skiing

GUEST POST by Kevin!*

*Gabby figured it would be good for me to make some posts every once in a while, since I am also a part of this marriage. Pretty much everything other than her classroom on the blog does involve me, but last week I went skiing with one of my very good friends Adam Rich up at Brighton. As Gabby did not come, she cannot write about the experience. Hence the guest post. Look for many more to come!

So for those who have lived in Utah for at least the last two years, you know that the winter of 2010-2011 was incredible for those who love winter and really bad for those who don't particularly like winter. The winter of 2011-2012 was just the opposite, where skiers/snowboarders were disappointed with the snow and those who don't care for the white stuff were happy. So far this year, it looked like it was going to be a repeat of last year.

My buddy Adam decided to come out for the weekend of Dec 7-9 anyway from L.A. to Utah, despite the fact I kept telling him that there isn't any snow to do any skiing. He wisely neglected my thoughts and pursued his plans anyway. Turned out to be a very smart choice.

(Side note: I started skiing when I was 8, but switched to snowboarding at 13 or 14 since all my friends were doing it and it was the "cool" thing to do. I guess peer pressure got the best of me. Last year I finally put a pair of skis back on, and it was awesome. I look forward to doing it more in the future. Ok, back to the post.)

 

This is me. On skis.

Even in the morning leaving to go skiing, it didn't look so great. The weather reports didn't look so great neither, so needless to say I wasn't stoked about having a crappy ski day. At least the first time going of the season is always a treat, regardless of snow conditions. Fortunately, we must have done something to please the Snow Gods because it was dumping up in the mountains. On top of that, lots of people couldn't get up the canyon because of the snow, so there were consequently few people actually on the mountain. 

We got the hang of skiing again real quick, it was my friend's second or third time ever going. We stayed on mostly blue runs in the morning, then found this great great great black diamond run on the front side of the mountain. Nobody was on it, and it was partially wooded, and the powder in most areas came up to your shins (sometimes your knees!). We spent the rest of the day on that run, since it was barely tracked out and had a lot to explore. It was a blast.  

 An action shot of Adam.

A failed action shot of me.

All in all, it was a very fun day and it was very fun to be on skis again. I did figure that Adam is good luck, since the last two times he has come to Utah this year he also brought the only snow we have gotten (at that time). Hopefully the snow will continue to fall so we will have an awesome season for skiing and snowboarding!