Super C came off the mountain glowing today.  Which was awesome to see because the last couple of weeks she’s been frustrated and mildly injured and just not that into it.  This morning i had to drag her out and she was quiet and didn’t seem at all excited to be here.  In Colorado, for USASA Nationals (at great effort and expense by her parents).

And the morning started badly.  we were both still tired from getting up so early yesterday.  and she forgot her lift pass, so Jamie sent her to the pass office to get a new one.  which was fine because we’re at a Vail resort so they could look up her pass and print her a new one.  except once she had it, she got on the wrong lift to meet up with her team.  and then a liftie’s directions didn’t get her back to the park, so she had to take another lift.  so for about half an hour neither of the coaches or I knew where she was and her phone battery was dead.  and I was having flash backs to the last time we were at a strange mountain and she ended up out of bounds in an avalanche area and thinking “she’s never going anywhere in a new ski area without me again”

but she called Evan and arranged a meet up and skied back.  and was only mildly freaked out over the same flashbacks.

then after lunch they hit the big jumps and she got her spins back and remembered how much she loves this and how thrilled it makes her and just could not stop smiling all the way down the longest gondola ride around and into the car and through Frisco and the Safeway even

 

Also, I had a great day on the snow.  also started kinda slow.  bopping around going “yeah, so I’m in Colorado.  shouldn’t this be better…” and feeling a little stiff and not skiing that well

then i found my groove and started making some turns.  and found some runs i liked.  and started realizing that the Breck black diamonds weren’t all that challenging.  had some fun fast cruiser runs on Doublejack and Corsair and such.   moved up the mountain and skied some big slushy bumps in the shoots.  figured out how to get to the chair that goes to the top of Peak 8 (really, this mountain is so confusing once you venture away from the mid-mountain area around the top of the gondola.  no wonder they have so many signs.)  and the runs off the summit were fun but really not at all intimidating.  okay, so I didn’t hike over to the cornice between Peak 8 and 9 after ski patrol stopped dynamiting it and opened it up. that was a more intimidating drop)

by the last few runs, it struck me that not only was I having fun, I was skiing the whole mountain well. cutting turns on the bumps.  putting together a nice line from the top.  and getting some good speed on the wide open blacks.  and I thought “I’m back.”