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Spring skiing blues

elemmac

Angel Diva
To each their own on skiing in shorts, tanks, bras or bathing suits. For me I love being able to go out an ski in a t-shirt or tank top (and shorts on the hottest of days). 70-some-odd-degrees hit western Maine yesterday, skiing in a tank top, a warm breeze in the air, the sounds of babbling brooks, no crowds, the smell of sunblock and fresh mountain air, and the cool spray of snow on your arms. Love it.

Oh wait...was this supposed to be spring skiing blues?
 

newboots

Angel Diva
I was up in Vermont yesterday, but it was almost 80*. My boyfriend said we could ski, but it would be hard. So we didn't. I expect more skiing, although I can really feel the spring blues, the winding down. There was never a choice before not to ski!

My only experience with spring skiing so far was hot and sweaty, but not extremely difficult. Had to add wax as the day warmed up to keep the snow from reaching up and grabbing the skis. It was around 60* that day.
 

RachelV

Administrator
Staff member
Not young anymore, wouldn't have done it then anyway (even if I HAD been skiing then, which I wasn't) but all I can think of is the amount of sunscreen I would need!

I'm going to Mexico this weekend and so far the forecast is looking pretty rainy. My first reaction was honestly, "well, at least now I don't have to worry as much about absolutely frying my pasty, pasty white torso."
 

bounceswoosh

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
To be honest, it always gets windy/chilly enough as I go up the lift that I'm not very interested in wearing shorts or a tee.

Skinning, as @pinto demonstrated, is a different story. I usually change clothes slightly before descending, anyway.
 

SallyCat

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I skied Killington five days this past week: It was HOT. Lots of people kept saying "Yeah, with spring skiing you really need to take it easy and do short days." And I was like "NO WAY, MAN: I'm on vacation and I'm skiing first chair to last!" And I did, because I never learn. I'd come home sunburned and exhausted and promptly fall asleep on the couch in my ski clothes. Wake up at 1am, hydrate, shower, and go back to sleep.
Totally worth it.
But I'm done for the east coast season.
 

MrsPlow

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Wish I'd thought about sunscreen yesterday - fog and cold gave way to some beautiful sunshine and blue skies, and a souvenir goggle tan.
 

NewEnglandSkier

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I skied Killington five days this past week: It was HOT. Lots of people kept saying "Yeah, with spring skiing you really need to take it easy and do short days." And I was like "NO WAY, MAN: I'm on vacation and I'm skiing first chair to last!" And I did, because I never learn. I'd come home sunburned and exhausted and promptly fall asleep on the couch in my ski clothes. Wake up at 1am, hydrate, shower, and go back to sleep.
Totally worth it.
But I'm done for the east coast season.

Well that's thing when you're taking a vacation--you want to ski (or whatever activity you're on vacation to do) regardless of what the weather is, conditions etc. I mean you already paid for it and took the time to travel to get there so might as well do it.

I'm one of those people who almost always forgets sunblock unless I'm specifically going to the beach or someplace where it's really obvious. I always end up with goggle burn/tan in the spring. I was proud of myself for remembering to wear sunblock when I skied on Saturday.
 

luliski

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I always wear sunscreen skiing, but because I'm very fair-skinned my face gets red in the wind and cold. I can't tell you how many times I've had complete strangers tell me that I need to put sunscreen on.
 

newboots

Angel Diva
I always wear sunscreen skiing, but because I'm very fair-skinned my face gets red in the wind and cold. I can't tell you how many times I've had complete strangers tell me that I need to put sunscreen on.

Everybody's a critic!
 

Lmk92

Angel Diva
Hmmm. Same thing happens to my daughter. She actually developed an allergy to cold when she was younger, as she was fighting the remnants of a virus. It's much better now, but she still has a weird sensitivity. I'll have to make sure she puts the sunscreen on in the winter!
 

Jenny

Angel Diva
I always wear sunscreen skiing, but because I'm very fair-skinned my face gets red in the wind and cold. I can't tell you how many times I've had complete strangers tell me that I need to put sunscreen on.
I've had people do that to me in the summer. Even when I wear it faithfully, if I'm outside and hot I guess I can get pretty red.
 

mustski

Angel Diva
I have nothing against shorts, bikinis, tanks, etc. I'm just way too vain to go out in public in shorts until I get a tan on my legs!
 

luliski

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I've been having fun with spring skiing, and I'm off work today and tomorrow. Can't decide if I should stay home and run, swim and pull weeds, or drive up to Tahoe and ski tomorrow. I do have to be home tomorrow by 6 p.m. for a birthday celebration, so I'd have to head home by about 2:30 to be safe.
 

bounceswoosh

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I said goodbye to Breck yesterday at closing day. There was so much snow still, especially on the upper mountain.

Honestly, I shouldn't have skied. My knee hurt the moment I stepped out of bed. It hurt with every step of the ten minute walk to the lift. It hurt skiing down to the SuperConnect to get me to the Vista House, where I'd planned to meet some people.

I knew I needed a warm-up run, but I didn't want to be late.

So I sat with Fran, an older friend who charges harder than most men in their prime. I realized I really would have had plenty of time to take that warm up run and test my knee. More people trickled in. All hard chargers. I worried that they'd of course want to go up high to the challenging terrain right away, but they were smart and wanted to ski the slush bumps. But I also realized that today, they would be out-pacing me by a long shot (as opposed to normally, when I'd be last, but within an acceptable margin).

As we got up to go ski some mellow terrain, I saw a friend from my lesson group this season. I excused myself from Fran and chased Tracy down. Yes, of course I could ski with her and her husband! Phew. She warned me they were only doing a few runs, then going down to watch the Plunge. No problem. I knew my knee wasn't up for many runs today, anyway.

We headed to Six Chair. From there, I did a couple of runs down 4 O'clock with Tracy while her husband took Amen, a natural half pipe filled with slush bumps (although at this point it's filled in enough that it's almost flat across). My knee loosened up enough to ski Amen with him, and I was happy with my skiing - although at the bottom, he asked which knee was bothering me. I told him. He nodded.

View of the E chair bump runs from Amen. Does it look like closing day to you?
YxOUyEy.jpg


They headed off to the base while I took another run down Amen. It hurt. My knee was so stiff that it was like skiing on a peg leg - no joint at all. I made it down just fine, but it hurt. I wasn't sure about my options to get back down to Peak 9, but I decided I didn't want to walk back up to the condo from that base, anyway. So I took one more ride up Six Chair. I shed a few tears, thinking I'd really wanted to say goodbye to Whale's Tail, at least. But it would have been painful, if not stupid, to try. I can hold on to my memories from a couple of weeks ago, when my knee was much better, and I had several really wonderful runs there.

I saw my instructor friend Kevin and his student at the Vista House. I stopped in and, while they took a breather, shared the Dancing with the Mountains videos - both the original John Denver and the one this season at Alta, which led to me showing the student a video of Ski Ballet. Kevin said he did some ski ballet early in its development, but not in its heyday. The student said he really wanted to go watch the Plunge, but Kevin convinced him to do one more run up high before calling it. I told them I'd go find us some seats at Roy's.

Original:

Remake:


So I painfully made my way down the blue to the bar. It was Slorp City, and every little jostle hurt my knee. I tried to make it bend, but I couldn't, so skiing was ... interesting. I found a nice spot seated and facing the Plunge, although you couldn't see the water, just the entrance and the exit. They had towels for everyone coming through, which I thought was a nice touch.

hhXNoiS.jpg


I chilled at the bar for a couple of hours with Kevin and his student before I limped to the gondola, limped to the bus, limped to the condo. I'm glad I skied, if only for a few runs (and Chair 6 didn't register for EpicMix! I don't even get credit!). I'm glad I had one more slush bump on Amen. I don't plan for this to be my last ski day of the season, but I'll miss Breck, and it feels so sad to close when there's so much snow out there still. My knee has been alarmingly sore for the last week, but it should recover eventually ...

Me and Kev:
ayNL7PC.jpg
 

luliski

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Sorry about your knee, @bounceswoosh. I hope it feels better after some rest. Those videos made me want to go skiing! Honestly, I would go if I had someone to go with, but my friends are all working and I'm not motivated to go alone (although I know I'd have fun once I got there).
 

bounceswoosh

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Sorry about your knee, @bounceswoosh. I hope it feels better after some rest. Those videos made me want to go skiing! Honestly, I would go if I had someone to go with, but my friends are all working and I'm not motivated to go alone (although I know I'd have fun once I got there).

After being reminded of that video, I added the song to my skiing playlist =)
 

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