I grabbed my skies and boots from the porch, said good morning to Orion as we finiggled (real word, I made it up) our gear into the trunk of Christine’s car and headed out, joining the caravan of students heading to Focus to meet the bus.
After the belated arrival of the bus, we piled in and got situated, Katelyn sat next to me, which brought me much joy, however it was not long into the trip that I fell away to sleep, and I did not revive until we were turning into Copper Mountain.
Right away we geared up and headed out. Since it had been so long since I’d skied, I decided to join a group of mostly newbies. So I waddled over to Jenny, Kenzi, Daniel, Ciera and Joy M. Since most of that group had never skied (I think only two or three of us had before) we decided to look for the Bunny Hill, but we were told that it was closed, but the hill to our right would be an easy start. So, the six of us learned how to put our skies on, and made our way over to the lift. Jenny and Kensi got on one chair, and the rest of us squeezed on to the chair behind them and were whisked up and away, the hill below us crisp and white, the unbroken snow gleaming.
All was fun and happiness upon our chair, we laughed and chatted as the whirring of the lift did it’s job. But alas, it was only to last a few short minutes. Before we were even a fourth of the way up the hill, our ride came to a jolting stop. We sat there, rocking in the light breeze. We could still see the beginning of the lift at the bottom, as we watched, they started sending people away, we assumed they were telling them it was going to be a long wait and suggesting they choose a different hill.
The time flew by atop the lift. We asked questions, told stories, yelled insults back and forth between our two chairs, listened to the “cats” in the trees (um, Daniel) and just had a good time as friends. After awhile, we saw a man in a red Ski Patrol coat slowly making his way down the hill, the fluffy, uncut snow covering his skies. He was stopping under each chair and saying something to the occupants. When he finally made his way to us we gave him an exuberant “hello!” he told us that it should only be a few more minutes and if we were all doing alright. We told him we were fine, and how long had we been up here? “About 30 minutes” he replied, and continued his way down the mountain.
We sat there for a while longer, every few minutes a Ski Patrol would come make sure everyone was okay. After awhile, several Ski Patrol came and positioned themselves below every couple chairs, next thing we knew, we were MOVING!! We progressed up the hill, waving and calling hello and thank you to every Ski Patrol we passed. When we go to the top, a woman was passing out free ski passes ($90 value) because of our inconvenience. We asked he how long we’d been stuck, she said about 45 minutes to an hour! Sure didn’t feel like it was that long.
Finally, we began our trek down the hill. Come to find out it was pretty steep at the top, so we showed the beginners the basics and tried to make it to shallower ground. Um, whoever told us this hill was “basically a bunny hill” needs to get his hills straight. The girls all did all right, pretty soon we’d split into two groups, the faster group went ahead, and Daniel and I hung behind. Daniel was having a harder time getting his skies under him, he could turn to the left just fine, but when it came time to turn right he’d loose his balance.
After awhile Matt B. and A.K. skied past. They gave us some pointers then headed down. We saw them twice more in the next few minutes (I couldn’t believe they were getting down and back up that fast! Haha, but I guess my perception of how long the lift ride took was a bit skewed)
Anyways, Daniel was finally starting to get the hang of things when we ran out of hill, by that time it was lunch time so we headed into the lodge. Just as I was pulling out my sack lunch another group was going out again to hit some bigger hills, so I brought my pizza with me and went right back out. By that time I was itching for speed, and that’s what I got the rest of the day. I learned that skiing is that it’s just like riding a bike, once you’ve learned you never forget.
When I was about five my dad started bringing me with him when he went on Friday nights with a high school ski club. Dad was one of the supervisors, and being such he got free season passes for him and his family. So, from the time I was five, till the time I was about sixteen when Dad quit the club, I skied pretty much every winter Friday night of my life. When Dad stopped going, I didn’t think I’d miss it, actually I didn’t miss it really, and when they told us at Focus that we’d be going, I was excited, but more like a “oh, yeah, that could be fun” kind of excitement. It wasn’t till I was reintroduced to that thrill of speed, the feeling of almost losing control, that skidding sound of stopping and waiting for your breath to catch up with you, having left it halfway up the hill that I began to become reacquainted with my love for skiing. Actually, I don’t know if our relationship ever advanced farther than the “like” stage when I was a child, it was necessary for the long absents for me to fully realize that we were meant to be together. (ok, sorry, it’s late as I’m writing this, these things happen :-)
Anyways, in short, I stayed out the rest of the day. It was lovely out, blue skies and sunshine, no wind. Perfect. I joined a few different groups as I found them, but the interesting part of the trip was that we didn’t run into many other students. I guess it’s such a hit a miss thing. But it was nice, because then I got to know the people I was with very well :-)
Anyways, it was a lovely, enjoyable day. Just as it was nearing 4:00 (our rendezvous time with the bus) I was skiing with Sarah. We decided we had time for one last run, so we went to a hill we hadn’t gone down yet. When we got to the top, we strapped on our poles and said “see ya at the bottom” and took off.
I was quite proud of myself, up to that point, the whole day, I had not fallen once, despite gravities many attempts. And I am proud to say this ride was no exception, (even though I really should have fallen, and fallen HARD!) right from the top of the hill I lost control. Sarah barely had time to say, “see ya” before I was gone! I don’t know if I’ve ever gone so fast in my life!! I was sure I was gonna fall, and I knew if I did it was gonna hurt like no other! At one point my ski went funny and my pole shot out in front of me at the same time and I thought to myself, “this is it! I. Am. Going. To. Die!” but somehow, I didn’t, and I stayed up!! I was able to stop halfway down, I pulled off to the side and bent over my poles, gasping for air and laughing my head off. I had been going so fast that my face was streaked with tears (well, maybe a few of them weren’t from speed). I wiped them away and slowly made my way down the rest of the hill. Giddy to be alive!
The bus ride home did not lack its excitement either, I sat next to Sarah, with Chris and Ciera in the seats in front of us. Lets just say that the laughter didn’t stop, for the whole two-hour trip. As the rest of the bus quietly read or slept, our conversation only got louder and crazier. I don’t know if I've ever laughed so hard or loud or happily. Topic of choice? Plungers. Get yours at CustomPlunger.Com, coming to a bathroom near you.
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