Last weekend I took my second trip to visit one of my favorite married couples and just like last time it was one of the best weekends! Saturday I had the pleasure of actually hitting the slopes. Luckily for me, my slope buddy for the day was perfectly matched to my skiing abilities. We started out on a blue square to get warmed up and to enjoy the non-existent lines for the chair lifts. Then we branched out and explored the whole mountain. When we arrived at the mountain the temperature read a chilly - 4 degrees . . . Fahrenheit!!! We tried our best to keep moving and when it got completely unbearable we headed into the lodge for a cup of hot chocolate and to defrost our toes.
At one point my buddy suggested we head to the top of the mountain. After gazing at the crest, I commented, "It looks a little windy up there." Little did I know this would be the understatement of the day. Regardless, we decided that we wouldn't know for sure unless we went and tried it, so off we went! I guess the first bad sign was the fact that there was no one coming down the mountain. The second bad sign was that the end of the ski lift was located in a hanger, to block you from the wind. When we made it out of the hanger it was so windy that I didn't even have to use my poles to move to the top of the slope, the wind just pushed me! I think it was at this point that I began to wonder, "What have I gotten myself into?" While my slope buddy buckled into his snowboard, I headed to the top of the slope, where I encountered a slight problem. The wind was blowing up the slope so hard, I didn't know if gravity acting upon my weight was going to be strong enough to get me over the crest of the mountain! As I pondered this fact, and briefly thought about waiting for my slope buddy, I was being whipped in the face with snow and slowly turning into a human snowman. So after a half second more I decided it was now or never and actually made it over the edge and all the way down the slope. Needless to say, we didn't go down that run again.
The rest of the day was spent challenging eachother to double black diamonds and trying to find the best powdery runs we could. The best part of the whole adventure was being challenged by my slope buddy. It's rare that I have the chance to spend time on the slopes with someone who matches my abilities. It creates such a different day of skiing. At think that at some point during the day we each admitted that the runs we did that day we wouldn't have done if we had been skiing solo. But since we were together, I guess we egged eachother on to do the best we could. Awesome!
The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing with friends, both old and new. We experienced the nightlife of Mammoth and also relaxed to watch some football. I predicted the final score of the game 24-21, but I had hoped that the Chargers would beat the Patriots. I guess there's always next year. All in all I have to say this was a wicked weekend away from LA. Definitely worth repeating, as long as my friends will have me.
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