Tochi's Hut

Went skiing on Saturday at Mt. St. Louis - Moonstone. Departed at 8 am. With lineups and rentals, only got out on the slope at 10:30am. The weather was -10C, clear skies, with fresh snow from the night before on the slopes. The day got off to an awesome start. Halfway down my first intermediate [blue] hill, I somehow lost the edge on my uphill ski and wiped out. Once I got back down the hill to the ski lift line, my left ski got caught on the railing and I promptly fell over again. At least it wasn't as embrassing as last year, when I stumbled while moving into the loading position, and they had to stop the lift for me.

After these two incidents, I got my composure back. During one of the ski lifts rides, I was chatting with an avid snowboarder. She had skied for most of her life, but started snowboarding three years ago, and hasn't looked back since. She mentioned that skiing is easy to pick up, but hard to improve on. Snowboarding is harder to pick up, but once you learn the basics, it's easy to do fun tricks and improve. I should really give snowboarding another try someday.

The morning runs taught me a couple lessons:

• It's impossible to find anyone on a ski hill. Everyone looks the same.
  
• I wasn't the only one who can't hear a cellphone ring on the slopes. Sorry for the missed calls.
  
• There were a lot of people carrying walkie-talkies.
• Skiing downhill on cross-country skis looks so weird! Never thought it was possible.
  

Everyone got back together for lunch at 1pm. I had the poutine last time, so I decided to try the $10 chicken burger. The chick breast seemed to have been just boiled in water, and then tossed on a grill a couple times. It didn't even have any grill marks - very unappetizing. The Miracle Whip mayo was the only thing that was good. T got the poutine and commented, "I love poutine, but this isn't poutine." Fun lunch discussions - how difficult it is to roll in a kayak, the difference between a tunnel and a half pipe, how to get snow inside a tunnel, etc.

Afternoon session was awesome. We just tackled all the slopes from west to east and then from east to west again. I didn't have the nerves to try the moguls this time. The slope was starting to get a bit icy and I didn't want to take a spill again. I promise to tackle them next time for sure! Tried to focus on my technique some more. Unfortunately, the runs at Moonstone are much too short (the hills aren't mountains here). The Tremblant idea is getting more and more appealing...

Everyone met back at the St. Louis chalet at the end of the day, except for T and his friend H. While the rest of us returned our equipment and lounged around, T&H finally straggled through the door, looking as if they were about to collapse. Apparently, they had missed the last lift from Moonstone base, and so couldn't take the crossover trail back to Mt. St. Louis base. They literally trekked for 20 minutes on the road from one base to the other with their snowboards. I cannot imagine how they survived that ordeal after a day of snowboarding, or why they didn't call us to pick them up.

I've been debating whether to invest into my own pair of skis. I think if I had my own skis, I might go skiing more than two or three times a year. Also, my skiing will hopefully be more consistent, and the boots won't hurt as much! I might dig around the season ending discounts later this year for good deals.

Lower back and shoulders really aching this morning.