"Falling," down the hill...

“Falling” down the hill…

The nasty wake up call at about 6:30 nearly killed me. I rarely wake up that early, but because I wanted to make it up to the mountains before it got too late I had to go through that pain. Now, it isn’t a surprise to many people I was up that early, if fact I bet many people wake up before 6:30 in order to make it to the mountains on time, but one finds extremely satisfying upon arrive at the beautiful mountains of Colorado.
Living in Colorado, the mountains have become a big part of who I am. I have had many childhood memories involving the mountains. Some people living on a costal part of land probably have memories from the beach, but I prefer the mountain memories. I started off skiing at a very young age of 4, but had spent a fair amount of time in the mountains from the very beginning because I have 3 older siblings and parents who absolutely adore the mountains. When it comes to snowboarding, I started when I was about 12; however, had I had it my way I would have started much earlier. Then I wouldn’t have been so behind the skill level of my older siblings and would have been able to enjoy the slopes with them. But I guess it was inevitable, just like most thing, some people are better than others no matter how much time and effort one has put into a particular skill.
Finally, I reached to point where I was skilled enough to make it down some of the more challenging blues, and eventually made it to the black diamonds, but never really to the double black diamonds. I avoided going with my older siblings when I knew they would be hitting the tougher slopes and hung out with either my dad, my younger sister, or just went with friend. One of my fondest memories was when a friend and I went to Telluride with my family, and went skiing with my family. We spent the day with an instructor, and just before lunchtime, on our last run when I thought I might out from the giant whole in my stomach from severe hunger pains, my friend decided she would get stuck in three feet of snow. Now this made absolutely no logical sense to me, but who knows, maybe she thought it would be funny. Much to my surprise, I thought it was funny as well, but only because I had realized she was stuck in three feet of snow and was going to have a very rough time getting out. Our instructor threatened to leave us for the next few hours while he went and got some lunch and said, “maybe ill bring you two back some food in a little while.” I had thought this whole escapade had been funny up until this point. I had lost my skis a few feet down the hill because I had not been paying attention while I was busy laughing, so I had realized now that I too, was stuck. I should have mentioned it to the instructor that he was getting paid, by my mother, to take us skiing, so it would be in his best interest to get my skis back and somehow get my friend out of the snow bank. It’s a mystery to me how she ended up in the snow bank in the first place, but none the less he was responsible for bringing us back to my parents and the end of the day. Eventually, he gave up on this silly joke he had tried to play, retrieved my skis for me and managed to pull my friend out, and we finally made it to lunch.
I have had many more memories up in the mountains including a birthday party, just a weekend with four friends, and numerous other occasions; however, one memory that with stay in my mind forever dates back to last winter. It was some Saturday out of the four month basketball that I wasn’t stuck in a gym all day and was actually able to go up, but ill save that for another story. My babysitter, my younger sister, Courtney, Tony and I were all driving up to Vail together. Tony and I had made prior arrangements to meet up with friends from school while my babysitter, Amber, and Courtney were just going to chill together for the day. As we inched our way closer to Vail the weather started to turn nasty. Nevertheless we decided continued to drive into, what seemed like, the heart of the storm. However, in my heart of hearts I would have been just fine turning back and staying home in my pajamas and sitting by a nice warm fire. Because, I have mentioned, my least favorite thing about skiing or snowboarding is trying to go down the mountain when the farthest u can see is the very tip of your board and snow is hitting you in the face every two seconds? I mean for all I know I could be running over people and mistaking them for, well I don’t know, let’s say a rock. I mean its just purely miserable, and the whole time all I can think about is how nice it would be to still be sleeping in my warm bed.
We finally made it to the parking garage where the snow couldn’t touch me, and as Tony, my babysitter, and my sister were racing to get their gear on, I simply took my time. What was the point in rushing myself to get ready just so I could be miserable and cold the rest of the day? Well, you’re right, there was not point, so I decided to just slow down the process a little bit. Eventually I made it out, Tony and I met up with our friends and we started heading up the chairlift.
Well, it turns out that just about EVERYONE I was up there with were very skilled skiers, or at least they were better than me, but then again that’s not saying much, so for most of the day I found my self bringing up the rear. Especially, in some areas, such as the back bowls of Vail Mountain, they are not my specialty. However, even the route to get to the back bowls was challenging enough for me. It included a catwalk. Now, if you have ever attempted to go down a catwalk while on a snowboard you know what I’m talking about. They just plain old suck. Or how about try going down a black diamond covered in powder. Yeah, well I had to try that too. Some might say, well that’s dumb isn’t powder good? And well yes it is, but not for me that day. I was going on terrain that I had never been on, not to mention the fact that I was not using my board. Because being the nice big sister I am, I let my younger sister borrow my snowboard while I used my sisters. Little did I know, my boots barely fit into the bindings, so it took about five minutes for me to strap in after getting off each chairlift. In addition to the fact that I was with six other people that were amazing at skiing while, I should most definitely not have been even trying to snowboard with them.
Tony and I ended up being the only snowboarders in the group and I was by far the worst. So as everyone else was facing down the hill with smiles across their faces, there I was basically being taken advantage of by the snow. I was getting either stuck three feet into the snow or I was falling down, what seemed like every two seconds. By the time I had made it down the rest of that hill I had about a pound of snow in my jacket, down my pants, and in my gloves. I could hardly feel my fingers, not to mention my toes and ears. At this point all I wanted to do was go home, get some warm clothes, sit by the fire and drink hot chocolate.
However, it just so happened that I was on the very back side of Vail Mountain and even if I had the energy to get all the way back, I didn’t have the foggiest idea what direction the town was. So I decided to suck it up and pretend like I was didn’t have pounds of snow everywhere, and pretended I was having the time of my life. Much to my surprise I think my friend bought it. Either that or they just enjoyed watching me suffer while basically “rolling” down the hill.
I had only a short period on the chairlift before I would be called upon again to try and make it down the hill. We got off the chairlift, ventured our way down to the next run. Then before my eyes, was my very own view of a straight up cliff. I thought, there is no way we’re going to try going down that “hill.” But it turned out that’s where we were headed. Everyone started down the hill and I had no alternate route and no other form of transportation I was forced to go down. I had fantasized about the different options I could have used, for example, maybe faking an injury to get rescued by Ski Patrol, or maybe hypothermia. Soon reality set in and I had to just try going down, so I did. I finally made it down to the rest of the group using the standard “falling leaf” technique. I then looked around me and realized just where I was, and yes it was a giant valley, and the only way out was yet another cat walk.
Luckily before we attempted going down the cat walk someone pointed out that there was a cliff that appeared to be the perfect height to jump off of. By now there was a good five feet of fresh powder between the day before and that day. Some people did crazy tricks, including my favorite, a front flip, but I decided to stick with the simple jump with two feet and land on two feet technique. I should have planned on faking an injury now, and getting rescued, but that thought didn’t cross my mind in time. After playing around at the cliff for about an hour we all decided it was time for lunch, and based on the horrible stomach pains I was experiencing, I agreed whole heartedly.
We started down the cat walk, and it all seemed to be going pretty well up until the point I saw Tony stuck right next to a baby pine tree. So, as I was bringing up the rear once again, I decided to slow down to make sure he was ok. Well, that was a mistake. After giving Tony a little nudge he was out. There I was left in the dust to fend for myself. Who was going to save me now? Well the answer was no one, but not because there was no one else on the mountain, but because no one felt the need to help me. I presume they found it funny that there was a helpless girl stuck in the snow all by herself. I mean had I been the one passing by a girl I didn’t know I probably would have laughed and kept going too. Only I wished that there was someone who felt differently and was going to help me, but there wasn’t.
After about 10 minutes I got closer to the group, but then drifted off the path once again into the multiple feet of snow. So finally I said, “well, F*** this,” and took off my bindings, dug out my board and hiked my way down. It took a total of about twenty-five minutes for me to finally make it down to the group. Once I made it to the gathering, I still needed another five minutes to strap on my board. I know everyone was thinking, if I had known just how bad of a snowboarder she was going to be I would have come up with some excuse to get out of going with her. But being the good friends they are they didn’t say anything, or at least to my face they didn’t. Finally, by the grace of God I made it to the lunchroom with nothing but a few pounds of snow down my pants, and absolutely no energy. Conveniently, the snow started to slow up by the time we reached Elk Lodge for lunch. I had a delicious hot meal with a little hot chocolate, and after about an hour we decided it was time to go back out. As I recall someone, Tony, had lost a pair of gloves while in the lodge. This made me the slightest bit happier because it was the first time all day something unfortunate had happened to someone besides me. Except he only had to snowboard down one run without a glove because I had just received a phone call that my babysitter and sister were heading in for the day, so Tony and I went to meet them and he got my babysitter’s gloves.
The rest of the day went pretty well, a few bumps and bruises here and there, but for the most part we stayed on the front side of the mountain for the rest of the day. We went in the park a few times, but that was something I could do. Just avoid all jumps and rails as much as possible by just weaving in and out of them.
Finally, the day was over. We said goodbye to our friends, and grabbed some hot chocolate and a little food for the road. Then headed back to the car for the long awaited car ride home. They day definitely had its ups and downs. Some might have viewed this as the worst day of skiing ever, or some might have stories that don’t even compare. The way I look at it though, I had some good bonding time with my friends, it built a little character, and, hey, it makes for a good story. Plus, as I look back on it, it was kind of fun. I mean, what else is better than being up in the beautiful Colorado mountains with six of your best friends? Well, nothing…
Then it hit me. As much as I value my sleep, the friendships that were discovered, the good times we experienced together made waking up at 6:30 a.m. worth every minute of sleep I missed. Anything to spend a day with my friends in those mountains.