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It seems that every week, there is another hurricane invading Florida and the Caribbean. At the same time, there are similar weather events striking the Mexico and the West Coast. One of those made its way to Utah yesterday, though its windy presence has been felt for a few days.
The plan for the day was to do interval workouts with shooting at Soldier Hollow. When I awoke in the morning, the clouds were pretty low and the sky quite dark. Outside, the wind was blowing with much ferocity. It was cold.
Driving to the venue in a 1986 Toyota pick-up truck that was loaned to me by the family I am staying with, my fingers actually begged for gloves. I had not packed any, imagining Utah as a desert permanently underneath a blue and sunny sky.
Skiing was difficult since the pavement was wet. My rollerskis slipped a bit. My poles, too. What really made things a challenge was the headwind gusts that would hit me as I was skiing uphill. Tumbleweed marked me as their target.
In the range, all mayhem broke loose after my third interval. Adjusting my sights was only a small part of my problem. The main one was how much the wind would control my barrel, even in prone. It was not only the speed of the wind; it was how variable it was.
For a minute, huge gusts of wind. Then, for a second or two, total calm. I would set up, particularly in standing, in the wind. My sights would be finally set on the target, when the wind would cease. The barrel would fly windward, and I would quickly set up again, now in no wind. Now the wind would pick up and take my barrel with it again. Repeat twenty times in one shooting stage, just to take five shots.
A biathlon range can often be a windy place, and so it will be my challenge to master the wind. Whether in a blizzard in Siberia, the Alps, or at Soldier Hollow, such training will benefit me in the end.
It's supposed to snow tomorrow. We'll see how accurate the weather forecasts are here...
Peace,
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