Ski Trip 2012: Skiing

I know it is time to retire the skiing posts because I am having to force myself to sit down and continue to write about the trip. However, I think it is important to document Claire's first ski trip, so I am sucking it up and getting the last post over with. (Plus I still have some photos and videos from the trip that really need to be blogged.)

Ski Base Area

 We arrived in Steamboat Springs, CO during late afternoon. Apparently the night before (while we were in Tulsa) Steamboat had received 27 inches of snow. The sun was shining and there were a ton of people coming down off of the mountain. The town was picturesque.

View from the front of our condo.

We checked in to our condo and got all of our bags unloaded. Jared and I got our lift tickets and our skis, boots, and poles while his momma took Claire to the grocery store and got some groceries for the week.

Jared with Claire at the condo.

We had a really nice relaxing evening and a delicious dinner. I tried to go to bed early because I was exhausted from our terrible night's sleep in Tulsa and the long day of travel. Plus, I wanted to be well rested for our first day of skiing.

Playing in the snow.

Jared and I got up bright and early and made it to the Gondola shortly after it had opened. It was a LONG ride up to the top, but there were some amazing views of the snow-covered town. It had started snowing sometime in the night and it continued to snow throughout the entire day. I think by the end of our trip Steamboat had received over 40" of snow in just a few days.

Our first few runs down the mountain went pretty well. I was feeling good and my ski skills were coming back easily. So We just skied down a few blues and road a lift back up to the top. Then we skied a few more blues, I tried a blue-black (which did NOT go well) and then we road another lift back up to the top. This was my first mistake. I was exhausted by this point and I still had the entire mountain to ski down. Jared tried to find the quickest way to the bottom, but it required going down a slope that was NEVER ENDING. I swear it was the longest run I have ever tried to ski in my life. My legs were shaking and burning and I fell over and over. I even tweaked my knee pretty bad during one of the falls. I started crying and was really afraid that I was never going to make it to the bottom in one piece. I am pretty sure at some point I was cursing Jared for taking me on this wretched ski trip. However, we did finally make it back to the condo. I took some deep breaths and Jared's mom fed us a delicious lunch.


I didn't do any terribly permanent damage to my body, but my knee was really pretty sore and I was exhausted, so Jared had to ski by himself that afternoon.

After a good night's rest I was ready to go back up the next day...but I only went to the top of the mountain one time. Then I skied all the way back to the condo and had an early lunch. : ) I was not going to let myself get overtired and stuck at the top of the mountain again. We went back up in the afternoon and although my knee was still sore I felt a little bit better and we skied a few more runs than we had in the morning. We even took Claire up for a trip down the mountain. It was a fairly warm day and it wasn't snowing, so Jared wore her in a front carrier. We were just going to go up a small lift and do a green or two, but the ski resort has a policy that babies can only ride up in the Gondola, so we had to take Claire all the way up. We also wanted to come down the most direct route, so we ended up on the never ending blue run again (I hate that run!). Claire loved it though. I could hear her giggling as Jared skied down with her. She only got fussy when he had to stop and wait on me to catch up. Here is a short clip of Jared skiing with Claire towards the end of the trip. It was getting close to nap time and from the looks of it she was really ready for nap, or super bored of skiing. ; )

The third day was definitely the best day of skiing for me. The snow had finally stopped and they had managed to get all of the slopes groomed. It was also a Thursday and the mountain didn't seem as crowded. We did several runs and I ended the day feeling really good and thinking that I might actually let Jared take us skiing again. (I just need to remember to take it easier on the first day).

All in all it was a really great trip and I am so glad we got to take advantage of some vacation time as a family. Jared's mom was a true blessing to have along with us and it was really nice to be able to leave Claire inside were it was warm with her JuJu to look after her. It was also really nice for Jared and I to have some grown-up time together on the slopes. Here is one last video of Claire being super cute in a ski shop we went in to.