And the award goes to...

My skis!

I would like to thank my skis for getting me down from the top of the mountain at A Basin alive.

First let me start off by saying that today was some of the best skiing I've had. We started the morning off skiing at Breckenridge. Breck got 3 inches of fresh snow over night and another 1-2 while we were skiing this morning. The snow was perfect to ski on. Not too icy, not too deep and soft, just right. It was a little chilly in the morning but by lunch time the sun had come out and was keeping us warm, but it was still cold enough that it wasn't melting the snow. It was glorious.

We stopped for lunch and my dad and I went to A Basin for the afternoon to ski with my sister since she got off work early today. When we got to A Basin the clouds had come back in over the mountains and it was snowing again. Gotta love this crazy mountain weather.

Miraculously, Julie was getting off work and we found her as soon as we got there. (I say miraculously becuase cell phones don't work too great at A Basin.) We got our stuff on and skied (is that how you spell the past tense of ski? Not sure but it is how it will be spelled on this blog) all of one run together before I lost Julie and my dad.

I thought Julie said we were going to go to the Norway lift, so I headed there and she headed to a different lift. I waited for a few minutes and realized they weren't coming, so I skied down to the bottom of the mountain to see if they were there. No dice. I rode the chairlift back up to the Norway lift and decided I would head up to try and find them.

The Norway lift begins in the middle of the mountain and takes you up to the top, and the majority of the lift is above the treeline. (The treeline, in case you don't know is the point on mountains at which trees stop growing because there isn't enough oxygen.) As I am looking up the lift, I can't see the top of the hill because the clouds are so low over the mountain and it is snowing like crazy. I debate in my head whether or not it is a good idea to head up there, and decide to go for it. About 1/4 of the way up the lift I see Julie skiing down the mountain beneath me. She explains that they went up a different lift that takes you basically to the same place. I tell her I will wait for them at the top, and she says they will instead wait for me at the lodge at the bottom of the Norway chair. This was my first sign that my decision to go up this lift was not a good one.

By the time I got to the top of the mountain I am pretty much surrounded in clouds and snow. I get off the lift and realize that I can't see 6 inches in front of the tips of my skis. I start skiing towards a sign that shows a blue run, in the hopes that if I am going to have to ski down the hill blindly, at least it won't be a cliff with moguls. So I start skiing. And I can't see anything. I can't tell if I'm about to ski over a bump of snow, a patch of ice, if my turn is going to take me down a steep section or turn me uphill. I literally can't see anything. So I just keep skiing and turning.

Also, as I mentioned before, the majority of this run is above the tree line. So there are no trees to deliniate anything, everything is a vast expanse of white. And because of the clouds and snow falling, I can't tell where the mountain ends and the sky begins. So I just keep skiing and turning. And sometimes I go really fast, and sometimes I go really slow. And sometimes I catch a bit of air as I go over a bump. But for the most part my skis took it all like a champ and guided me down the hill I couldn't see. Luckily I saw a sign that said that the ldoge we were meeting at was to the left. So I just kept making my way down and to the left. And eventually I saw some trees. And eventually I was able to see the snow that I was skiing on. But for a little while there, it was kind of crazy. So I would like to thank my skis for getting me down the hill safely, for not taking me over any crazy terrain or catching any edges and causing me to bite it. This award is for you.

**Sorry there are no pictures in this post. I forgot to bring my camera with me both yesterday and today. I promise I will  bring it the next couple of days and will have photos of the beautiful mountains.