for the "nooks and crannies" that have not been fished over. I have caught some good fish on those edges.

I skied yesterday. I caught it just right. Five inches or more of fresh powder. But, even on a week day, the powder was quickly skied off by the crowds. The snow was still good but I wanted to ski powder so I looked to the edges of the runs.  And there it was.

I could ski the edges. Sometimes my lines were only 3 to 5 feet wide but I was floating, edging, and turning in un-trampled powder. Its silly, but some times I will just stop and take a look back at the tracks I made in the smooth powder. I love those "S" turns imprinted in the snow.  Maybe we all try to leave our ephemeral "signatures",  even as we know these signatures in the snow will be skied off. 

There is "something else" about fishing and skiing on edges. Edges are what the Celts call "thin places." Sometimes while on such edges, we see, sense, hear, or feel things we normally would not. Maybe it is because it is just too crowded and noisy in the main runs to hear anything other than skiers flying by or fishermen yelling. Sometimes we have to get out of the "mainstream" and into the quiet of a "thin place".

Let me know what you find on those edges.  If you beat me to  a certain edge, and I see your tracks, I will hesitate, examine your "signature" and then synchronize my turns with yours. Maybe we will both see or hear "some-thing. "