So I played a bunch of SkiFree growing up. I never touched 1080° Snowboarding for N64 cuz that was for punks. When I moved up to the PNW in 2008, I put all those acquired skills to work. I could do it all! Ski the trees, jump the jumps, do loop-d-loops off ramps, outrun the dogs, and even the Abominable Snow Monsters. It was EZPZ. Like all day, everyday, EZ. After a few seasons, things just got boring, so I did other things. After seven years off, I started skiing again this season, and it was lovely.
Just kidding, I could not do any of those things, nor will I ever… I just like to cruise around on a mountain. Though, I *did* take seven years off, and I did start skiing again this season. It was like learning how to drive a manual transmission car. The theory was somewhat easy, but the execution somewhat clunky and messy…
First was up Stevens, then Innsbruck, then Whistler. For Whistler, my friends rented a huge, quiet, Airbnb next to the lifts
I slept in Day 1 and skied solo for the day. I had been watching a lot of youtube videos on how to carve, cuz that’s something I do want to get better at (it’s true!). So I worked on that, and I think it was a positive day? It snowed a lot that evening, and we all skied together the second day.
So here’s the second day, and my first trip up the Peak Express
The stoke is high
Whistler Peak
That day was also the first day I ever skied in legitimate powder. I finally understand the hype…
For my first backcountry tour, we first attempted to ski on Granite Mountain. Problem was, it was warm that week, and it hadn’t snowed in over a week… Thus, there was no snow.
Thus, we descended, packed up the car, and drove a few miles east to the Alpental area. Behold, all the snow you could want at Source Lake!
The way up was a breeze. Skinning is pretty much the same as XC skiing. The descent on week old bumpy snow was not a breeze however… It was like learning to ski all over again, but harder. So much harder… It was definitely humbling, and I need to practice more next season.
