Burnt to a Crisp

Posted by Joel

So Kevin and I decided a few weeks ago that we wanted to go cross-country skiing. Natalie suggested President's Day, so we made plans. We rented cross-country skies, got food and supplies, and early Monday morning (6am) we drove up to the Hobble-creek side of Squaw Peak Road.

Going up was hard in the steep places, but we noted that we really made good time on the skies, especially when the road wasn't bumpy. Even on steeper grades we made good time. I don't know how far we traveled, but about 5 hours we reached out destinatin high up where we could see down into Springville and Provo.

The way down was dodgy. Snow mobiles had "groomed" the trail for us, but one of them had particularly narrow and deep runners sticking down from the front ski parts of the machine. These thin, deep trenches would catch our skies and dump us face-down onto the trail. The steep parts were particularly hard because when it got steep, it inevitably starting rolling so you'd have a steep down, quick up, steep down, quick up, etc. Though I crashed probably a total of 10 times, it was hard going.

And unbelievably we ran into the other problem. On the parts that were not steep, we really had to work to keep moving. The drag from the sun-melting snow on the top required us to use our poles extensively to keep moving.

Don't get me wrong, we had lots of fun! The fast areas without the trail being chewed up were the best, and seeing that much trail zip on by is great especially since we're used to snow shoes and the slow plodding we usually have.

So to the crux of the problem. We didn't use sunscreen.

Both Kevin and I have been putting aloe vera lotion on our faces every 2 to 4 hours. I haven't been this sunburned in years! Yesterday my eyelids swelled so I looked like I either got in a fight or put on some unhealthy weight just around my eyes.

Note to self: Wear sunscreen Winter or Summer!
Addendum: Hot showers are bad for sunburns
Appendix: Explaining why you didn't wear sunscreen to a five and three year old is difficult
Epilogue: Sneezing uses a surprisingly large amount of surface area of the skin on your face - Ouch!
Postlude: a little bit of beard scruff helps avoid extreme burnage, but if it's still burned a little shaving isn't an option >.<