Cruise the Blues

We were all up bright and early (well, maybe not so bright...) on Tuesday so we could collect their rental equipment and still catch the first lift. After a bit of faffing with the boots, we were still the first punters up Standish and made fresh tracks down a groomed Jerry's Run. I'd not told Mum that this was a black, and she was a little miffed, but I thought it was pretty reasonable. Dad was using my skis and I was using Stu's, since he'd gone home and lent me them for the rest of the season on the condition that I return them to the pro room for him for next season.

We headed up Angel next, and enjoyed a thin layer of dust on the groomed runs, which was very pleasant to ski on. Next, we headed to the top of Divide, then down for a couple runs on Wawa before exploring the lower mountain area. Here, we all suffered very wet chairlifts from the small amount of warm snow overnight! It was about time for a morning drink, so we caught the gondola back to the village and we went to Starbucks then to the room, while Stu's skis were in the rental tent being sharpened.

It was a real pain that Goat's Eye mountain was closed for the whole duration of their stay. But there was still plenty of terrain for us to ski on. We skied some more runs on Wawa before cruising all the way down the ski-out for lunch at Creekside. So far, Dad had accepted every recommendation for food, so he shared a Taco Salad with mum while I enjoyed the (enchilada?) special. Back on the gondola up to the vilalge, Mum thought it prudent to call it a day after skiing for about 2 1/2 hours already. After all, it was her first day of skiing for nearly a year!

We had noticed, while in the Salomon Rental Tent, that there was a pair of very nice high-performance second-hand skis for sale, with the chance to rent before you buy and a half hour practice run to see if you want to rent them. Dad borrowed these while I took back my skis (what a relief to be back on something familiar!) and we tried them out. Dad was pretty impressed, so we took them back and pre-paid for tomorrow's rentals. We did a couple more runs, including some great turns on the Shoulder, but before long the lifts were closing so we made our way back to the hotel.

The top of the Shoulder

We watched a movie, The 6th Day (all about human cloning, starring Arnold Schwarznegger) and we were lucky that the adverts were few and far between (there can't have been much time difference between the movie and the slot), after which we had another great meal in Chimney Corner.