Our Exciting Skiing adventure, Pictures? Yeah, right!

So last weekend partially as a Valentines celebration and partially as a "I rarely get to ski given past pregnancies and little children and I'm not pregnant and we've never really done the weekend away thing so lets go" Billy and I had a ski weekend away. It was awesome!!!!!!!!!!
We left just after WG got out of his morning Kindergarten class and headed down to Grandma's dropped off the kids and then headed up to the mountain. We had arranged with a friend to stay in their time share and payed a very good price for a very awesome 'suite' or 'apartment'. There was a full kitchen which we used for breakfast and even a nice washer and dryer which we did not use but were still impressed by. This is totally the type of place you want to stay when traveling with little children, can you just imagine, it would be great. There is a 'master' bedroom and then a full living room with fireplace and one of those beds that pulls out of the wall in the living room (they have a name, but I don't remember it). There is even a little patio and BBQ out back. It really was amazing!

So Friday evening we go out to this funny place called Timbermine to eat. The atmosphere was interesting but very authentic old western brothel/mine. Our waitress even had this very hick accent but I'm not sure it was part of the atmosphere. Anyway the place was interesting the food was awesome! Billy had an amazing steak (I don't remember the cut but it was really good) and I had a halibut steak that was sooooo good!

So Saturday morning, after a very relaxing and enjoyable evening, we headed up to the mountain that was only a few minutes away. At first the runs seemed kind of dull and simple but we soon found some that we enjoyed and were heading down some difficult yet enjoyably challenging blacks with quite a bit of powder. Several times Billy had tried to find this one black and blue run down the far side of the mountain that looked long and enjoyable. We kept making wrong turns and ending up on different but good runs.

Around 3pm we finally found the run Billy had been looking for all afternoon. The lifts close at 4pm, or at least the lift at the end of this particular run closes at 4pm, the others close at 4:30. Now this was the first time I had been on this particular mountain and it was different than any other mountain I had skied on. The lodge and the parking lot are at the top of the mountain. So you can't be the last one at the bottom of the lift at the end of the day because then you will be stranded and have to find someway to hike back up the mountain to your car, not fun!

With this in mind we headed down this new path just after 3. A little ways into it the trail narrowed and flattened out. At this point could we have seen into the future we would have taken off our skies/snowboard and hiked back up the way we came and taken a more reasonable route. Unfortunately we didn't take the first clue but kept going assuming that this was going to turn back into a good path soon. We were very wrong.

After several minutes the decline did increase enough that Billy was able to strap his board back on and go down a little ways. Unfortunately after less than a minute there was a hard to see 'jump' in the road so I fell, I don't really do jumps especially unexpected ones! It wasn't bad but this meant that Billy stopped, lost his momentum and had to take his board off and hike threw several feet of powder once again. This was definitely not the trail we had hoped for.

We had been on the trail for about 15 min. so far and couldn't wait for it to end. We continued on still hopeful this would turn out better soon. It didn't! The powder got deeper Billy got more Frustrated, I got more nervous (I hate back country skiing, no trail so you can get lost, always the threat of avalanche especially in February, dangerous trees you might ski into, unknown rocks or cliffs to ski over, all in all not my idea of a good time!), and the tracks we were following kept branching off therefore getting fewer and fewer. Several times we stopped to decide which set to follow. At first we followed the path with the most tracks but as time wore on we started choosing the path that appeared to go down hill or in the direction we wanted to go to get back to the lifts.

At some point I had started checking the clock on my phone, 3:30 . . . 3:35 . . . 3:40. We are still hiking, still going painfully slow, and still have no clue where we are or how to get back to the lift that closes at 4 leaving us stranded on this mountain! At this point I turn around to watch Billy continue to struggle threw the powder up to his waist and looking very exhausted and frustrated. After marveling at my calm I tell him as gently as I can that I know he is tired and I'm sure he's doing his best but I just want him to know that it is 3:40 and we have no clue where we are.

Right after this we come to another fork in the trail. This time we look over a hill to see two trail signs at the bottom. I don't believe we saw any tracks going this way but obviously we didn't care. We were home free! So we ski/board somewhat slowly down this rather steep hill with so much powder that you can't hardly turn or stop. Billy had a really hard time even getting up on his board the snow was so deep.

I got to the bottom of this hill reached the signs and followed the one that pointed down another decent hill, as opposed to the one that pointed up hill. Still not many tracks? Hmm? I turned around, to tell Billy to go fast cause it kind of flattens out, and I can't see him. So I call. No answer. I call again. In a very frustrated voice I hear "I can't get up!"

Now I know that as nerve racking, frustrating, and difficult this has been for me it has been much worse for him cause he is on a board and they sink more than skis and he can't cross country ski on a board so he just has to unstrap and take it off all the time. But it was still weird to be in a situation where he was so much more frustrated than me cause I'm the one with the short fuse.

He finally gets down this hill and once again we are finding we have to forge our own trail. At this point my fear of missing the lift which will rescue us from this forsaken wilderness is much more than my fear of trees, cliffs, or anything else. I ask Billy where he wants to go. "I don't care just down!" So I go, forging trail, waiting, hoping, praying lot of praying, checking the clock. 3:45 . . . 3:50 . . . 3:55. I can't look anymore!

Several minutes later (I don't want to know how many) I see it! Lift lines! And then after a few more feet I can see down another tree covered hill is a trail, a real trail, that is groomed and everything! I call to Billy the exciting news but he is still far behind me. I feel bad for leaving him but I can't help but inch nearer to hope, freedom, and salvation! I was so relieved I was excited!

He finally got close enough that I felt little enough guilt to ski all the way down to the trail. Then I waited but he made it in pretty good time pushing his way through groups of trees. He finally hit the trail and just kept going, I raced after him toward the lift. My legs were so tired I was having a hard time turning properly but I just wanted to get to that lift, I can't imagine how Billy was feeling.

We finally made it and the lift was still running, oh happy Day!!!! The lift operator warned us we were several minutes late and we better head straight back to the lodge. I felt like telling him off but realized it wasn't his fault that a non trail was marked as a trail on their trail maps. So I just got on the lift grateful it was still running and took a big sigh of relief.

On our way up the lift we joked and laughed about the adventure and how utterly ridiculous the 'trail' was. The good thing was that we had another two runs to get to another lift and then over to the lodge so that awful 'trail' wasn't the last run of the day.

We got back to our condo, sat in the hot tub for at least an hour and had a marvelous rest of the weekend. The kids did great at grandma's and all in all it was a wonderful experience. Plus everyone needs some interesting memories so this is now one of ours. I hope you enjoy reading about it. =)