Thoughts in a Skitoliv World

The Skitoliv World finally went skiing last weekend. Due to prior commitments (being a responsible graduate student) and the global warming experienced by the Poconos (thanks Al Gore), The Skitoliv World was unable to go skiing during 2006. Yet, the weather finally changed and the mountains were covered with man-made snow, so The Duck agreed to go skiing.

First, during the weeks leading up to this excursion, The Duck was convinced that she was going to kill herself. This was based on prior skiing experiences during her youth, "Last time, I came home with my foot in a box!" Yet, The Duck expressed an incredible amount of trust in The Skitoliv World, when he stated that he could teach her with out any real problems. The Skitoliv World having worked as a ski instructor several years ago. Joining The Duck and The Skitoliv World up at "Cahill Harbor" was the inimitable Madness (sans Kangrilla). Madness planned on joining several of his friends over at Shawnee, but The Duck and The Skitoliv World decided to head over to Jack Frost, where The Duck could learn.

Early on Saturday, Madness and The Duck watched The Skitoliv World sharpen and wax his skis. They were highly amused by this simple task, mostly remarking "he just thinks he looks like he is cool, he is not really doing anything." Madness left for Shawnee, The Duck and The Skitoliv World headed down 940 to Jack Frost. First stop, Timberline Ski Shop where The Duck picked up some rental equipment. Rental guy, "Does she need poles?", The Duck, "Of course I need poles, I need something to hit him (the Skitoliv World) with."

Once at Jack Frost, gearing up went incredibly fast and we headed out to conquer the mountain. The Duck was an incredibly fast learner, moving from snow-plow to almost parallel after her third run. This may have had something to do with the exceptional teaching provided to her by The Skitoliv World (arm hurts from patting self on back). After the third time down a green circle, The Duck pronounced herself ready for a blue square, The Skitoliv World, who never takes anyone on a trail they can not handle, agreed. The Skitoliv World quoted an old mantra from The Commander, "Use the whole hill, you paid for it." The Duck took this to heart and proceeded to conquer Easy Rider and Ridge Run by making large turns and taking her time.

The Skitoliv World said The Duck was now ready for Lehigh. The Duck was visibly nervous on the tougher Blue Square, and proceeded to take her first spill of the day on the upper headwall. It was a nice fall with her ski popping off and poles flying everywhere. Yet, she was not deterred and popped right back up and continued along her way.

We took a break due to her toes finally losing all circulation. The E-2000 lounge at Frost was pretty empty and we were able to have a quick beer. When the circulation finally restarted in her toes, The Duck was borderline in tears, that is how bad it hurt her. The Skitoliv World went and purchased some toe warmers for The Duck so that this would not repeat itself.

We headed back out. I then took The Duck on Exhibition, the hardest of Jack Frost’s Blue Squares. The Duck took a small fall on the headwall, followed by a tremendous wipe out on the lower part of the trail, snow up the back and everything. Yet, not to be deterred, she insisted that we ski Exhibition over and over again, until she made it down with out falling. Sadly, the Duck failed in this endeavor. With the crowds thickening on the mountain, we decided to call it a day.

The Duck really seemed to enjoy herself, once we got her toes taken care of. She is already jonesing to go again.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 1st, 2007 at 9:55 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.