January 27, 2008. Graduation day from Morse Mountain! After dealing with the crazy lines and yard sales that sometimes litters the slopes of the beginner trails at Smuggs for the past two Saturdays, Lauren and I decided to offer a new alternative to Ty and Ally yesterday. We took them on up to the *big* mountains at Smuggs -- Sterling and Madonna. There was just a bit of trepidation at first (which I now know had nothing to do with skiing and everything to do with a fear that we wouldn't go to the Fun Zone for apres' ski), but once we got through those first 10 minutes, it was an awesome graduation.
We spent the day on the mid-mountain lift chair (Madonna II), which, if you look closely at the trail map, doesn't offer any beginner routes back to the base. Nothing but intermediate and expert trails. I really wish we'd brought the video camera with us -- both Ally and Ty ripped right down a number of different intermediate slopes and never missed a beat. Tyler even managed to run through the slalom course three times -- setting a new personal best of 81.7 seconds. One of my favorite moments was when he caught the very last gate and crashed through the finish on his first try... he came up in tears and I thought maybe he'd hurt himself. Nope. Just mad that he'd missed a gate. I love it.
I was mentioning to someone the other day how great it is to have the kids latch on to something like this -- if they stick with it, we're going to have some really great family vacations. And beyond that, how fun it is to teach kids. When you compare them with a teenager or adult trying to learn the same thing, the differences are striking. The adults have some level of fear, they worry about whether or not they will look silly, and they tend to try to advance too quickly beyond their real level. The little kids that are out there (not just mine) are so great because they are just having fun -- no real cares or concerns. They accept your instruction and can't wait to take on the challenge.
I also said to Lauren last night that when we first started taking Ally and Ty with us, I had a little feeling of 'woe is me' at the thought of exchanging my tree and bump runs for fun and games with Mogul Mouse. But it has really been just the opposite. I still enjoy my *grown up* ski days, but watching them progress so quickly has been awesome. And after yesterday, I suspect we are not too far away from the woods and the bumps.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
Winter Depression
Wow. The ski season was off to such an amazing start. Three feet of snow (at least) before Christmas and just crazy-good powder. Ally and Ty have already been on the mountain at least 8 times and are really finding their groove. I was planning to take a couple of early morning runs last week, since my grown-up skiing time has been somewhat limited. On January 5th it was all so good. And then, four days later, the snow is just gone.
Thinking back to about a year ago, I was really freaked out about climate change. We had no snow to speak of, and the skiing conditions were terrible. But then, we had the Blizzard of 2007 on Valentine's Day, and the rest of the season saw pretty much a daily snowstorm and some of the best conditions I can recall. And then it was suddenly Thanksgiving, and on came the snow again, as if it had never left. Ski areas were open early, December brought a number of big storms, we had a nice White Christmas and everything was good.
This melt is such a drag because everyone else is getting pounded with snow. We've missed two straight big storms that hit many other parts of New England, but somehow skipped the folks who probably craved it the most. And if you break it down, it's really been a perfect ski winter temperature and snow-wise, save for a lousy 72 hours when it suddenly became spring.
The good news is that winter has been back for the past week or so (in terms of temperature, anyway) so the ski areas have probably rebounded a bit with snowmaking and small amounts of natural snow. We're supposed to get a little tonight and into tomorrow morning, and since Lauren is taking me to Sugarbush for my b-day tomorrow, I'm going to be optimistic and assume that we'll get a lot more than predicted.
I hope this winter ends up as good as last winter. Considering that I get to hang out at Breckenridge and Silverton later this year, I am assuming it will. But as I think about things on the night before what is effectively 'mid-life' for me I realize that you have to take advantage of opportunities when they are available and make the most out of them. There was some talk of bagging a ski day tomorrow due to lack of snow -- fortunately, we squashed that idea. In no way could a day of less than optimal conditions be less fun than sitting at work. In that light, I realize I should have had the kids out last weekend -- even if the snow wasn't perfect, it still would've been a day on the hill. We'll make sure they get out this weekend. The only way to break through snow depression issues is to get out my boards and enjoy the snow we have. We'll bust out of the winter blues in fine fashion tomorrow, and maybe appease the snow gods.
Thinking back to about a year ago, I was really freaked out about climate change. We had no snow to speak of, and the skiing conditions were terrible. But then, we had the Blizzard of 2007 on Valentine's Day, and the rest of the season saw pretty much a daily snowstorm and some of the best conditions I can recall. And then it was suddenly Thanksgiving, and on came the snow again, as if it had never left. Ski areas were open early, December brought a number of big storms, we had a nice White Christmas and everything was good.
This melt is such a drag because everyone else is getting pounded with snow. We've missed two straight big storms that hit many other parts of New England, but somehow skipped the folks who probably craved it the most. And if you break it down, it's really been a perfect ski winter temperature and snow-wise, save for a lousy 72 hours when it suddenly became spring.
The good news is that winter has been back for the past week or so (in terms of temperature, anyway) so the ski areas have probably rebounded a bit with snowmaking and small amounts of natural snow. We're supposed to get a little tonight and into tomorrow morning, and since Lauren is taking me to Sugarbush for my b-day tomorrow, I'm going to be optimistic and assume that we'll get a lot more than predicted.
I hope this winter ends up as good as last winter. Considering that I get to hang out at Breckenridge and Silverton later this year, I am assuming it will. But as I think about things on the night before what is effectively 'mid-life' for me I realize that you have to take advantage of opportunities when they are available and make the most out of them. There was some talk of bagging a ski day tomorrow due to lack of snow -- fortunately, we squashed that idea. In no way could a day of less than optimal conditions be less fun than sitting at work. In that light, I realize I should have had the kids out last weekend -- even if the snow wasn't perfect, it still would've been a day on the hill. We'll make sure they get out this weekend. The only way to break through snow depression issues is to get out my boards and enjoy the snow we have. We'll bust out of the winter blues in fine fashion tomorrow, and maybe appease the snow gods.
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