January 5, 2009
Today was warm compared to yesterday! We could even pull down our face mask to breath the cold air. It was 8 degrees out when we started, but I forgot to check the temp when we left the ski area. We both took the level 4 ski school together. We had a huge group of 11 people. After a quick run down the short run, our class divided up in half and we took off to learn how to control our skis. In level 4 we learned how to control our skis while making turns. We were to keep our skis parallel and we learned how to control our weight distribution over the skis using technics like edging. Of course the big key to skiing is leaning forward, always. This is hard because we just aren’t used to falling down a mountain. We all want to lean back and that’s when we lose control. Yesterday we only took a lift called Christie III that took us about a quarter of the way up the mountain. In the afternoon today, we took the gondola up to the halfway point up the mountain. The elevation here was about 10,000 compared to the 7,000 at the base. Luckily there are still easy runs (green) at the top. Our ski instructor pushed us to move to the next level (blue runs) and half of our class was able to do the blue runs by the end of the day. Mark and I stuck to the greens. I don’t know about Mark, but I’m okay with going slow and staying in control. I’m sure the blue runs aren’t that bad, but from the top they look rather steep.
During our final run down the mountain, the wind picked up and the temperature dropped as the snow rolled in. By the time we stowed our skis for the night, it was snowing outside. We walked in the snow for a while, but eventually came back to the condo to warm up, make spaghetti for dinner, and watch the Fiesta Bowl on the TV.
We are having a great time on vacation and want to say Hi to everyone back at home. We’ve still got the rest of the week here in Steamboat skiing before we head to Yellowstone.
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