Full story
12-02-2007
I made it to the snow today. Well, actually, the snow came to us, and I drove to Mt. Baker to take advantage of it.
- The drive from my door is one hour and twenty minutes, as long as I don’t need to stop for coffee.
- No matter what kind of shape I’m in, the first day hurts. And I’m in pretty good shape right now. I forget there are muscles I only use to keep myself from falling on my head. On the first day, I use those a lot.
- As with everything else physical I do, I need a little warm up. The first two runs today got my heart pumping. By runs four and five I was in the groove, shooshing away…
- The chair lifts at Mt Baker don’t have the guard rails, like at Whistler. So, when you’re way up there, sitting in a slippery snow-covered vinyl seat, you’re just a little more conscious of how high you are. And you’d really like the jittery snow boarder sitting next to you to stop screwing with their binding!
- Given the choice of two chair lifts, one busy and one not, go for the busy one. There’s a reason some lifts are busier: they go to cooler places.
- Just like at Disneyworld, there are singles lines. A single rider can jump in to fill a chair. So, being by myself, I got to jump to the front of every line. In an average 10 minute line, I waited no more than 30 seconds.
- I got a helmet for this year. So I also got a clava. It is awesome. It kept my neck and head warm and I pulled it up over my mouth when I was getting pelted by little snow pellets.
- When you start falling because you’re tired, go home.
- For a first trip to the mountain, it was everything I had hoped it would be.
Next week, I’m off to Steven Pass with Simon.
