Tag: skiing

An EPIC Ski Season 2018

Last winter was the first time that I skied a full season:

  • Dec: Steven’s Pass, PNW (2 or 3 days)
  • Jan: Killington, New England (1 day)
  • Jan: Wachusett, New England (1 day)
  • Jan: Les Arcs, France (5 days)
  • Feb: Northstar, CA (3 days)
  • Mar: Sugarloaf, New England (2 days)
  • Apr: Mammoth, CA (2-3 days)

Total: ~17 days

After buying individual lift tickets at each resort, often last minute, we decided last spring that it would be more economical to buy a season pass. Epic Local Pass made the most sense to us at the time because it would allow us to travel to many different resorts across the country and the holiday restrictions didn’t bother us too much. We would have gotten the full Epic Pass if they would allow 5 days at one French resort, but they only gave 2 days at each this year, which is completely useless, because unlike the US, the housing is meant to be rented one week at a time. In the end, we didn’t go ski in France this year so it’s a moot point.

So far this season, we have visited:

  • Jan: Stowe, New England (3 days)
  • Jan: Northstar, CA (2 days)
  • Feb: Keystone, CO (1 evening)*
  • Feb: Vail, CO (1 day)*
  • Feb: Breckenridge, CO (2 days)*
  • Feb: Beaver Creek, CO (1 day)*

* On the same Presidents’ Day Weekend trip. We didn’t plan it this way, but we ended up visiting all the Vail properties in Colorado! (While Arapahoe Basin is on the pass this year, it is actually just a partnership, not Vail-owned.)

Total: 10 days + 3 planned

We are planning one more trip to Park City and then we’ll see if we end up skiing any more this season. Unfortunately, the snow has not been great in many areas of the US. Stupid climate change. On the bright side, I have only skied on packed powder so far. Last year, I had to deal with frozen granular at Sugarloaf.

My First Skiing Experience

It was my first time skiing.

I went snowboarding once last year with my siblings and spent the entire time falling and getting back up again. Otherwise, I had no experience with winter sports whatsoever.

This past weekend, my boyfriend and I joined Boston Ski and Sports Club (BSSC) on a trip to Sugarloaf in Maine. He’s a high intermediate skier who has made dedicated ski trips to various locations in the US and abroad, so it is in my best interest to learn as quickly as possible.

It was extremely cold the night we arrived at Sugarloaf (-6 degrees F!), but our room was way too hot (something wrong with the heater). The next day was slightly better (0 degrees F) but my face still stung from the cold. Later, I find out that 0 degrees is actually pretty good for skiing.

I took a 90-minute “Learn to Ski” lesson Saturday morning. It was supposed to be a group lesson, but with two instructors and only two students, it became two separate one-on-one lessons. By the end of the lesson, I had ridden on a ski lift for the first time in my life (not as scary as I thought) and I could navigate through the easiest trail, the Birches, without falling or crashing into something/someone. To me, that is a huge accomplishment, considering the number of hours I spent trying to learn how to stay on a snowboard for more than two seconds. I definitely see the value of lessons now.

The next morning, my bf took me to a different beginner trail, the Landing, which is only slightly more elevated than the one I had practiced on the day before. It didn’t look so bad from the bottom or even from the lift going up, but as I was skiing down, I got scared. I was going way too fast and I didn’t really know how to slow down or stop without falling. After that first run, I was hesitant to try again and went back to the Birches. My bf decided that he wanted to pay for a private lesson for each of us, which was really the best idea because he wasn’t doing so well helping me advance and he was probably bored skiing bunny slopes. By the end of my second lesson, I could ski down the Landing using wide turns.

After this lesson was when everything started going downhill. The second day was warmer, (around 32 degrees F) and unfortunately, it started raining near the end of my lesson. By 5pm, everything was icy. I couldn’t see myself safely walking back to our condo, so we went to guest services and found the number for the shuttle service. The shuttle dropped us off about 100 yards away from our condo because it couldn’t drive up one of the roads without slipping backwards. Unfortunate for us, where he dropped us off wasn’t the closest location to our condo and we had no idea which direction to head towards because it was dark. It took us between 30-60 minutes to figure out the way back, walking extremely slow to avoid slipping on ice.

The next morning, only 9 trails of the 160 available were groomed, but they were all beginner trails, including the Landing, so I decided to try skiing some more. I didn’t realize until I got up to the top of the trail that it was mostly icy with extremely thin layers of snow on top. As someone who had only been skiing for two days, I was not comfortable with skiing on ice (heck, I can barely walk on ice) but I was already up there and there were only really two ways down – ski or walk. I took the method that would get me down the fastest. Using the techniques that I learned from my second lesson, I managed to slowly ski my way down to the bottom without falling (although I did fall on my butt as I was getting off the lift). I was terrified, but I did it! That said, I wasn’t about to repeat that experience, so I quickly went back to the lodge to get vouchers for my equipment rental and ski pass. Bf was scared for me as I was skiing on the ice patches so he was fine with calling it a day at that point too.

Despite my two scary encounters with ice, the weekend was quite fun. As long as I survive, bad experiences make good stories, right? More importantly, I really enjoyed learning to ski and am looking forward to more skiing adventures this winter!