It has been around twelve years since I went skiing at night. Yesterday, I left work early, got home, picked up my skis and my parents and headed up to Horseshoe Valley. We got there around 5:00 so we checked in, got something to eat, then headed to the room. I let my dinner settle for a minute, then strapped on my gear and headed to the hill.
Okay, so it was a little frosty outside, and I could really only handle about an hour and a half before my toes felt like they had curled up and died, but it was so worth it. The world was quiet and crispy, the snow made the cool swooshy sound as I glided down the hill, and it was so nice and DARK, with all the twinkly stars overhead.
That was great until I went back to the hill this morning. It was the most perfect day for skiing. Sunny and not too cold at all. My parents took off to find the casino, and I spent four great hours swooshing again. Well, the day wasn't entirely perfect (there were a MILLION children running around, screaming, falling all over the place), but it was very close. I think I was able to improve my technique a little, but I'm still wary of anything beyond a blue square. The sad thing was that I saw someone wrapped around a tree. I didn't see the person exactly, just an arm and a hand. There was a narrow gap between one of the chair lifts and a grove of trees. If you didn't stop or turn in time, it was possible to overshoot the lift line-up and end up in the bush. By the time I got there, there was a small crowd, and the ski patrol with a stretcher attached to the snowmobile was already on the scene. There's a small downhill before you reach the trees, and they were crouched down, gingerly removing a ski. I decided not to gawk and went up the lift. When I came back down, the snow patrol were still in the midst of extricating the person from the tree. I went on the lift again and decided to go down another trail to an alternate chair lift.
So aside from the casualty, the day was very nice. My parents came back for me and we all headed to the casino (not too bad, considering it is in the middle of nowhere). My mother couldn't handle the smoke so we just contributed $10 to a slot machine and headed home.
My face is rosy from the windburn, and I love it.
"They will see us waving from such great heights, come down now, they'll say"
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