Indy Pass - Eastern Ski Safari 2023

[Jenny]

Started on our way today. Decided to break up the drive so we stopped after 5 hours and are spending the night at a B&B in Niagara Falls. It's only a 10 minute walk down to the walk along the rim, so we checked in, walked around for a couple of hours, and now we’re holed up in our cozy room, watching the Oscars red carpet.

Here’s a nice pic of our room.



The bed looks like it’ll be comfy, too.



Here’s a couple of the falls.

 

[Jenny]

Sorry, having problems. Maybe now here are a couple of the falls.





Those wires - for the zip line. No effing way!

 

[Jenny]

And for fun, a couple more of our room.

 

[shadoj]

Neat windows and woodwork. Any idea what year the B&B was built?

The falls are so incredible up close. Hope you had enough sunlight to experience the rainbow effect in the mist.

 

[Knitjenious]

(Waves from Buffalo) Enjoy your brief stay in Western NY!

 

[Jenny]

Tomorrow we have home-cooked breakfast, then drive to Queensbury, NY for the night. Then we ski West Mountain on Tuesday, and head for VT afterwards.

Wednesday - Mad River Glen (not on Indy, but we're here, it's here, so . . .)
Thursday - likely Bolton Valley, unless we miss being into the car. Then, I suppose we could head for somewhere else.
Friday - Bolton Valley
Saturday - Jay Peak

We'll then take off after skiing and get part of the way home, so Sunday isn’t such a long car day. @Jilly - we'll probably stay in Belleville Saturday night since we know there’s a hotel right by the LCBO!

Stay tuned for more!

 

[Jenny]

Neat windows and woodwork. Any idea what year the B&B was built?

The falls are so incredible up close. Hope you had enough sunlight to experience the rainbow effect in the mist.

1901 - here's a link to it.

A night to remember

 

[Jenny]

I need to remember to take pics of the downstairs tomorrow at breakfast.

 

[Jilly]

We'll then take off after skiing and get part of the way home, so Sunday isn’t such a long car day. @Jilly - we'll probably stay in Belleville Saturday night since we know there’s a hotel right by the LCBO!

Stay tuned for more!

Damn - I'll be in Tremblant....

 

[Jenny]

Damn - I'll be in Tremblant....

I figured, darn it.

 

[Jenny]

Haven’t even skied yet and my quads are tired. Multiple trips up and down three floors of narrow wooden stairs will do that, I guess.

 

[ski diva]

This is such bad timing for me; if it wasn't for Jon's having a knee replacement on Wednesday, I'd definitely meet up with you. Still, good timing for you: a major nor'easter coming through tomorrow!

 

[ilovepugs]

Hope the knee replacement goes well for Jon @ski diva — don’t worry, Baxter and I will keep @Jenny plenty entertained!!

 

[skinnyfootskis]

Good luck John @ski diva . He will be much happier soon.

 

[Jenny]

This is such bad timing for me; if it wasn't for Jon's having a knee replacement on Wednesday, I'd definitely meet up with you. Still, good timing for you: a major nor'easter coming through tomorrow!

I know! When I saw that he was having surgery and when it was I just shook my head - figures.

And as long as the storm doesn’t affect travel, I think we’ll be good. Been texting with @ilovepugs and we have several contingencies ready to go!

Good luck to Jon. Our friends had knee replacement summer a few years ago and are both happy they did it.

 

[Jenny]

Oh, to continue the report - we made it to Queensbury today. Scheduled to ski West Mountain tomorrow. Then, depending on weather and power and whatever, we’ll either drive to @ilovepugs/Dr. pugs place or we’ll potentially check back in to our hotel here and drive over Wednesday morning early. If we have to stay here another night, it’ll be fine - there's pool, hot tub, fitness center, and restaurants, all on-site. And the main drag is only a block away.

 

[Jenny]

So we skied West Mountain today. I need to come back when the snow is a bit less moist - OK, a LOT less wet. This seems like a place that would be fun to see all of.

Here's a picture from the parking lot when we arrived.



Not too busy first thing. Lifts were delayed while they shoveled everything clear, but we got started before noon anyway. Not sure what time they really began, since everyone kind of anticipated when we saw the lift start, and then we stood there a while while they shoveled off the chairs as they went by.





Managed to do five runs, I think. The snow was so wet and heavy and deep! I was in at least to my knees, and that was before I fell, lol. And, in the runs to falls competition the falls won. First run racked up three falls alone, then I think I settled in to one per run. But the last run was fall free! I sent DH out for one run on his own while I went and got some water and rested up a small bit. One of the falls took me a good 15 minutes to get up and put back together, because my skis were pretty deep under me and it took a while to be able to clear an area around my bindings so I could release them and stand back up. Then I still had to get the skis on, AND make it down the rest of the way.

On a positive note, much of the time I was able to turn when I wanted (not always, though - sometimes I fell instead of turning) and I could actually control the turn shape a lot of the time, too. My form was atrocious, but as long as I as upright I was happy. And since this is the kind of snow that I was in when I shredded my ankle, the fact that I skied it and came out injury free is also a win.

Anyway, we finished up and decided to see about getting to VT. Parking lot was a bit muddy.



Made it to @ilovepugs place just fine, and now we're ready for Mad River Glen tomorrow.

 

[Jenny]

More later, when I’m on my tablet instead of the phone, but today at Mad River Glen is among the highest of my best skiing days ever - it was amazing!

 

[Jenny]

OMG we had so much fun! Besides Mr. Jenny, @ilovepugs and Dr. Pugs, @DebbieSue drove up and joined us for the day.

This was the first time we've been to MRG, and honestly, I expected to be overwhelmed by the conditions and probably the terrain, as I heard there were lots of bumps and those who have listened to me over the years know that they're not my favorite thing. But I wanted DH to have a good day, so I figured I could endure. So I was rewarded for my selflessness, lol.

I can’t tell you most of what runs we did, but I rode the single chair once, so I did ski from the top. It was quite a bit windier, though, so I went back to the double. DH, the good doctor and DebbieSue were over on the single chair for a while, while ilovepugs and I mainly did the double. I just followed her around and played.

There was world of difference between yesterday's snow, and today's, and that made all the difference for me. We did bumps after bumps, soft fluffy goodness, all day long. After all the falling yesterday, it felt like a little bit of redemption. Like, I haven’t all of a sudden forgotten how to do this.

Vibe here was really nice, and everyone really seemed to be having a good time. Everything just came together and made for one of the best, best days.

The divas - like my double goggle look? My goggle were fogging up so badly that I was basically skiing blind the first couple of runs, so I rummaged around DH's ski bag and got his ski sunglasses out and used those.
ilovepugs, me, DebbieSue



Morning lineup



Snow on the pergola over the hot tub at the pug homestead - looks like waffles!

 

[Jenny]

At Bolton today - forecast showed light rain possible tomorrow pm? Gotta check that.

Slid down one horrible ungroomed, hugely bumpy cat track fro the top of the Wilderness chair. Do not recommend, lol!