We’ll hand out more of these on the kids recommendations.
Cheers to those who came in costume… I must admit, mine was pretty lame. The additional part of the theme was Safety (The Sequel) and Scotty gave us some S.A.F.E. cards to hand out if we found mountain staff working for our safety.
Woohoo! All eight were here today. Welcome back Olivia and it’s Soldis’ 6th birthday! Finley wasn’t too sure about his cape but I thought he looked great. Today was our first test with two poles. It was interesting watching the kids carry all their equipment. Some struggles but no complaints.
A blue bird day… not a cloud in the sky, mild temperature, soft snow and epic views!
Up the gondola and Red, we regrouped at the Light Board for a demonstration of how to hold our poles. A good start. It’s going to take some practice (my duct tape trick will help). We then skied Green Acres holding arms out like airplane wings and just dragging the poles on the snow… and to add a bit of a challenge: make hockey stop turns then ski on one ski on the road back to Emerald.
Back at the Light Board the kids were keen to give Roundhouse Roll another go. Legs must be getting stronger! Much better skating to the spot below the umbrella bar. The snow was a little crunchier but no splats on the rollers and all regrouped at the second entrance between the trees. Firmer snow and having poles made the pitch a “little more challenging”. Good effort by all. Keeping the poles out of the way side slipping on Upper Whiskey jack required more concentration as well. Axel gave us an excellent demonstration of hockey stop turns (braquage) to the Chickpea. Good turns by all through Papoose and a speedy skate to the Orange Peel flats.
No one did jumps on the bike trail chicane above the Tree Fort but good navigating the route by all. In good tuck stance, we scooted across the flats to Pony Trail entrance. Maleah seems to like drifting a bit further than the rest of us, so I let her lead us to the split between Bear Cub and the Toilet Bowl. We did the left side of Dave Murray again (easy peasie), parked our skis at Raven’s Nest and were down for our 11:15 lunch in the “minions” building.
Kids had helmets, gloves and jackets off and into our laundry bag in short order! Fed and watered (today’s swamp water was lemonade and orange juice) we were out the door at noon. Aura was impressed how the kids lined up single file waiting their turn for help putting kit back together.
Skis on at Raven’s Nest, I told the kids to ski as fast as they could (exercising safety) to the beaver bench. Again… they went right by it and stopped at the exit to Garbanzo. Sheesh… I’m suspecting a conspiracy to avoid doing frog hops. So… a skate to the mid station gondola and we all packed into one car and demolished my bag of gummies. Kids know where to put skis on at the Olympic rings. Nice!
Forgot to “Save” the results at the end of the day… but all distances are correct.
I skied Franz’s Meadows on Sunday and knew the kids were in for a treat. For the first time I can remember, it was groomed! We skied to the Peak chair, navigated the perimeter of the reservoir, ducked through an opening in the trees and were the only ones on the wide open expanse. I must have hit the “stop recording” on the video of Soldis leading the class all the way to the bottom of Little Red. :( … Darn! Kids made great “Big-S” turns there and down Upper Franz’s. We skied through the tunnel by Wild Card and kept to the left side of Highway 86 to the Red chair.
No complaints about fatigue… although someone thought it was “home time”. Nope… not yet. Back up Red, I picked up my plaid pajama top cape from the penguin at the Light Board and we skied around the Roundhouse and cut up into the bottom of Roundhouse Roll. Brooklyn had a spinnerama splat on the road. A nice skier helped put everything back together.
We did a braquage drill to the Chickpea, made a left turn onto Papoose and regrouped at the “shrubbery”. Lots of banter through the chicane and Brooklyn got stuck straddling a tree at the exit. We skated to the Tree Fort and Beckett thought the three fort guardians deserved S.A.F.E. cards. They explained the site was closed because of a huge crevasse preventing safe access. Good call Beckett! So… down to Orange Peel merge and across the flats to Bear Cub (practicing 360s on the snow). Our “home run” was an easy ski through Bear Cub and jump city to our end of day download.
All in all… a very impressive performance by the team!
Next week’s theme is Free Ride Practice. I’m guessing that means my skis will have to leave the snow on a few jumps.