Skiing

This past weekend I went traveled up to Vermont to visit my parents and to do some skiing. It seemed a shame that my parents have lived up in New England for a handful of years now and I hadn’t once tried skiing up there.

My ski resume is incredibly short: I’ve been twice. The first time I tried it I wasn’t crazy about it (went with friends in college, didn’t take a lesson, spent most of the time falling down in order to stop). I’ll be honest; the first time I tried skiing I didn’t really understand why everyone seemed to enjoy it so much. The next time I tried skiing was last year and I really enjoyed myself (took a lesson and figured out how to stop without falling down). I even worked my way up to an Intermediate trail by the end of the day. Coming away from that second day of skiing, I made the decision that I would take advantage of my parents being up in Vermont and close to so much excellent skiing (so I’m told).

I made good on that decision last Friday as I headed to Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Richmond, VT with my mom and my husband as ski companions. We got to the resort first thing in the morning, decided to take a lesson, got our equipment and headed out to the mountain by 10 in the morning. I was a nice day, sunny, clear and no wind.

Our lesson lasted an hour and we learned about our skis, how to stop, how to turn and how to use both the towpath and the ski lift. Our instructor, Dick, was a nice guy and even told some awful/great jokes. We all seemed to catch on and after an hour of running up and down the bunny slope (aka the Mitey Myte) we braved one of the “Easier” trails, Sprig o’ Pine.

It quickly became apparent that the “easier” trails here in Vermont were more difficult than “easier” trails found in southern Pennsylvania, but I was able to making it down the mountain just fine (and for the most part under control). With a brief stop for lunch, we spent most of the day skiing on the Sprig o’ Pine trail and then for the last run, my mom convinced to trail a longer (but still “easier”) trail called the Snowflake Bentley. Even this trail was doable and proved to be quite the little adventure.

All in all, it was a good day for skiing and I loved getting out there and trying something new.