Done a Diamond 01/18/2006

I was skiing with the girls again this weekend. It was a good trip.

We flew out Friday night after school. We had to change planes and there was a plane delay on the second one so we didn't get to the hotel (a condo, actually) until 3 AM . So heavy rain on Saturday was no big deal. We slept most of the day.

:-)

It gave us time to get skis rented and ready to go the next day. When we were in the rental shop, Lindy (the nine year old) picked up a pin that had a "Black Diamond" on it and the caption "No guts, no glory. Go for it!"

Ski trails are marked in three ways: Green circles (beginner), blue squares (intermediate), and black diamonds (expert.) Diamonds are where you can really kill yourself.

I told her "If you do a diamond, you can get the pin. In the meantime, put it back."

That night I was outside smoking about 10PM when a fine, misty rain almost imperceptibly turned to snow. I was out for about thirty minutes and every ten minutes or so, in various directions, you could hear people hollering in joy. Most of the people staying in the area were skiers and had hoped for snow so as each group noticed the snow they were celebrating.

:-)

The next morning I fixed breakfast (which I hadn't had an opportunity to do in a while) and we got to the ski resort about the time they opened, got tickets, got suited up and hit the slopes.

We did the "training" area a couple of times to get warmed up then hit a lift called "The Zephyr" which went to some of our prefered slopes. (This is the same place we went in December, Bretton Woods in NH.) On the way up, you could count the number of tracks (few) in the ungroomed "side" areas of the slopes. Those are the areas with "terrain" (read "Places you fall down alot" :-) and Lindy said: "Look for the butt prints."

:-)

So we got to the top and went down a slope called "Avalon." We'd done it once before but it was very icy and we hadn't liked it much. With the new snow it was excellent and we had a blast. It's a beginner's slope but you can get a fair speed in some sections.

Lindy, as usual, was flying ahead and out of sight much of the time but as I got to the bottom of Avalon I saw her lying in the snow to one side. This was a place where two tracks cross and she had decided to cut across to the right, the straighter way, instead of following the groomed areas. Well, little did she know but that is a depression which had filled with deep powder. Since powder slows you down, she had laid out.

I was worried she was injured because she really wasn't moving so I skied down to her as fast as I could. Of course, I didn't know it was powder so a second later I found myself lying on the ground next to her.

:-)

She was fine but it took a long time for both of us to get up in the powder. When we finally did and had our skis on I looked at her and grinned.

"Hey, Lindy, look for the butt prints."

:-)

Of course, her flailing trying to get up had created something more like a snow-angel (Or snow-devil in her case.)

:-)

We did two or three more runs up the mountain then in the afternoon we got our instructor from the previous trip, Jim Tuttle, and he took us up on some runs we hadn't done. One of them was a round-about way to get to Avalon since the Zephyr broke down. The intermediate trails were fun and on Avalon he gave all three of us pointers.

The second run we took the Zephyr (now fixed) and then a second lift. On the way up I wanted to twist the girls' tails.

Me: "Jim, aren't all the runs over here Black Diamonds?!"

Jim: "Well, most of them are. But there are a couple of blues. We won't be on diamonds long."

Me: "Wait. I was joking!"

It wasn't much of killer, just a steep, narrow trail cutting from one blue to another. But it wasn't exactly easy, either. Easy or hard for us, we'd done a diamond.

After that run Jim was done for the day. We did one more run before dark (mostly on terrain and we all wrecked more than once) then Jenny and I did a night run. (Very VERY cold.)

I fell asleep exhausted right after getting back to the condo and we headed home the next day.

On the way home I had to drop off the skis. And when I was in the shop I bought two of the diamond pins and gave one to each of the girls.

They'd done a diamond. Yes, I'm very proud.

Take care,


John

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