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Haus's avatar

Well said! I know that Viking Bad-Ass feeling; I know the contrasting depression when we let the fear of cold win out over the beauty of being one with cold. Winter running calls something primal out of us, and requires us to dig deep below comfort and convenience in a 1-click consumptive world. It breaks us through the initial blast of cold and sparks our ancestors' inner fire, their blood flowing in us, reminding us that blood flows for the sake of survival, life, and connectivity with life.

Entering the cold, even though it is just air, has the immersive, regenerative quality of diving into cold water. It is similar to surfing in the winter. Once you are in the water and your superficial skin adjusts, you are the water...but before that moment the whole universe feels foreign to you, and your sense of belonging can suffer (a suffering even wine cannot cure).

For me, I hang up running shoes in winter for my ski-mountaineering gear, to train for the Grand Traverse (https://thegrandtraverse.org/ski/). The Grand Traverse is almost European in its way of connecting mountain communities on skis. The 40-mile journey from Crested Butte to Aspen, beginning with a rifle shot at midnight, takes skiers over 12,000 foot Star Pass. The cold is a deep cold, as this valley averages the nation's coldest temperatures most years. The snow under vibrant stars ignites rainbow sparkles on snow (200 miles to the nearest city, and small town lights far away are walled in by tall peaks and vast wilderness areas, so the stars light the white valleys and peaks). There is a purple glow to the tree trunks as the eyes adjust to snow reflecting starlight. THEN throw in the Zen of exercising in the cold you talk about so eloquently and a nice dose of "runners (skiers?) high", and it rivals any Pink Floyd concert on heavy drugs. The sun rises over the Elk Mountains by 6 and the 10 degree night turns to a 25 degree day in which one feels like laying down and sunbathing (Colorado 25 is like Boston 50 due to dry air, so I am impressed you can get out in that seaside freeze!).

Winter running pulls me out of my fear of the wild deep in all of us, humbles my ego as I face the elements, stretches me out of me numb body and intersects my inner being into (becoming?) snow, forest, sky, stars. If oneness is not the ultimate purpose, I do not know what is. Running or skiing in the cold is the best way to at least a glimpse of universal oneness I know of. Here's to the winter run! Thank you for this entry, Paul!

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Kristian Schepelern's avatar

frosty beard, sparkly gloves and then that 'smoke' from the heat escaping the body during CD walk/jog. clear skies obvz always a bonus (I prefer overcast and drizzle, but to each their own). winter runs are my favourites

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