Lexicon Lesson #3 & #4

Today was day one on the slopes and I have a sore shoulder and a few good stories to prove it. I got up early to aim for first tracks:

First tracks: The envy of every skier's eye; when you get first access to new snow and get to leave your "tracks" behind you as you schuss down the mountain.

Now the big snow here fell on Saturday night and Sunday, so this was not fresh powder, but since Vail had not opened Blue Sky Basin (one of the best places for powder) on Sunday due to avalanches, that meant today the snow would be pretty good in Blue Sky. Plus it was my first day. And I was never one to be late for the first day of anything. So I was up at 6:30 and treking to the bus by 7:45. Now, when Colleen was telling me about her place, she mentioned her place was "right on the bus route." This statement was a lie. It is about a half mile from the stop, which wouldn't be bad if their was not a ridiculously steep decline on the way there and incline on the way back, at the end of the day when your legs are fried. Adding to the complexity and joy of this walk, is that it's slippery as hell on the way down, you are walking in ski boots and carrying your skis and poles. Oh yeah, at it's -8 at this time of day.

The bus came on time though and I made it to the mountain by 8:30. The lift straight out of Vail Village was closed and that meant I got to hike another half mile uphill carrying my skis to another lift. When I got there, two nice guys in line for the lift asked me to join them on the way up. This is common practice, but I must have had my charm working for me because at the end of the lift, they invited me to ski with them for the day. They were nice, cute and of course, two single guys from Denver, I mean Menver. The rumor is that Denver has about six men for every woman. Remind me why I don't live there again, please?

Anyway, Chad and Ben and I headed over for a day of pretty hard skiing in Blue Sky Basin. Since it wasn't fresh powder and it was so blasted cold out, this made the snow extremely grabby:

Grabby: Snow that is so cold that it doesn't glide easily under your skis. And it unexpectedly can grab your skis and throw your body forward and make you look like a cartoon character who was hit from behind by a semi truck.

And this folks, is what happened to me and resulted in one impressive fall that reaffirmed my faith in my new helmet. I was cruising along at a pretty good clip, following cute Ben and that nasty, mean, grabby snow stopped my skis dead in their tracks. And we all know how physics works, the momentum of your body wants to keep going at that same zippy speed. Thus, you are literally thrown out of your skis and ususally land on your head, which I did. Thankfully the snow was pretty soft and my helmet was new. I then hit with my right shoulder. For a minute I didn't move. Thoughts raced through my head and I said to myself, "Holy shit, what if you came all the way out here to ski for three weeks and you break your shoulder on the first day?!" But then I wiggled it and realized I was fine. Cute Ben came back to help me get back in my skis (which were about 20 feet behind me), I shook it off and we kept on skiing for another 3 hours or so in some wicked fun, knee-deep powder.

At about 3pm, my legs were absolutely fried. Apparently I didn't do nearly enough squats for this kind of heavy snow skiing. So I said buh-bye to my new friends and we said we'd meet up again if they come up to Vail again in the next few weeks. I then headed to the Tap Room in Vail Village for a beer at the bar. I have never been one who is good at going to the bar by myself. Guys do it all the time, but for some reason it's hard for a lot of us women. But I guess that's why I'm here: to do things that aren't in the norm, to become a better a skiier and a bit of a more interesting person too. So I grabbed a beer, chatted it up with the bartender and got an invitation to come back for all-you-can eat wings night at 5pm. He must have known I was from the Midwest!