Another Fun Ski Weekend

The kids didn't have school Friday so what else could we do but go skiing? On Friday, we went to Breckenridge and did the divide and conquer skiing with the kids. Jeremy took Alex up the Imperial Chair and they skied all the way down to the base of Peak 9. And for those not familiar with Breckenridge, the Imperial Chair services Imperial Bowl, which is all black diamond runs. And my sweet, loyal husband told me he thinks Alex did better his first time up there than I did my first time. So, yeah, Alex has become an advanced skier this year. He's good in the trees, good on the steep and good on moguls. It's been very cool to watch his progression this year.

While Alex and Jeremy were off doing their thing, Adam and I did some NASTAR racing. Adam really stepped it up and finally earned some bronze medals. He was quite cocky about it, until the ruts around the gates formed, which slowed him down but let me corner faster. Then he yelled at me for cheating and pouted a bit.



On Saturday, we went back to Keystone. Twice, actually. We got there 10 minutes early, only to realize we (really a joint Wendy/Jeremy effort) had left the ski bag with our helmets and gloves back at the house. So then we were really 40 minutes late. But the kids' classes did some laps on the first chair so we were able to connect them up with little stress. Anyway, this might have been our last time ever at Keystone, now that the kids have finished up their ski lessons. It's not that Keystone is terrible (well, it sort of is) but Breckenridge, Vail and Beaver Creek are so much better.

In typical Keystone conditions (unlike last weekend with Devon and Sarah) the snow with thin and icy and the slopes crowded. My darling husband actually suggested spending all day on NASTAR and he himself finally registered. He showed off his mad ski racing skills from high school and earned several silver medals. We ended up doing 10 races and while I got 7 bronze medals, I was unable to meet my goal of sub 30 seconds, with my best time being 30:28. For comparison, Jeremy was doing 23 seconds. And now that I've raced 5 days, I'm ranked nationally at 4th. Out of 6, if you must know. I could totally take 3rd place but one of my days I only did 2 races and didn't do well so my handicap is especially high that day.

Here's a video of me. And I know you can't see the finish, but I totally kicked that 5 year old girl's little butt, by like 3 seconds:



And J-Dog:



When you do 10 NASTAR races at Keystone, you get to mid-load on the gondola a lot. We rode up with some very eclectic groups of people.

- There was the Rastafarian black dude complete with long dreads who pulled out his secret black diary and 12-slotted mulitcolored pen. I was sitting next to him so I was able to see that it was, in fact, a tween girl diary, filled with things like girls' names circled in hearts and lists of important life lessons written in alternating pen colors. He had pulled it out to remind himself to double check the park structures before bombing over boxes and almost decapitating Keystone workers. Twice. An important life lesson and I'm glad no one was hurt.

- The family from Iowa who spent 10 minutes debating the fine points of genetically modified corn seed and the fiscal ramifications of said monopolies. Oh yeah, and the price of fertilizer.

- The group of 20-something boarders who had collectively smoked a pack right before getting on and lamented the difficulties of living with 4 girls in a small house. They also complained of another guy absent from the group who could not stop talking. I was a bit horror struck to realize there could be people who talked MORE than that group.

- A group of big burly men not speaking English. I voted some Slavic language and Jeremy thought Polish. Not that either of us would know.

- A family in which the teenage girl explained that her thighs don't get sore from skiing because of horseback riding. But her calves hurt. And then the mom asked me why snowboarders like riding on the sides of runs by the trees. Taken by surprise, I answered the truth - that her slow ass family was taking up the whole middle of the run and I'm trying to pass as smoothly and quickly as I can without getting in their way.

- A younger couple who backed my idea of trying to throw a snowball out the gondola window without standing up. I missed and it splattered Jeremy, to much amusement. Then we had a discussion on whether it's gondola or gondolier. Jeremy and I were pretty sure we were not boating down the middle of Venice.

When we picked the boys up, we confirmed that Alex had not in fact been to visit the giant snow fort yet. So instead of loading up and going home we went back up to the top and let the kids play. It's very cool, but looks like a lawsuit waiting to happen. There are all these precipices with 10 foot drop offs with kids in ski boots swarming everywhere.

Here's Alex sitting on the ice throne:



Climbing up to a precipice:



Coming out of a tunnel:



Jeremy, for scale:



Now Adam's on the top:



Adam, climbing the rope ladder:



And in full disclosure, not only did I help in leaving the ski bag at the house, but I also left my credit card at Stone Cold Creamier (what, your family doesn't eat ice cream in February?) and almost left my purse at Carlos Miguel's. It's like I'm turning into Jeremy.