Yesterday we did 360s, moguls, trees, rollers..lots of laughing, showing off, playing together....Does it GET better than that? Time is so short...won't be long before my growing sons will have nothing to do with old Mom, so I'm determined the make the most of it now!
We really wanted to go to Mt Disney, and did so during Katrina's morning lesson. But it takes a few lifts to get there, and back, so 2 hours is gobbled up fast. Still, the one run we did had us hooked, and we had to go back after lunch.
I couldn't get an all-day ski school reservation for Katrina, so got the idea from another Mom (a French one who lives a few blocks away in Sunnyvale!) to put Katrina into a separate afternoon lesson. But Katrina was not happy about this plan, she wanted to ski with us after lunch. I persuaded her by promising hot chocolate, a taco for dinner, and that we'd do whatever she wanted to tomorrow, and she angrily agreed. "Oh FINE."
After lunch the boys and I took right off for Disney, and headed straight for the backside. We discovered "Donald Duck" to be groomed with just enough snow to keep it from being an ice-sliding traverse, with some fun ungroomed detours. This is wide and predictable, but it's still steep! Julian did GREAT. He gets himself freaked out sometimes, but handles it with courage and aplomb. (Nothing fazes Gabriel!)
Gabriel really nailed the 360 thing, way better than I can. Now he makes it a point of going around multiple times, and more impressively, he can do it on any terrain, like on Donald Duck. Not me! (Not yet! But I will!)
At the bottom of these runs were some "optional routes" through the trees, and you could always count on Julian finding his way there. He doesn't look very steady, but isn't afraid of falling and as discomombulated as he can seem, he makes his way through!
When it was time to head back, we tried a new run: "Nancy's Couloir" or "East Face" -- not sure which one it was. It's right next to the top of the Mt Disney lift and pretty much goes straight down, and it's groomed. It was steeper than I expected, but my Squaw lesson helped prepare me for that and I wasn't scared. Julian got himself psyched out, he needed to stop a lot (always on his rear end), but was never unsafe or out of control. Gabriel....well, Gabriel. Nothing fazes that kid! He loved it.
On our way back, we met up with Katrina's lesson. She'd forgiven me for putting her in it, and seemed to be doing great. She was right behind the instructor, and honestly though she's still very committed to the pizza-wedge, she actually looked like the strongest skiier in the group -- right behind the teacher, moving with confidence, able to change direction easily. It amazes me sometimes seeing my little, little girl just blasting along like there's nothing to it!
In fact, it looked like her teacher was going to take the group down Donner's Way, Sugarbowl's
"intro" black-diamond, but the one boy in the class kept falling and the teacher thought better of it.
But Katrina was so excited about having done "half a black diamond" that she was dying to do it again! So after her lesson, she wanted to ski some more, and I said, OK, let's take you all the way down Donner's Way! I thought she could handle it. She was thrilled and couldn't WAIT.
First, Mom gets a precious picture! For once, they cooperated!
Katrina in front of her first black-diamond sign!
And here she goes! Really, very anticlimactic. She had no trouble with it, even though she's still doing mostly "pizza" in her skiing. She WILL learn, and she's been thinking a lot about what her instructors tell her, but it takes a while for that click moment to happen (like Gabriel and his 360s).
But she did GREAT -- no fear, no falling, no complaining -- she was actually chatting happily the whole time. She needs to lose the kid-pizza-wedge thing to advance to anything harder, but she's ready.
Julian joined us from "Steamers," the black-diamond mogul-y run we'd done yesterday, that's right next to Donner's Way, and I got a real treat of a photo: all 3 on the black diamond!
But now Katrina wants to do Steamers tomorrow!!
The easiest way back to the Den where our things were is to ride up a lift again, and work our way down Mt. Judah. This time, the boys didn't complain about having to wait for Katrina, there's not a lot of waiting anymore. Another year and she won't need lessons every time either.!
What a turnaround from the days of being stuck on the magic carpet all day! I just love skiing with the boys, and with Katrina's enthusiam and building skill, it won't be long before I'm no longer "ski-sitting" her either. WHAT FUN!!
2/22/2013
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