A Winter of Green

We’ve got a boatload of ‘firsts’ ahead of us so before reality sets in; we’re taking a few days to escape the normal rush of things. It’s winter. Let’s head for the mountains!

This winter has thrown me for a loop. December came and went. January has arrived and we’re yet to get any material amount of snow. Doesn’t Ol’ Man Winter know that my electric boots were made for walkin’?! And that’s just not what they’re going to do unless temperatures dip below chilly here in the DC Metro Area. Get it together, Winter. Get it together.

Fortunately for me, Wintergreen Ski Resort has enough snow making potential to cover a football field with 37’ of snow in 24 hours. We visited from Thurs-Sunday and spent most of our time enjoying Jake and each other’s company. The weather was all over the place. It was clear on Friday, nasty on Saturday, and rainy on Sunday.

I skied on Saturday, which was the perfect way to test my new GoPro. The GoPro is a lot of fun. I need to keep in mind, however, that it captures all of my moments: good and bad. …like the moment at the end of the video when I get lost on the mountain. Left? Right? Map. Right? Left? Map. Oh forget it…

The surface was good but the story of the day was the visibility (or lack there of).

We had a lot of fun. It was tough at times for Ali to get around but she managed real well. We’re happy to be home in our own bed and ready to take on the year ahead of us.

Skiing Northstar

I ski.  I have fun skiing. I am not a good skier. I am, however, getting more confident which means I’m slowly taking bigger risks. You can probably guess where this is going…

T’was on the Tahoe Zephyr Express where I overheard a bit of wisdom pass from one generation to the next. The father explained to son that stopping is the single most important skill in skiing. One can ski any trail, no matter the complexity, as long as they can apply the basic skill of stopping.

Shortly thereafter as I carved my way down the ridge line of Mount Pluto, I opted for the trail less taken: a.k.a Upper Drop Off. I got about half way down the trail when things started to get a little squirrelly and I knew I was going down. I’m not sure what other folks do or think when they find themselves in this sort of situation? I, on the other hand, started laughing and cursing aloud uncontrollably and simultaneously…all the way down. It was glorious. In between the spurts of laughter and curses I was quietly hoping that the spill was being caught on video (it wasn’t).

Fortunately, I was no worse for the wear (you didn’t think otherwise, did you?). I dusted myself off, caught up to my run-away ski a few yards down the hill, and finished a couple more runs. I had a lot of fun skiing Northstar this weekend and can cross ski California off of my CA bucket list.

Of course, the trip wasn’t all about the skiing. Ali and I hopped the gondola to the ski village to sample the establishments and even made our own candle. Although I’m not permitted to share the photo, my favorite picture of the whole weekend was Ali and a chainsaw carved creature looking thing. Priceless!

Jay Peak, Vermont

As previously reported, I am certainly NOT a strong skier.  I am, however, working to take full advantage of the mountains around me.  This week, I spent a long guys weekend in Jay, VT.

I’m so new at this stuff that each new mountain that I ski is like its own little adventure.  Cheesy…I know.  It is though!  This one was cool because:

1. I was going with eight very strong skiers and/or snowboarders.  My buddy Kyle is the one that plugged me into this group.  Many of these guys even skied on their college teams. 
2. This was the furthest north that I’ve ever been without buying a plane ticket.  In fact, if someone were so brazen as to take the Tram to the top of the mountain, one could see all of the way to Montreal.  …too bad that only the most difficult trails are accessed by the tram.

This was a lonely day of skiing for this here rookie.  No one else was willing to ski the green trails with me.  I really don’t mind though.  Skiing alone relieves a lot of the pressure and I don’t feel as though I’m slowing down the stronger skiers.

I skied about a half dozen different trails at Jay.  We got over six inches of snow the night that I arrived.  As a result, these were, by far, the best ski conditions that I’ve ever had.  I also found a new favorite trail: Deer Run.  I think it’s funny that the double black diamonds bare names like Green Baret, Timbuktu, and Derick Hot Shot.  Meanwhile, my cruiser trails have names like Harmony Lane, Sweetheart, and Grammy Jay.  Here’s a picture of the top of Deer Run.  Awesome!

As always, I call it a successful day when I can come home bruiseless.  I rushed home on Sunday to watch the Super Bowl with Wifey.  Apparently, that was bad luck for the Pat’s.  It’s going to take a while for us New Englanders to get over this loss.  Be sure to check out a few of the other landscape pics that I took while on the slopes.

Bretton Woods II - Return of the Moose

It’s tough to know whether winter is going to happen this year (or not).  We headed for the North Country this weekend and didn’t see snow cover until we hit Franconia Notch (70 miles south of Canadia)!  Even then, there’s only 2-4 inches at the base of the mountains.  Onward!

By the time we got to the Mount Washington Hotel, the snow situation wasn’t much better.  The temperatures were low but there’s hardly any precipitation.  I love this hotel.  It’s one of my all-time favorites.  Snow or no snow, there’s tons to do.  On Friday night, we went out to the fire pit for s’mores.  I’m happy to have prepared Ali’s first EVER s’more.  She’s a fast learner and was dishing ‘em out as quickly as I could scarf them down.

On Saturday morning, I was off to fulfill my latest fascination: skiing.  Here’s the view from the top of the run that skied for most of the day.  Wifey and I have been here once before…this is the same Quad that we rode to get to the beginning of the zip-line course a year ago.  Our hotel is toward the lower left and Mount Washington is toward the upper right.

Since this is my third ever attempt to ski down a mountain, I feel conspicuously out of place at all times.  Stopping to snap pictures conceals that though, right?  …at least I didn’t fall this weekend!  My ski strategy is to find the path least traveled and then ski it over and over and over.  I highlighted “my” trails with yellow.  Even at this point in the season, they’re only operating ~30% of the trails because of the lack of snow.  All of the trails that were open were thanks to the maintenance, groomers, and snow making crews.

This was my first experience skiing by myself.  A bit nerve wracking to be honest; I was worrying about what would happen if I careened of the trail and into a tree.  I went early to avoid the crowds…would I ever be discovered??  Oh well, if I let the anxiety get ahold of me, I’ll never get off of the couch.  Fortunately, it all worked out in my favor.  I’m starting to wonder whether or not skiing will evolve into a more permanent fixture in my life.  I despise forking over $60-$70 to rent equipment each time I ski (3 times in the past 2 weeks - ugh).  But at the same time, I’d be even more upset if I bought skis…only to let them collect dust in the back of the storage unit.

I do, however, feel like a pro in the rentals room.  I cruise through there like a champion.  Once the crowds started to show up, it was time for me to hit the road.  Until tomorrow, Bretton Woods, until tomorrow.

We filled the rest of Saturday with mostly outdoor activities.  We contemplated cross country skiing until we agreed that it required too much effort.  We opted for snow tubing instead.  Here’s a pic of Ali cruisin’ down the hill.

There’s quite a bit of predictable chaos that occurs on a snow tube course.  For example, I towed Ali up to the top of the hill as she sit comfortable in her tube.  At which point, I took the liberty of propelling her down the hill against her will.  The only unpredictable element of our tomfoolery was the grandfather/grandson duo who had jumped onto the course at the midway point.  Sorry for the scare, guys!

I've uploaded some extra pictures from the trip here.

Hunting Winter

As ‘night walk administrator,’ I’m prepared for some chilling conditions.  Sub-zero temperatures and blizzard conditions don’t make me flinch.

(A skier, I am not.)  I do, however, look the part.  ...dangerous combination.

I’ve spent years vowing to learn to ski…maybe this will be THE year!?  The Christmas break gives me infinite opportunities to head for the mountains.  On Friday, I finally seized one of them.  Northbound on our way to Sunapee Mountain, Kyle (trusted ski consultant) and I arrived before 9a and ahead of the crowds.  A few tips and magic carpet rides later, we were on the lift to the top of the mountain for my first real ski run.  The potential for disaster was all around me.  The first run was emotionally draining.  The Cruiser Trail provides a false sense of security for a beginner.  There are ‘Slow Trail’ signs everywhere…can’t anyone around me read them?  Then it hits me…I’m going R-E-A-L-L-Y s-l-o-w.

The social pressure hit me on my second run and I began making tighter less frequent turns in order to keep up with the other skiers.  Oddly enough, I gain control as I speed up.  It’s also a helluva lot safer when I maintained the pace of traffic.  By my third run, I was feeling pretty confident.  Sure, I wrecked once (or twice) per run but my confidence and ability were increasing.  I was skiing and enjoying it!

Since we haven’t been getting much snow this year, only about half (17) of the trails were open this weekend and they were 100% manmade snow.  In the beginning I spent most of my time on the easiest trails (highlighted below).  Towards the end of the day, I got lost and accidentally skied a moderate trail from top to bottom.  …that was the run were my right ski decided to detach itself from the greater mass.

All in all, I had a blast – WAY more fun than I was expecting to half.  This sounds silly, but I was happy to fall – it meant that I was pushing my limits.  This morning, I have one black and blue toenail and a hip that won’t stop complaining about absorbing the brunt of each fall.  Wifey’s had enough of that hip and says that I’m too old to learn to ski.  :-)  She says, “No mas.”  We’ll have to see about that!

Check this out.  I saw this movie at the iMAX theater in Boston.

It probably deserves some of the credit for getting me up to the mountain this Winter.  The beginning of the trailer is a bit slow.  So hang in there.  The action and my (new) favorite song starts at 1:50.

February 16, 1988

 On the 13th I went skiing. I had to go with the girl scouts. I was very mad about that. But it was fun skiing. I wanted to to stay on the beginer slope. But my mom took me up to the perent slopes. I went skiing at Sky Libraty.