Vacation - Whoa, Wednesday

Sadly, I did not make it back to the beautiful powder-filled forest described yesterday, but made up for it this afternoon. Today was my latest departure yet, despite my recurring resolutions to get out earlier. Maybe my body knew it wanted a half-day. I hit the slopes by myself about noon, and started over to the far east of the mountain. I wanted to try that run at the top again, the one we got hosed on in the fog. Turns out that run wasn't the one we previously took—we had gotten off onto a black run instead! The blue run at the top was boring—little character at all, and icy. I think I may go back and try the black run again, but early in the day so it isn't foggy or shaded. Here is what it looks like up there.


I did go over to look at the Blue Moon Chalet, which is near Moonlight Basin. It looked from the outside a magnificent place, right on the slopes. And I mean ON the slopes. I hope to get back and take a picture or two, but I am glad we got this place instead. All the houses on that side are nice, but they are off the main path. It is hard to get to Blue Moon from the main village, and harder to get back—lots of long steep trails, hard on the legs and not much fun. We are in a much better position in the overall scheme of the mountain. Hooray!

I did quite a few runs by myself in the early afternoon, and found my legs hurting like a …. well, you know. I was going to go green for a while, but Dave called and had finished a lunch meeting with the mountain manager, so he was ready to go. We decided to go over to Lone Moose—the area we were trying to get to yesterday—and that required a blue run. But it was a fantastic blue run, and we made uneventfully. The Lone Moose area is essentially the red-haired stepchild of the mountain because it is hard to get to and has only 3 blacks and 2 greens, one of which is a nasty runout. One green run? Why bother? Ah, but there's the key. No one goes to the green except the beginners who live right there. And those folks stay in the middle of the run mostly. It hasn't snowed since Monday, but there were swatches of powder on the edges of the run that were all but untouched. A few tracks, of course, but plenty of powder (though stale) left to float. Even Dave discovered what powder was all about. And the run was otherwise very pretty, with some drops and minor steeps, though I spent most of my time in the pow. Fantastic!

Then we had to go in. The ski patrol—a couple of cute little chickies, though very aloof—followed us down, as we were the last ones to make the run. In fact, we were probably the last ones on that entire section of the mountain. The lift at the bottom stayed open an extra 5 minutes just for us. Woo-hoo.

We returned to meet the rest of the crew at 4:30. A sleigh ride had been scheduled for everyone. Ouch. I had dressed for a warm day on the hill, and forgot we would be in the open air later (in the dark). The ride was early enough that it turned out not to be a big problem, and the girls brought a few beers from the house as anti-freeze. It was mercifully short, though you could say it bore a passing resemblance to fun. At least for the younger set.

Now the hot tub, and then to bed.