It finally sunk into me today as I was staring at my car...winter is here. The ten inches of show over the last few days didn't do it. The temperatures in the teens didn't do it. The sledding down our driveway didn't do it. It took looking at my car to convince me that winter is here.
The icicles hanging off the front license plate. The brown sludge caked onto the back license plate. The windswept snow dunes across the roof. The clumps of unidentifiable toxic crap hanging from the underside. It all adds up to winter.
So, what is there to do with this realization? Go skiing.
My son was game so the two of us headed over to Bolton Valley for the afternoon. Bolton Valley isn't the coolest Vermont resort but I like it. It's very relaxed and reminds me of the place where I learned to ski as a kid in NJ, Hidden Valley. You can just throw your stuff in a corner of the lodge and not worry about anyone touching it. Plus, you can't beat the price...free.
Until my son turns four in February, he's too young for lessons at Bolton Valley so we just spend our time on the bunny slope called Mitey Mite. Bolton doesn't charge you to use the rope-tow and bunny slope for the day so it's a fun and cheap way to spend the afternoon.
They had more snow there than I was expecting to see although only three lifts and a handful of slopes were open. Despite the limited operations, the place was fairly busy which was good to see since Bolton always seems to be in one state of bankruptcy or another.
Yep. It's winter. But as long as there are a lot of days like today, I can deal with the next four months.
Yo La Tengo - Winter A Go-Go
Saturday, November 26, 2005
Yep. It's Winter.
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7 comments:
I've never been snow skiing. I'm afraid my old sports injury knees couldn't take it. Oh well, at least I got some waterskiing in.
And I've never been waterskiing. Been tubing a few times but never waterskiing.
I'd imagine that if your knees could handle waterskiing, they'd hold up to snow skiing. Unless you are skiing expert slopes, the strain on your knees isn't too bad.
Time really flies fast. One month, you're just shopping for some summer vegetables, and then the next month, you're already stocking up on your winter clothes.
I learned to ski at Hidden Valley, too. I still have scary thoughts about navagating those icy steps into and out of the lodge in ski boots. I took many a flyer down those steps.
Ha! That's hilarious. I clearly remember the same thing. I'd bend over the wide railing at the waist and basically let my boots slide down the steps.
My father designed the lodge so he's to blame for those steps. As part of his compensation, we got to ski there for free so we spent every Sunday afternoon up there scraping the tiny bit of powder off the underlying ice base.
Do you remember the 10,000 ft. vertical club and 20,000 ft. vertical club and so on? It had to be the dumbest promotion ever but my friends and I would bust our asses to get in as many runs as we could to get on those boards. I think 17 runs equaled 10,000 ft. which is crazy because if I do half that many runs now, I'm wiped out.
The waterskiing was pre-injury, but thinking back on it, I could probably handle it. They've felt a lot better in the last year or two than they have in a while (I'm a dinosaur at 29!)
I'd really like to try snow skiing though.
I learned to ski when I was four and was an avid skiier through my teens. I used to do a lot of NASTAR racing and even won a gold one time when the pacesetter that day was particularly slow.
However, when I got to college, I sort of fell off the wagon. I haven't been skiing since 1991. I miss it a lot. It doesn't help that I live in Indiana, although I'm about a four to five hour drive from some good ski resorts in Wisconsin and Michigan. My family and I used to go skiing every winter up in the U.P. There are some outstanding resorts up there.
I'll get back on the slopes one of these days.
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