rant whine 'splain espouse: *ow*

Monday, March 14, 2005

ow

Velms and I went to the snow for the first time in two years (well, my first time in two years, anyway), and I punnished my muscles all day Saturday shredding Sugar Bowl.

A great time was had by all. We stayed in the legendary Dartmouth Cabin, which Alex and Denice have been telling us about for over two years. It's a rustic but excellent cabin a hop, skip, and a jump from Sugar Bowl (you can cross-country to the lodge, or drive about 5 minutes to it) and it only takes about 3 hours to get there unless you hit traffic, which Velms and I avoided by waking up at 5:20 a.m. Saturday to head out before anyone else was awake.

It was beautiful weather up there; some people were wearing T-shirts skiing. It was warm and balmy and the snow conditions were great once the sun heated the slopes up a little and melted the ice off the top.

I'd never been to Sugar Bowl before, with the exception of having dropped in to look two years ago during a storm, but we weren't intending to ski.

Of course, I was 'boarding, not skiing. I thought I might have to relearn things since it'd been over 2 years since I've been on a snowboard, but I hit the bunny slope to see if I remembered what to do, and it was so lame and easy I headed straight for the double-black diamonds. And even those aren't that difficult at Sugar Bowl. Pretty easy, in my opinion. A few of the double-blacks at North Star are more interested and harder, although I spent a fair amount of tim on Saturday trying to negotiate moguls, which I suck at, on a snowboard. But I wanted something a little more challenging, so I kept at it.

Anyway, the cabin was great (you have to snow-shoe in, you can't drive to it), the people were cool, the food was awesome, and the weather was fantastic. I was, however, so tired by the end of Saturday and so sore the next day that it was fruitless to go again, and I kind of wanted to relax a little anyway, so Velms and I snow-shoed a while and made spirals in the snow, and then headed home.

And to Ynnej, to whom I acknowledge that I still owe a promised snowboarding weekend to for Jenny Day, I can only say that you would have enjoyed some of it, but absolutely none of the music that was played at the cabin or in the car on the way up and back (including old Beatles and Ani), and you would have felt constantly intimidated by being the youngest person in the room.

BTW, did I mention that I have a blister, a sore beat-up shin, and muscles that feel like they've been put through a meat grinder?