Day on the Mountain

Aside from the blisters(!?) on my inner shins, skiing was a blast. First time to go in 10 years and everything was fine. I started by taking a group lesson, which helped alleviate the fear of so much time passed. Quite a bit has changed as far as lodge buildings and new lifts, but I still remember that mountain pretty well. I skied there nearly every weekend as a kid. As soon as my lesson ended I jumped on the super quad and headed for the summit because I knew some of my favorite runs came down off of there. There were some icy patches, but nothing that spoiled a run or ever made me feel I was in over my head. 

The Girl and her friend had a 2-hour lesson and spent the rest of the day diligently and adorably trudging up the bunny slope and gliding back down. That left me with nothing else to do but enjoy the mountain and the day with its the wild weather, which went from sunny to blizzardy and back with clouds whipping across the sky and the sun a glowing moon-like disk behind them. 

It was a great pay off from a last minute decision. I plan to get back out there a few more times this season.

Back in the Saddle?

I got a generous Hanukah gift from my Dad and decided it is now feasible to take The Girl to Gunstock to learn how to snowboard. My plan was to take The Girl and a friend to do the newbie snowboarders' program and I would do something mellow, like taking a newbie x-country skier lesson. I called the Nordic Center to ask for details about the program and was told that the warm spell we just had has basically wiped out their snow base. That leaves me with a choice of sitting in the lodge all day, exploring the Laconia area (not all the exciting) or getting myself back on the skis for downhill action. (Suppose a newbie snowboarding lesson is a possiblity, but I tried that years and years ago and I spent most of my time falling down and getting up again. I have better odds of enjoying myself with skis.) The mountain offers a deal that includes an all-day lift ticket, equipment rental and a 1-hour group lessons for $95. It's kind of last minute for me to decide that I'm going to do this after a ten year gap, but I grew up skiing Gunstock every single weekend and I know there are nice gentle runs that I can stick to and be the pokey little skier I am.

Yeah, Crocuses

If only this were true...