Turns out skiing is fun in both winter AND summer. And I have an equal lack of skill in both ;)

Got to try waterskiing once more!   SO much fun.  Honestly I love the being pulled out of the water more than anything.   First vid is amusing cause you can see the moment I remembered that for this sport arms sb straight lol.  It’s like the rope was suddenly poison.   Later I let go of said rope altogether once while outside the wake over some speed bumps.  Was disappointed in myself for that a bit cause totally bailed on the mental game not out of necessity. I even knew it at the time.  But at least I managed to get up on the first try when they picked me back up 😂. Did a second lap too just cause.   Skis noticably closer together until I got too tired, so that was awesome!   Too tired kicked in about a lap and a half and I felt it in inner thighs and hips which was the challenge last year too.  Shocked my arms weren’t toast given that I’d already done the handstand thing this am.

I am:

• super stoked that I got up on the first time both times
• Thrilled that the work I put into getting strong enough to do this sport apparently paid off (last year I could only try the once cause I was lame for more than a wk later)
• Disappointed in myself for allowing past wimpiness to reassert itself - it’s been literal decades since that’s happened.   AND I fought it and won the first time, so *really* no excuse 
• Really grateful that I got the chance to try
• Highly amused by my ability to self coach a skill I know nothing about 😂 
• Unwilling to do the math on how many years 10k hours is when you practice like 15 mins a year ;)
• Completely physically exhausted and mentally way too wired to sleep

Till next year :)

So much fun. So much exercise. So many goals achieved :)

Today’s adventure will be a blog post.   Of the type that the short version is one of the longest posts ever 😂 For your entertainment: 

“Use your imagination” version (originally titled ‘short version’ but that’s such a lie I have to update ;)

- good - more sleep than last night

- bad - not enough and woken at 6:30 by my mum who was frantic cause Sasha was lost

- good - Sash came back on my first call

- bad - wide awake

- good - means I get to take sunrise pics (stunning but way too early!), possibly handstand pics, AND early am swim.

- neutral - Doug (uncle) had a similar idea

- bad - water wasn’t the stunning glass-flat it can be

- good - it was still *very* quiet making for good handstand practice conditions

- bad - video died on like the 2nd effort and wasn’t exactly quality videography 

- good - I acknowledged that I really wanted a good sunrise pic of handstands and Doug is an incredible photographer who actually likes a challenge lol combined w being v patient.  So willing to play this game.

- bad - wrong clothes so I’m afraid that even if he got an *amazing* shot, it still won’t look good :(

- good - best stand ever! And called it on a good note.  

- bad - it was *after* my phone died ;-P

I was SO excited by this 😂 
PC: Doug Hern

- neutral - immediately after I was done, the lake went mirror-flat.  Sun was up by then though.   

- good - this made for amazing swimming, esp as I’m not a strong swimmer

- bad - I’d forgotten goggles and can’t swim properly without them cause contact lens.  

- good - reassured Sasha who’s okay w me going in the water as long as I get right back out but panics if I’m swimming or treading water or being eaten by a giant donut 

It took Sasha a while to believe the donut wasn't going to hurt me.

- bad - It was not yet 9am and I was ready for a nap ;) 

- good - cousin wanted to go waterskiing, which means I *also* would get to go waterskiing 

- bad - I am not good at waterskiing 😂  Last year was the first time since I was a tween that I tried it, and it took many many many (copy and paste) attempts to get up.  And I loved it.  But then I was sore for weeks.

- also bad - somewhat concerned that waterskiing muscles might overlap significantly with handstand muscles which had already delivered their contractual hours today and really this week ;)

- good turns out they’re a LOT stronger than last time, as is my body awareness and ability to coach myself through new skills I know nothing about ;)

- bad - I self coach OUT LOUD;  while nobody could hear me, I can only imagine what my spotter in the boat must’ve thought ;).  Accelerating rapidly toward my crazy old lady title ;)

- good - it worked?!?!   Up on second time, stayed up in and out of wake, and didn’t let go till I got back.  Soooo excited and proud of myself.

- neutral - huge thunderstorm after lunch.

- bad - I was alone in the backup cottage so I could put on dry clothes (extra sleeping places really - when they built new, they kept the old and just moved it over) when the storm hit.  All entertainment (my books, phone, etc) in the main cottage.  

- good - I LOVE a thunderstorm in the woods.  In general really but especially there.

- neutral - it lulled me into a nap of coma level depth

- bad - I slept through milkshakes

- good - I felt human again afterwards AND all storm repair had already been completed by those who didn’t storm nap (3 or 4 of us, incl those who invited us up, got in great naps).

- good Chris just arrived :)

Rest of the day admittedly neutral, but cottage neutral with is normal-life excellent.   I will likely sleep very well tonight 😂. 

Grand Finale

So this post is complete randomness lol

We drove over to the hill so our cars would be near where we drop off the skis at the end of the day.   I parked, and Laura was right behind me, but the next spot wasn't big enough for her larger vehicle.  Parking attendant indicated she should follow him.   He took her to the very first spot, moved HIS car, and gave her that spot.  Customer service was seriously impressive throughout.

Even a little bit of blue sky!

This morning's skiing had some actual powder that was SO lovely.   The hill was also way more crowded, but still our lovely greens were fairly open.   We tried a couple runs we hadn't done before, but the one we found yesterday held out for the win.

Part of my favourite run - easy curviness through the trees

I had SO much fun on our ski trip.  I was disappointed by how completely and totally exhausted I was -- although I appreciated the sleep!  When I booked the trip I had ambitions of skiing all day and getting home quite late at night, but that didn't end up being reasonable.  In reality, I skied for the am and left at lunch.

So Laura and I decided we are "fast food skiers" lol - as in "pizza and fries".   As in "snow plow when things are dodgy and parallel when things are good".  Win.   Also got a good laugh because the thought crossed my mind that I can't stop well in parallel skiing and I often can't stop when eating fries.  I don't have that problem with snowplow or pizza ;-P.  It's amazing what's funny when you're completely exhausted.

Not exaggerating about having easy hills to ourselves ;)

On one of the runs there were two snowboarders about to go, I offered to let them go first and the response was something about "I always let the skiers go first since I'm just learning and don't want to get in the way" and I got a laugh that I was feeling the exact same thing about the snowboarders.   All good.  In general people were very good about the whole "downhill has right of way" situation and faster skiers just dodging us.

Returning gear was a little dodgy -- you literally just leave it on the table?!?  Nobody checking it in or even acknowledging its existence.  Which reminds me, I was impressed that pretty much everybody was wearing helmets on the hill.  And also that those helmets are both comfortable and WARM.  Loved it.

I left around lunch time - I can't remember the last time I was so tired.  Laura lasted a couple more hours than I did to make up for missing Wed night.   Drive home was super easy - roads were clear, no weather, no traffic.  All good.  Border crossing was more normal but not bad.  And definitely came home and had a nap ;).  But still grinning.   Trip was So. Much. Fun.

Exhausted skiing adventure

So today I learned my right leg is significantly stronger than my left.  Lol trying to ski past the point of exhaustion and my left leg just noped out.   If it was not weight bearing, it would like shake randomly - so that was fun lol. Just as well I’m not great at keeping my skis closer than hip-width apart or there might have been challenges. And if it was weight bearing it was really useless at turning and would 💯 default to snow plow.   It made for some awkward runs lol.

Wasn't crowded so lots of time for pics :)

But that was this evening.  This am started w a disappointing breakfast, then heading to the hill to get Laura’s skis.  Hit the slopes for the am and it was super icy.  Way less fun than yesterday :(.  But we did a bunch of runs anyways - it wasn’t bad, just not lovely.  And definitely more people.  Stopped in a ski school to see about getting a lesson, but they were crazy expensive.   Laura’s goggles were deteriorating so we stoped in the ski store, where I randomly got a neck warmer thing since it’s colder today.  I was disappointed the one I liked best only came in youth sizes.  Might’ve been okay?   But with 12 as the high end age, I decided to stick to the adult selection.  

Back out on the hill, skied our way back to the hotel and then went into town in search of food and requests for US-specific stuff from people at home.   We were partially successful ;)

Then Laura went back to the hill while I crashed for a lovely 20 min cat nap.  I hit the slopes about 30 mins after her.   Remember the whole “put your skis on and go 10 feet to the ski lift” thing?   Well that part was just fine, but moments after I sat down the lift stopped???   There were no other people so….  “You forgot something!”  Lol my ski hadn’t been properly in the binding and snapped out when gravity got involved.  Awesome lift guy helped reattach it for me.   Fortunately this was the most eventful issue of the evening. 

Laura was way on the other side of the mountain so it took me a few runs to make my way over there, but we did get connected.   Still busier than yesterday but as per last night the green hills were mostly empty, which was lovely.  As well, the snow all afternoon had helped negate some of the ice issues.  And the skiing got consistently better as the night went on.

Love the snow with the lights at night

In her solo skiing Laura had found a different run I hadn’t tried yet that was 100% my favourite of the night.   Through the woods but the gentlest slope (fairly critical since by this point I only had one quasi-functional leg), snow falling, no people but us (the other runs on that chair lift are double black diamond and black diamond, so it’s not exactly one populated by many novice skiers!).   We did this one a number of times.   

Eventually it got to the point where my legs were so iffy it wasn’t super safe and we still have more skiing tomorrow so we made our way back.  Last night’s favourite hill was tonight’s least favourite hill as it was sheer ice for all the steepest parts.  And I was exhausted.  So yeah - definitely not a fun end.

Our room was just to the left of this pic, the lights are for the closest lift.

We were both really tired but I dragged Laura to the pool anyways - how often can you swim outside in the snowfall?!?!   Which ended up being *awesome* because we found the hot tub!!!  It does exist!  And was absolutely the perfect thing for my poor body that was very much letting me know that I’m neither young nor in riding shape any more ;)

Neither of us were hungry for dinner but we had splurged at the cupcake store for Laura’s birthday :)

Dinner of champions ;)
We only made it a fraction of the way through, but seemed good at the time.

Ski Trip Day 1 :)

Okay so I very much wanted to get away somewhere; Chris is restricted to school vacation times (aka very expensive times) to travel; so I figured I'd go skiing since C doesn't ski w iffy knees so wouldn't miss that trip.

Laura was onside so we booked a getaway to Holiday Valley.  I have fun memories of family ski trips there when I was a kid, and importantly, they have ski-in rooms.  So book a few days off work and away we go :)

Now the rest of this...  Was written at the very end of Day 1 -- I was super happy and equally exhausted so definitely not in a state to write a concise and coherent post.

So many things and only a tiny keyboard to write on…

Was supposed to run a bunch of errands and have a Spanish lesson today before heading to the ski hill, but they were forecasting supreme nastiness in the form of a snow storm late morning so cancelled Spanish and anything that wasn’t critically important and left a couple hours earlier than planned.

This kept me right at the front of the storm - there were snowy roads in places but for the most part it was just wet and the snow falling was light enough not to create visibility issues.

Pro tip - horribly ugly old-people glasses for driving at night, you know the ones? And yes I have a pair - make of that as you will. I choose to blame multiple surgeries rather than age but alas it may be both…. Anyways - those are fabulous for snow storms. Learned this the other wk when driving to Windsor. When the glare is obnoxious but not quite bright enough for sunglasses to be effective (unless you’re my husband who keeps multiple gradients of sunglasses on hand) - for those days, ugly night glasses are legitimately perfect. So now you know.

Back to my story - apparently nobody drives mid day?!?! Cause after I passed Niagara there were almost zero other cars. Crossed the border in Fort Erie and there were literally no cars. Two open car lanes and no cars. Zero wait to cross. Surreal.

Border guard was bored so took more chit chat than normal to get across but then on my way. Once I got to 219, again - no cars for miles. Was completely stress free driving. A little random when the multi lane highway stops at a stop sign, makes a 90 deg turn, and starts again lol but other than that all good. Drive after that was gorgeous. Starting to snow at that point but if visibility had been better would’ve been an amazing drive.

Got here and even though I was super early, the room was ready, so win. Hotel room is dated and soundproofing is non existent, but it’s clean and reasonable for an inexpensive stay. They also have ski lockers outside every room which is definitely ideal.

Got myself organized - the area is basically three resorts in one. Ours in on the far outskirts, apparently the restaurant is in the middle one, then there’s the main ski centre with cafe type food, then something even further but I didn’t go far enough to ascertain exactly what.

I familiarized myself w our hotel - super disappointed that the outdoor hot tub is actually at one of the others :(. Oh well - next year. We do have an indoor outdoor pool? The indoor part looks pretty dodgy but the outdoor is lovely. I saw a sign for hot tub as well but not evidence of one existing. That’ll be tonight or tomorrow’s exploration.

This looks fairly stunning :)

Found an “exercise trail” which would prob be awesome but maybe not a great winter idea ;)

Pretty snowstormy at this point so I drove to the main lodge to find food and gear. Food was not great and very expensive. Booo. Gear was a bit of a process to acquire but zero line and super friendly / helpful staff. This seems to be a trend here; they’re definitely hiring for personable and customer focused.

About 5 years ago (I can’t believe it was that long but both fb and my blog assure me it was), Laura and I took up night skiing for the winter. It was SO much fun. And even then skis were much shorter than when I skied as a kid. Well now they fit in the back seat of my car lol. I think the winter clothes actually took more space!

Skis are a LOT shorter than they used to be!

Wasn’t sure how well I’d be able to get my car out so loaded everything back up and went back to the room. The ski guy had said to let skis acclimatize to the weather before using so yeah ski locker. I chilled a bit, checked in w Laura who couldn’t come till after work, and Chris whose work ended early thanks to said snow, and then decided that since I came here to ski, perhaps I should go ski???

So I got myself all geared up - the lift pass isn’t a sticker anymore…. It looks and feels like a credit card, and they just said “have it somewhere on the left side of your body” and warned me not to have it w other cards. Uh sure. Since I had C’s ski pants (mine somehow have holes in them?!?) they have ALL the pockets. So lift pass on one side, cc, room card, and id on the other, and STILL an extra pocket for my phone and trail map.

There is a lift that comes right to the hotel - our room faces the parking lot not the hill, so had to walk across said parking lot. But then the hill is right there. Which is super convenient but means I skied all of about 10 feet before getting on a chair lift. Which means getting off the chair lift was the first skiing I would do. Lol occurred to me this might be a poor life choice, but it actually worked out fine.

Mine is a little folded so snagged this version from Google.

So I knew from my handy trail map that I could get from our room to the main hub on only green trails. This was a significant win since the greens here are the blues we had at tiny Glen Eden 5 yrs ago. I did possibly the slowest trip ever across but made it in one piece. And stumble upon this lovely snack option ;). Which I did not indulge, but likely will tomorrow cause they smelled SO good!

Spoiler alert - I never actually tried one

According to my trail map pretty much every lift had a green route down, so that was exciting. There were not maps posted at the bottom which I found very disconcerting but fortunately I had one w me. There were usually maps at the top - but if you’re a novice skier, by that point it might be too late ;). I basically just picked green ones. Often they criss cross so many times I ended up on a different one than I started on, but all good. Got a good laugh when I realized one of my fav green runs crossed a black diamond - the “straight down” for green was the “across the hill” for black. Made me laugh anyways.  To be fair, somebody who knew what they were doing planned the routes -- pretty well every chair had at least one green route down.

Found my way to the extreme far side of the mountain which was pretty deserted and stayed there to try and regain my ski legs. There was a lot of snow plowing happening. Embarrassing bad but effective. And so few people out I wasn’t worried about getting run over lol. Spent some time here trying to remind my legs that they have never been able to do the splits and today is not a good day to start!

Random side note, in dance this wk she told us it was “just like skiing” - I’m not actually sure which I’m worse at, but it seems I can’t keep my feet together in either lol. The goal for the trip is to get the skis vaguely parallel and close enough together that my hips don’t hurt afterwards lol. You know you’re old when that’s a viable metric ;-P

Eventually I got my skis pointed somewhat in the same direction, if still very far apart and ventured more to the middle of the hill and found one route that I really liked. Except I was slightly worried because while it was very clearly signed green, and didn’t look to have anything to it, a number of VERY competent skiers were also on this one... Which definitely had me wondering why. In the end I realized there were some snow structures that they could get some good air from. I realized this when I accidentally found myself on top of one. Lol physics for the win here - I was going so slowly it didn’t matter at all. But it showed me what to look for on other hills when there seemed to be good skiers for no reason…

I was having a really good time. Hill was super quiet (middle of the week the same wk as black Monday for the win). Which was great me. I never waited in line and I never had to worry that my zigzagging the hills would result in tragedy ;)

The lift pass, they wave some sort of scanner at you while you’re in line that clearly tells them you have one. I only noticed them checking occasionally although they definitely have one person whose job it is at every lift.   One of the lift attendants told me it tells them my name, what type of pass it is, and whether or not it's valid.

Eventually I noticed they’d turned the hill lights on. I *love* night skiing. Quieter, so peaceful, I’m a night person by every possible take on that so I feel much more alive at night, AND it takes my brain out of the equation - I can’t see the icy parts so I stop stressing about them. Therefore, the whole thing is way more fun.

I slowly was making my way back across the hills to end up at our hotel, but the last run I would have to make was a blue. And I was really enjoying my greens lol. So I did a bunch more of them on the way, some multiple times. Then I clued in that I should prob tackle said blue before I was physically exhausted so over I went. Well there was NOBODY on that hill. After dark it’s the farthest run (there are more in daylight) so I guess everyone not going “home” stayed in the main area. It was my favourite run! Lol no steep section to start and it was a curvy path. So of course I went back up and did it again, literally the only person on the run. And 2 deer ran out in front of me!!! It was completely majestic and I just stopped and watched them till they were long gone. When I got to the bottom I asked the lift operators (who were building snow men - I’m not exaggerating how quiet it was) how common that was. Apparently last year was every night but this year not often. Hopped back on the lift and on the ride up saw a third deer, smaller, looked like it was grazing, so when I skied back down I checked if it was still there and was so tried to take a pic. My phone cam is pretty crap at light though so disappointed in outcome. But still - magical.

Since my deer pic didn't work,
I took a snowman pic the next day :)

Did yet another run just cause, but borrowed snow pants were not waterproof and since this lift was not really being used, all the seats were covered in snow. After 3 or 4 runs I was soaked through and other people had appeared on the hill so I called it for day one.

Laura should be here any minute - she unfortunately had more transportation issues than I between snow, plows, and rush hour starting earlier than it’s supposed to thanks to people avoiding the storm. My legs will definitely feel it tomorrow.

But SO MUCH FUN. I wish we lived somewhere I could do this more regularly. This isn’t far, but it’s just far enough to make a random night ski not reasonable.

Skiing: the art of catching a cold and going broke while rapidly heading nowhere at great personal risk.

I am the snow plow queen!   And not in any useful way -- like as in being able to effortlessly remove snow from your driveway.   No, my talents lie more in the completely talentless skier category ;)

So let's recap -- since I'm not riding right now, I'm once again in search of a hobby.  But preferably one of the once/week variety as opposed to the all-consumingness of riding (cause let's be honest, I've proven I can't do that on any casual level).  I'm not quite sure why skiing popped into my head but I did some googling and found reasonably affordable lessons at Glen Eden on Tuesday nights.  Perfect.  Timing works with my work and teaching schedule, location is half hour from home, and while not cheap, is still less than I'd budgeted for riding.  And, better yet, Laura was in for joining me.  Sweet.

However, then reality reared its ugly head and let us know lesson spots were already taken.  Being the adventurous sorts we are, we deemed this sort of irrelevant and decided to go anyway.  Lol I figure it's been almost 20 years since I've skied and Laura is slightly better off at closer to 10 but figures just as long since any regular skiing.  So really, lessons probably would've been a wise life choice ;)

For perspective -- once upon a time we used to do family ski trips; I suspect inspired by the fact that Mum loved to ski.   So when I was a kid/teen I was a reasonable intermediate skier.  I was never brave enough to be interested in even trying the moguls or black diamonds (although I believe my brothers played that game), but I could certainly handle anything blue easily, ski consistently in parallel and under control.  I was never good, but I was competent.

Tuesday rolls around and off I head to Glen Eden.   It's quite the hike from the parking to the skiing but sobeit.  I was moderately amused that the baby hill still has the fence at the bottom before the road.  I vividly recall crashing into that fence on a day trip with school when I was in grade school ;).  Lol it still serves its purpose.  Got through the rental area with no line and no issue -- yeah perfect timing!  Skis are now significantly shorter than they were twenty years ago.   Lol I knew that intellectually, but the reality hadn't quite sunk in.   Also, ski helmets are now a thing (probably for the best!), and they're actually incredibly comfortable; I was quite pleasantly surprised, although I did have issues with the helmet pushing my goggles down *sigh*.  That's a bit of a pita.

So through the tiny tunnel, up the stairs and good to go.   Except Laura wasn't there yet.   So I read the ski map and took a picture and generally just appreciated that it was absolutely perfect weather and didn't seem to be particularly crowded.   Any other day I would've just skied till she got there, but for the first day, I figured it might be best to wait.

We did Escarpment and Quarry all night ;)

Soon enough, it was time to go.   We headed over to the chairlift and made it on with no drama.  Woohoo! And even better, we made it off with equally no drama :).   Win!   Lol first hill of the day accomplished (seriously -- when you haven't skied in forever, the getting-off-the-lift hill counts!).   There's a nice green route that goes across the hill (almost as much XC as downhill since there is definitely a slight up section!) and then cruises gently down the far side.   This was our objective.  And with a  whole lot of hesitation and some confusion, we made it!   Lol.  Mostly we just didn't go down any hill steep enough that your skis could point out over it ;).  Seemed a wise life choice.  We did miss the turn back to the original chairlift so took a different chairlift up -- but this one put us half way through our lovely green route so the next trip down was shorter.   Just as well as we were still getting our ski legs ;)

No.  Not now.  Not next week.  Not even on horseback.  Just no.

Over time and multiple runs though our confidence started to grow and we weren't nearly as painfully slow getting down.   Even had some moments of picking up speed :).  However, this does make the run significantly shorter *g*. I'd forgotten just how small Glen Eden really is *sigh*.  Ah well -- it'll keep me amused for this year.   We spent the whole time on that run and by the end were starting to feel a little more okay.  Don't get me wrong -- embarrassingly bad.   Snowplowing most of the way, and the few feeble attempts at making my skis align in a parallel fashion had them more than hip-width apart.  Nobody was going to be mistaking me for any degree of competent!  Lol BUT there was no falling, diving, starfishing, somersaulting, or splits.   So the complete lack of gymnastic displays we're calling a win.   Of course, Laura raised the valid point that it's only once you start to feel confident that that kind of stuff comes into play ;).  So we'll see next week.

My only oops was when I did this once as I was starting to get brave *sigh*.  BUT, I recovered it ;)

We ended before we were really done because we wanted out before the school finished.   Next time we'll go earlier and give ourselves a little more time.  Also, I think both of us were ready to try a more interesting run -- it might be for the best that we ran out of time before doing so ;).  Next week, blue it is!  I'd like a little less dramatic snow plow, and maybe to pretend my skis are both controlled by the same brain.  I feel that'd be a good goal.  Except I think I'm working late next Tues so next week may be a fail *sigh*.  Adulting sucks sometimes.   But we'll see.

Today I expected to be very sore, but wasn't at all.  I did, however, sleep incredibly well last night.  A sport that I come home from grinning and excited, sleep unbelievably deeply, and wake up not sore?!?!   That's all kinds of awesome.

So yeah -- it was perfect weather and uncrowded.  Not sure how long fair weather me will last in real winter.  But for now, it was a blast :)

The girls who lived :)