I went skiing both days last weekend, probably my last of the season. Heath and I went to Copper on Saturday and Winter Park on Sunday. Both places had just received a lot of snow, so there was a lot of powder. Most people like powder days, which was evident in the long lift lines. I, however, had never skied a true powder day before. My first time down on a green where no one had skied before, I went to turn...and just kept turning until I hit the ground. It wasn't bad, the snow was soft and I wasn't going fast at all so it was actually a fun fall. Soon after I decided I wanted to experience it all this season, so we went on the back side to the bowls. Keep in mind that I only started skiing blues a few weeks ago, and bowls are almost always all blacks with bumps. Well, we didn't end up skiing much back there, but later on we went up to this other bowl that looked half-way decent, even though it was a black. It was not groomed, but I thought I could do it. The snow was pretty much skied out, so there were just clumps of loose heavy snow, almost like moguls. I managed to get down, but it took a while and I didn't go fast at all. That was an interesting day, we ended up leaving early because I was so tired.
Sunday we took the Ski Train (
www.skitrain.com) up to Winter Park. We started out in the Vasquez Ridge area that we both really love (except for the long flat stretch at the bottom). They are blues, but usually groomed, and they're not packed at all. The first couple runs I was okay, then we hit an ungroomed trail that had the big clumps of heavy snow. I was going pretty fast and saw the bumps ahead of me. Knowing I would never be able to turn or stop, I pointed my skis downhill and tried to go between them. Bad idea... I fell, one of my skis flew off, and I rolled like 30 feet down the hill. Some nice skier came up behind me and picked up my lost ski so I wouldn't have to hike back up to get it. It didn't hurt (except for the cold snow grating against my face) so it was actually kind of a fun fall. Later on we were on the Mary Jane Trail (my second venture to that side of the mountain) and I fell again, except this time I also lost one of my poles. A cute snowboarder picked it up and brought it to me and made sure I was okay. That one hurt a little more. Needless to say, I didn't ski much after that. It didn't hit me until Sunday night, when I noticed it was painful to move my neck. By now it's a little better, but it still hurts to turn my head to back out of a parking spot. And that's not to mention the bruises on my arms and legs. I guess next year I'll just have to work extra hard to get better at skiing powder!
Less than a week until closing. It's all hitting me, and I'm getting pretty stressed. Luckily my family is all coming up this weekend, they can distract me. I just have to keep thinking...in a week and a half, I get my own bedroom and bathroom. That's enough to make me want to keep on truckin'!
