Tochi's Hut

Took the family to "real" skiing today... the kid has been training diligently at the local hill the past two years, cumulating in a step 3+ and tiger badge.   We got go MSL late morning.  The weather was perfect, and snow wasn't bad considering the rain from the past few days.  We started with some early green runs as a group.  The Sundance chairlift had a conveyer belt to easy the loading!  First time I've seen anything like this... what a great idea.   The kid didn't have any problems, so we decided to tackle one of the blue hills (Snowbowl, ironically also Kid's favourite hill at Uplands).  As we took the express lift up, I showed him the two black diamond trails at the top of the lift.   We even ventured up to the edge to see how steep it was... but before we put the kart before the horse, we needed to try out blue trails.  I led the way with kid in tow, and to my amazement, he was managing to keep pace with me and "follow my tracks".   He had to revert to pizza turns for the most part, but great control, balance and edge work!

After lunch, we went up as a group on the express lift.  There was a short blue trail back over to the greens, which petrified mommy.  Mommy decided to take a break, while we did a few more blue runs.   We ended up going over to the Moonstone cross-over trail.  Ironically, kid managed to survive all the steep parts, but then took a tumble on the flat section.... ski off and everything too!  After an eternity for recovery, we made our way back over to MSL chalet.. much to a worried mom.  To cheer the kid up, we decided to try the West Peak Black Diamond... kid wanted to do it.. Mommy was saying he should try it.... and me.. despite seeing his mastery of the blue slopes was quite petrified.  I wasn't sure whether to lead or follow.  Leading meant I would be useless if the kid fell, and Following meant the kid would be a bullet down the mountain.   However, after getting the kid all hyped up, I wasn't one to disappoint, and gave him strict instructions to follow me.  Bail out if you need to.  We got to the edge, looked down, and went for it.

I made a few broad S turns, and every time I turned around, the kid was right there with his patented Pizza turns.  He was struggling more to follow my tracks, but was still very much in control.  Only one time did he yell for me to stop and wait for him to finish turning.  CRAZY.  At the bottom of that section, I asked him if it was hard, and got the classic: Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy.  Damnit.  The kid is surely going to surpass me soon.

Finished the day with a variety of runs.  Mommy was doing awesome and managed to make it down the mountain a few times with much better control.  Took the kid up for a final run on some Black Diamonds.   He aced the top half, and fell on the second... but pulled himself back up quickly and skied the rest of the way down.  I didn't even have a chance to start moving back up the hill.  I'm so jealous of kids' flexibility.   Finished the day at 6pm, and went to hunt some partychus afterwards.  All in all, an eye opening day.