It was breathtaking every time we came around the corner and saw this windmill... This photo does not do it justice. It was majestic and beautiful. Jiminy Peak was a great place for skiing the other day. I played hookey from teaching skiing at Sundown, to ski with my friend Sarah at another mountain. So glad we drove the 2 hours to spend the day here! The skiing was great, it wasn't crowded, and it was nice and warm. and because I teach at Sundown, I was able to get my ticket for only $15! yay!
Apparently much of the power at Jiminy is from this windmill. They are very 'green' there. I will definitely be going back here. I loved the slopes and had such a wonderful day! It is nice to hear (from a few people in the last few days) that I seem to be a "graceful skier". I absolutely love skiing. I am very happy when I am skiing. I forget everything else, and just concentrate on what I am doing, how my body is moving, how much fun it is to ski, and how beautiful are the vistas from ski areas. I love mountains.
Took the boys up to stay at my cousin's house in Maine. She has offered in the past for us to use it. I finally took her up on it, and the boys and I were treated to a weekend near Shawnee Peak. We could basically walk to the lodge from the house.
The house itself was great to stay in, had a big screen TV for the boys to enjoy, and also foosball (which I apparently stink at). The hot tub n the deck was wonderful, and the boys and I cranked it up to be nice and warm, so we could sit out at night, in the freezing cold weather, but be incredibly warm in our bathing suits! We could hear the people on the slopes, and see the lights on the trails.
I had so much fun skiing in the trees with an old friend from high school!!! We reconnected on Facebook, and discovering our mutual infatuation with skiing, we planned a girls weekend. We went to Mt. Snow and she got me hooked on skiing in the trees, which I had never done before.
If you look closely at this photo(click on it to enlarge it), you can see the tracks in the snow from people skiing around the trees. Now I am a junkie for skiing in these great glades! and it was so beautiful in there too. The trees looked like meringues! There was less wind, and more fresh powder. Since the temp was -15°F at the base, in the trees, away from the wind was good that day.
Skiing makes me happy. And the quote of the day from Sheila... "which way is downhill?" duh.... (we laughed alot... and had sooo much fun!!)
I passed my Level 1 PSIA instructor exam.... yeah!!! what a great season this has been on so many levels. I went with 4 others from the class that we took and skied in every Tuesday night for the last 10 weeks. There were 10 people in the exam, and the four from our mountain, shined. It felt good. We knew our stuff, and skied well. I know my skiing improved tremendously this winter.
from the lodge at Mohawk Mountain
The two days of skiing were brilliantly sunny, although not warm at all. The ski area has definitely felt the effect of the rain and warmth lately, as you can see. I hadn't skied there before, but they had many trails that were long, smooth and good for working on skills with students.
The weather has turned warmer lately and rainy too. ugh. not good. The programs have all ended and I have chosen to make this the end of my ski season this year, thereby ending it on a really high note! Can't wait to start again next year. But this is good for my ADD and my need to switch to something else. Henna will be ramping up soon, and I may take another short term job in between.
been hanging out and skiing alot with little boys :) some cute ones in particular (yes I am so biased!) I've been teaching a group with Emmett and his friends from school. Today was the last day of all of them together. Some had made huge progress to catch up to the level of the others.... they are fun to ski with! and at the end I felt like the pied piper with them all behind me in a clump like this....at the top of one of the runs, all trying to stop and not go flying down the hill.... we did some skiing through brush gates and had fun. later in the lodge...... and one a little bigger :)
I spent the last day of 2007 and the first day of 2008 on the slopes for 8 hours each day! How great is that?!
Sunny on the last day, (the ski patrol shack at the top) and snowing on the first...
(view out from the lodge during my lunch break- not much of a crowd) I must say, I am loving my new job. The pay kind of sucks, but the perks, both physical and mental, are fantastic.
I got to ski with emmett on thursday. It was so much fun to work with him, and use my new skills as an instructor! Yeah! He did great. The mountain was really deserted, as you can see. You can also see, in the background, the little conveyor for beginners, where I will spend some time, before hopefully moving them on to more varied terrain.
We have had enough great snow already to really enjoy it this year!
I was just one in a sea of orange jackets. There were probably 100 of us or more doing our ski instructor training this weekend. 8 hours each day on skis, makes for one tired, but content, me at the end of the day.
There will be a repeat performance next weekend too. Then I will be able to fall into a regular schedule during the week of teaching while the kids are at school 3 days a week. so psyched for my skiing to get much better too!
Emmett and I skied today in the early afternoon. it was sunny and beautiful. We only did about 4 runs, but they were great.... and we had fun hanging out in the sunshine at the lodge. You can see how deserted it is.
Then I dropped him at home with Adam, and picked up Eli as he got off of the schoolbus. We skied a whole bunch for 2 hours, but the sun had just gone down. Much different temperatures then! So tomorrow, Eli has a 1/2 day of school, so I will take him and be there by 2, so he will get to experience spring skiing in the sunny warmth.
I don't get many photos of Eli and skiing since, he doesn't like his photo taken, and when we are skiing I can't video very well, since I am trying desperately to keep up!
but that said, I did get these of him just after his glorious wipeout... I wasn't quick enough on the draw to capture him sprawled... but digging the huge amount of snow out of his hindside just after! and he was cracking up too. I did get him being funny on video which I will add to the post tomorrow.....
so beautiful last week!!! I went skiing with my cousin Lorie last Thursday, and we had so much fun. It was great taking time and skiing so differently than I do with the kids. I do love skiing with the boys, but it really is different skiing at an adult pace. The temperature was really warm, and I was hot wearing just a turtleneck! We skied down slowly and stopped alot to chat. It was so nice to really enjoy skiing that way.... and totally different from bombing down with my boys all winter!! The snow was kind of like skiing in mashed potatoes, and we stuck to going down the Gunbarrel (a black diamond). There was hardly anyone skiing, probably about 40 people on the whole mountain. It was as if we had it to ourselves. and we thought that would be the end of the skiing with no snow on the ground anywhere else, and no snow on the horizon, Sundown had planned on closing last Monday.... but...... then we got tons of snow over the weekend and they will be open a bit longer now... yeah!!!
one from the archives:
me, Sue, and 2 of my cousins(Francie and Sayre) in Garmisch Partenkirchen spring 1992
Finally we have gotten a bit more snow. The boys have even had a snow day. Not even close to how much we usually get, and the 'big' snowfalls have only been about 4".... totally lame. But beautiful just the same.
Adam tied a little sled to the quad and was dragging Eli around. totally fun.
We all went skiing together the other day. Adam was blown away when he saw how well the kids were really doing. They took off and left him in the dust.... and yes, I taught them how to 'tuck' so they cruise down this part of the run.
my view on one of the runs.... all three of the 'boys' butts
People complain about driving up this mountain (dangerous driving- frequent accidents), but I love how it is after the snow. and on this day it was sparkling and clear.
okay, yeah, both of the boys have now been down this black diamond run with me!
it is such a cool steep and intimidating run. emmett had no idea what he was getting into, but he wanted to do it anyway. He was a trooper and went down, slowly surely, snowplowing and turning all the way. Eli, loved it, and is eager to do it every time we go.
Just after you go down one little quick slope, you turn, and stop on the plateau at the top....
to be stunned by how beautiful it is to take in the view. The hill drops off just below that, and you plunge into paying attention to skiing down the snowy steepness.
My mom brought this photo of me last night. I was about 1 1/2. Eli thought the skis looked dumb. I thought I looked kind of cute and cold. I wasn't terribly 'styling'. Not that I am now, but at least now I am aquiring all of the trappings I need to keep me ultra warm. I have found that as I have gotten older, I am less tolerant of being cold. I absolutely love being out in the cold weather- it makes me feel alive and invigorated. Breathing in a real sense of life. But I don't like to be cold.
I now have very cool mittens that keep me warm, along with some good layers of high tech stuff underneath everything to keep my core warm too. I do need to use the toe warmers to keep my feet toasty (after getting frostbite 20 years ago in western Canada, now they are so suceptible). At some point I would love to invest in Hotronics, as everyone seems to swear by them for keeping feet warm. But right now, I have spent enough, and the toe warmers are only $1 each time I go. I do ski with a helmet now too.... head warm, and safe.
So, yes, I am totally warm, and comfy in the cold weather, and while skiing. Stylin'? getting there I think :)
finally some real snow here, and beautiful skies...
the waterfall at Renbrook is finally frozen! and beautiful:
this igloo is so appealing to emmett- he climbs into it now every time before we ski!
it has been biting cold, but fabulous skiing and fun with the boys. Eli and I went night skiing a few nights ago. We had so much fun trying to ski down and see if we could beat the lift. All of the chairs are numbered. We were trying to see how fast we could come down the hill (okay, yes, I taught him how to tuck down the flat part - although I can still smoke him on it) The first trip we were on chair 97, then the next trip the exact same one! that was what inspired us to try to beat the lift. So the next run we cruised straight down. Chair 71. Cool. We found that we could gain almost 20 chairs each run. The fun things you do as a mom to a 10 yr old boy!
been too busy skiing (yeah!!!) to blog.. I am loving it, and will post soon, as I feel I have much to blog about. but suffice it to say, I was at the slopes today for 5 1/2 hours with the boys and we all came home tired and happy..... we have had much cold weather, so the skiing has been great (although still no snow on the ground anywhere except there). we have been skiing pretty much 4ish days a week, and it's been wonderful. more soon.
oh, and here is a short clip of emmett on Monday. I was skiing with him while Eli had his lesson. Keep in mind, I was skiing alongside emmett, my hand was wicked cold holding the camera, I was using periforal vision to not crash into anyone else, and emmett wanted to 'bomb' down! (and he just learned to ski less than a month ago!!)
okay, then after I packed the camera into my pocket (usually I put it in the interior pocket, but I quickly jammed it into my regular coat pocket), we got onto the chairlift. We were almost at the top, when we heard something fall into the trees below. Ughhh. it was my camera. damn. it was dark out too. and Eli was just about done with his lesson. Sooooo I had to ski down with emmett to the bottom, get Eli from his lesson... left emmett (cold tired and crabby) with the lesson director who is so nice.... Eli and I went back up to meet someone who was supposed to be coming from Guest Services with a flashlight. We got there, and I popped off my skis, hiked up and met two guys hunting. they found it, and all was well!!
there have been some great smiling happy faces around here! cold outside on the slopes (although not too cold really), but warming with these smiles....
Getting back to skiing has been good for me and the boys. I am so comfortable on skis. It is so second nature to me to have such things strapped to my feet, and heading down a snowy slope. A very freeing feeling to be so capable, and have no fear to just head down a snowy trail, with the wind in my face, and the powder under my skis, being able to just turn, swoosh, and have control, and really pay attention to what different parts of my body are doing in order to keep the control within the limits of feeling free. So glad my kids are able to do this too, and enjoy learning how, and being out in this snowy heaven, with such fabulous scenery. Odd too, in a sense, as these trails are the ones I learned on, and spent so many hours on with friends and siblings. I never would have imagined that I would be on these very same trails with my own children. I do hope to be able to get to some other ski areas at some point with them, but to ski on these trails which I know so well that I could probably go down them with my eyes closed.... it is an odd sense of being 'home'. It feels good.
yippee.. can't wait! Now that Eli is taking the year off from hockey, we will be skiing instead. Sundown opened on Saturday, and we went out to have our photos taken for our passes. It was beautifully bright and sunny, and they had made enough snow to open some trails. I was wishing that we had our gear all ready to have taken advantage of it. Patience. I won't rush it.
The boys had fun messing around in the snow anyway. Especially since it hasn't snowed here yet, and the three of us are dying for it! I am eager for the first beautiful snowfall. There is something so exciting about it, no matter how old I get. There were just a few flurries last week, and they made me happy to see them gently floating down, and eager for more.
...especially since I got these cool new skis!! and I can hardly wait to try them out! they even fit into the car so I can load all three of us into the car with our gear and drive the whopping 20 minutes to Ski Sundown!
I'm a mom and more... I have ADD (can't you tell?)... horse person... cooking... eating... traveling... languages (including english) intrigue me... sociology and exploring other cultures fascinates me... teaching comes easily to me... love: my family, Maine, water, mountains, plenty of space outdoors, room to breathe, kids, yoga, skiing, riding, good linens, balance in my life, time to talk, nature, even my old bear....
