Skiing! Hooray!

So, we've been skiing on Sundays a bit this winter, just popping up to little Pat's Peak to give Ms. B a bit of an introduction to the sport. It's a friendly little mountain, very nice for kids, and has some nice little steep runs for Carlos and I, too.

But this past weekend, we got up to Stowe, for the first time in FIVE YEARS. I can't believe it's been that long... We used to have season passes there, and rent a house with friends (hi to Doug and Sarah!!), but that was before Ms. B and Mr. C. They've put a bit of a damper on the skiing thing, especially since Stowe is a bit over three hours away.

The Quad, on Saturday morning - the "nose" of Mt. Mansfield is in a bit of clouds.



This is partway down from the quad. It's always hard to get a good perspective of the steepness of a trail with a camera... This is a relatively mild blue (intermediate) run at Stowe. I think I'd forgotten what skiing a real mountain is like. The double black (expert only) race trail at Pats that I was having fun on would rate pretty much with the more difficult blue runs at Stowe. Pats is cute, but its a toy mountain! And one run at Stowe (they're loooong runs) is about equal to four at Pats. My thighs were burning!

Man was it good to be back on difficult terrain - yes, I do ski the black runs at Stowe. And I have skied all the Front Four (including Goat, which is nuts), but not on this trip, I'm still too out of shape. Depressing, but true.


Bella on her first chair lift! That's the new Inspiration Quad over at Spruce Peak (also part of Stowe - nice that beginners have a completely separate place to learn, basically). Spruce is in the midst of a HUGE construction project. New lodge, new housing, shops, an ice rink, new lifts, it's all going to be gorgeous from the looks of it. Main Street (run down the middle of Spruce, used to be completely 'wild' snow - no grooming and no snowmaking) looks completely different. There is a HUGE half pipe, all sorts of big jumps, and a new, much faster, lift.

The changes are interesting. I'm used to Stowe being kind of funky classy, almost eccentric. I'm hoping it won't lose all of that vibe with the improvements... Definitely really like the Over Easy Gondola that connects the two mountains. I actually had time to scoot over to Mansfield and get some snowboarding in while Bella was in her lesson on Sunday morning.



Bella, after her first-ever ski lesson with a real live instructor. Tired, but really happy. And she's learning so much! (I'm all proud, the instructor raved about how coordinated she is - she's still just three, after all, for a couple more weeks...)



Conall says - hey, I have ski pants, why am I stuck in the lodge while you guys get to have all the fun?? Got to learn how to walk on your own, first, little man... (My kids are late walkers.)

Carlos, after tele skiing on Saturday afternoon while Conall, Bella and I hung out at our hotel: "If I could have one day a year of skiing like that, I'd be a happy man..." I think that means he had a good time.

I was a bit worried about his back (he had pretty major back surgery in the summer of '06 - while I was pregnant and about three weeks before we flew to France, insane!), but it held up really well. His days of hucking off jumps and such on his snowboard are probably over (really kind of sad, wah, poor guy, he's so coordinated and graceful on his board and skis) (I hit a couple of little natural kickers for him on Sunday in the powder, just for fun, lol), but he can still telemark like a demon!

We're heading back up this coming weekend, for four days this time! Whhhheeeee!

Stay tuned - I need to post about meeting a fellow EtsyFAST team member!