Sunday video

Here, since I'm sure you all wanted to see it, is video evidence of Miss Maya's newfound love of skiing. And my crappy camera work. Not to mention my abysmal lens cleaning abilities...

Last day of the season

Ski season, that is. And by "last day" I mean "last day as far as I know."

Skiing? On April 5th? Why yes, thank you. And it wasn't bad, either. The weather held out for the most part - a few icy flakes on occasion, but generally reasonable. And there were a few inches of new from last night's snow. It got a little slushy in the afternoon, but not as bad as it was the last time we went to Snoqualmie back in February. Which is good, 'cause I really don't need any more thumb injuries, thank you very much.

So, why after three great days of skiing at nice ski areas like Baker and Crystal did we head up to Snoqualmie again? Well, for one thing it's "free" since we've got passes. And for another it was the final make-up lesson for all those weekends lost to avalanche control. But it wasn't just a normal make-up lesson, no...it was also "Webbski Fun Weekend" or whatever. Which meant the kids got to wear numbers like they were in a race:



And race they did. At least once, anyway, in a double-slalom thing. Logan apparently won his race, thanks to his opponent falling down. But hey, a win is a win, right? Right!

And now that ski season is officially over, it's time to focus more on the bike. Like, oh, a lot more.

The end of the season

The next to the last day of the Chicken family ski season has come and gone. We spent Sunday and Monday at Baker, where Maya decided that she actually does like skiing and Paige remembered that, while it hurts, it is kind of fun. So today we got up early, left the house early, and drove the 8 bagillion miles (OK, so it only felt like that) to Crystal Mountain.

Paige and the kids hadn't been there before...I went for the Vertical Express for MS ski event back in February. It was a gorgeous day - sunny, cool but not cold, and there were very few people there...pretty much ideal conditions!

We started out on the Discovery chair, the Crystal bunny hill. Maya, as you can see from the photo, was excited.

Heck, even Paige and Logan seemed to be pretty psyched!

After a few runs on Discovery the kids were bored with it and even Paige was ready to move on to something a bit harder, so we headed over to the Chinoook Express six-pack chair, then moved on to the Forest Queen Express. This was the only mistake of the day...while the Queens run down from the top of the chair is rated a green circle, there's a pretty steep section of the hill, and Paige don't do the steep. She had to side-step down a chunk of it, but once she got to the bottom she did fine. The kids, meanwhile, rampaged their way down pretty much every hill in their way.

Once we got back down to the base we had lunch, then headed back up. While Paige stayed on the low runs from the top of Chinook Express, the kids and I headed back up to Forest Queen until they were worn out, then went back down to meet the wife. For our final run, Logan and I went up to the top - not all the way up to High Campbell, since we're not up for that double-diamond stuff, but up the Rainier Express to take in the view. And what a view it was! The mountain was out in full force, looking even more impressive than the crappy cell phone camera can communicate:

So, the up shot of three great ski days in one week?

1. Maya is now stoked on the skiing and ready for lessons next year
2. Paige is smitten with Crystal and is now stoked for next year's Vertical Express
3. My legs have been sore for pretty much a week.

In other words, everything's bitchin'!

So about what I said yesterday...

Today was, well, not quite the same. It was sunny and gorgeous, yes. And I went skiing, yes. So far so good. But that's where the similarity ends.

The difference starts with the snow. Today we were at Summit Central up at Snoqualmie Pass, and it was a weird mix of ice and slush. When we got there at 9-ish it was all ice, all the time. The groomed runs were big frozen washboards. Great for a foot massage, but that's about it.

The next difference was the temperature. While yesterday was warm at times, I never had to adjust any layering. Not so today...after the first run it was back to the car to drop the chamois shirt.

Which brings me to difference number 3: Yesterday I didn't lock the keys in the car, today I did. Lucky for me, the security guys at the Summit are experts at unlocking cars.

The final difference is that yesterday my legs were sore, but that was the worst of it. Today my legs are sore, true, but so is my hand. Why? Because I had a nice face-plant on the third or fourth run of the day and manage to sprain my right thumb. Like to the point where I thought I might have partially dislocated it. So that pretty much ended my day at 11 AM, and let me deal with getting the car unlocked while Dave got to continue skiing. The punk.

What's that old saying?

"A bad day fishing beats a good day at work?" Something like that. Anyhow, I would posit that a good day skiing beats pretty much any day at work, except maybe the day at work when they tell you to leave work and go skiing. Or give you a gabilliion dollars.

So today was day 1 of the Heuga Center's "Vertical Express for MS" ski event thingy at Crystal Mountain. It didn't suck at all.

Back in High School I skied at Crystal 'cause that's where the bus the school chartered went. As I recall, it was better than Snoqualmie Summit, but it was also a lot harder. And I got stuck at the top of more runs I wasn't able to ski.

That was in, like, 1983. Haven't been back until today. And I must say, it's definitely better than the Summit. Maybe not better enough to get me to spring the extra $400 or whatever it is for a season pass up there (that 2 hour drive isn't much fun), but definitely enough to think seriously about renting a condo or room up there for a few days next year.

So anyway, on to the event itself. It's a three-day thing, and unfortunately Dave and I were only able to go today. Which, it turns out, wasn't a bad thing. First, we didn't have to go to work. Second, as you can see from the photo at the top, it was sunny - at least in the morning. And even when it clouded up, it was still bitchin, as shown in this shot of Dave standing in front of some valley leading over to where Mt. Rainier would be if there weren't clouds.

And thirdly, since it was Friday, there were very few people there. I think the longest we stood in line was maybe a minute, and we never had that "I'm going to be steamrolled by a mob of snowboarders" feeling that you get at the Summit. In fact, it looked a lot like this most of the day:

And best of all, we raised a bunch of money for a good cause. And second-best of all, since Dave and I can't go tomorrow due to ski school up at the Summit, Dave's wife and daughter get to use our passes and be honorary one-day members of the mighty Team Minkey Boodle!

Ugh...

So here it is, Saturday night of the big President's Day weekend, and I'm bushed. Got up early (well, late for a work day but early for Saturday), took the boy up to ski lessons, skied for about 5 or 6 hours, and completely toasted my legs. I am, as they say, wicked out of shape. Then we had band practice tonight getting ready for the big pre-reunion show on the 29th (at the L.A.B. at Seattle Drum School...more info on the band MySpace page). So now I'm beat.

Oh, and it doesn't help that Mrs. Chicken is down with the crud, fighting a sore throat and a fever. I'm guessing we're not going up to Bellingham as planned tomorrow night...just guessing...