“Yippee!” I thought, jumping out of bed. “It’s skiing time!” The kids were at my in-laws and Kirk and I had packed everything up to be out the door and onto the hill early.
“Central?” I asked. Until the kids get a bit older, my skiing’s pretty limited. This was my first time up this year, and my second in two years. (Looking forward to the season’s pass in a year or two!)
“Let’s go to Alpental. It’s pretty, a little different, shorter lines. You’ll love it!” Kirk said. “Better terrain.”
“UUmmmm…I”m not sure I need better terrain, once a year. Are you sure?”
“You’ll do great. Let’s go!”
Off we went. I trust Kirk’s judgement when it comes to skiing, as he gets about 30 ups in to my one. (He skis, I run and write and have some girls’ time. Works out great.) We drove up, a little snowy, very foggy and hopped on the lift as it opened.
“Go left!”
“OK!” I went left. I went over moguls. I went over tree-tops. I went head over heels. The only thing I didn’t go over was a groomed trail. Also, visibility was poor at best, so we could see about 5 feet in front of us. After flying down one run with the grace of a sack of potatoes on skis, Kirk suggested that after lunch, we head over to Central. And promised to take me down the easier way, next time.
“Great!” Up we went again.
“Go left, then right!.” I went over moguls. I went over tree-tops. I went head over heels. The only thing I still didn’t see, which I couldn’t have seen, even if I was skiing ON it, was a groomed run.
“This is usually groomed. Sorry. Must be too early, or too low a base.”
Sigh. “Ummm…can we go to Central now? I’m all for some moguls, but maybe not as a first run….”
Off we drove, me fully dressed to ski, and Kirk the same. He changed his right boot for a shoe for safety and we soon parked at the Silver Fir chair. Climbed out of the car and up to the lift. The chair was closed.
“It’s just a short hike over. It’ll be fun…”
The next chair…closed. The next chair…closed. To be fair, it was pretty fun. It was beautiful and snow covered and quiet and heavy, carrying those damn skis in my ski boots across the snow. We did stop and save a stranded snow-mobiler, stuck in the snow. Proabably in grave danger if we hadn’t passed by on foot. Ok, so that was a lie. We actually just got left in the dust by three ski patrollers on snow mobiles, but I promised to try and make us sound bad-ass. So if anybody asks, we saved a stranded guy, ok? From hypothermia. And frostbite. And wolves.
We hiked for 45 minutes (I checked my watch!) until we made it to an open chair. At the top, they were just pulling the ropes.
“Fresh tracks! Let’s go Kirk!”
“Are you sure? Why don’t we just go down the easy way?”
“Nah, I’ve skied this before. We’ll be fine. Let’s go!”
Foolish, foolish, foolish. More moguls, more treetops, more falling. I finally landed in a tree-well, with my foot so stuck that it took me 15 minutes of digging and twisting and turning to get out. You know when you’re digging you’re way out, but really, you’re just going in deeper and deeper? That was me. I tried to pop my ski, tried to slither around, all to no avail. But, (and here’s the lesson folks) perserverence pays off and I made it out! The snowboarder who got stuck behind me had to try and hop out, writhing through the snow. That’s what you get for turning to the dark side and abandoning your skis. (I did try to help him, though. That part’s true.)
After a break for lunch, we headed for the car, which was parked on the other side of the mountain. Had one good run (not groomed, but at least tracked) on the way down, then had to cut across what we had hiked before. At least my skis stayed on this time, but my legs were shaking and quaking in my boots. (I can run 13 miles and the skiing kills me? What’s wrong with this picture!?)
Kirk took one more quick run up the now open Silver Fir chair, then we retired to the hot tub. Aahhhhh…..
Logbook Activity
- Type: Other
- Date: 12/22/2007
- Time: 09:00:00
- Total Time: 2:45:00.00
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