Skiing, Day 1

Today was an adventure! It started off so well...enormous gondola up the mountain...

Soren really enjoyed the ride.

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the next few hours. There are a few reasons for that: 1) Because I was too white-knuckled to hold anything other than my ski poles, and 2) Because there was so much snow and wind and so little visibility that I couldn't really see the snow under my skiis.

I did learn a valuable lesson: that ski trail map that you just shove into your pocket is more valuable when you read it before jumping on a lift. Ignoring that particular gem caused me to end up on a run that was way above my level. It might have been manageable had I been able to actually see the run in front of me. But with the wind and low light, I couldn't see if there was a bump, a drop off, a pile of powder, or a steep hill. I did make it down, even with my skiis still on. But it was a long, and very unglamorous exhibition.

We seriously debated whether running into the restaurant would be too wimpy. But I was quite relieved to find about half of our group already there by the time my group got there. There's something especially comforting about eating a fabulous meal on top of the Alps instead of trying to keep yourself alive out there!

I passed a few hours like this:

While the ski conditions weren't great, it actually was a terrific day. It is snowing like mad right now, and the predictions are for it to continue. So I'm not sure how tomorrow will be. We'll see.