Millie got a bit tired so Lynn and I went out on our own. We did a few laps over on Red Dog Ridge (quite good but watch for “unmarked obstacles” at the top), Oly Bowl (really nice), Break It Out (good but there’s a tricky spot about 2/3 of the way down with some finesse required through some rocks), and Tower 16 (nice to the skier’s right).

We picked Devin up from ski team and, after some cajoling from his buddy Charlie, we went out with PK and Cam (and Charlie) to finish off the afternoon in the Belmont park. Devin hit the big jump there. At first I thought he’d wiped out but it turns out he’d done an iron cross to the cheers of the crowd and stuck the landing. Charlie attempted the same trick with more painful results. He was OK but shaken.

I have a new HD helmet cam which I tried out today. Videos are importing into iMovie right now as I type. Looks good so far but we’ll see after I’ve had a chance to look more closely at the footage.

Charlie, Devin, PK, and I ended the day in Sundance. Wish I could ski like PK – he’s awesome and always fun to ski with.

Elena had a fever yesterday but today seemed clear. So tomorrow (Millie’s last day) will likely include some 3-year old skiing (which is, believe me, harder than keeping up with PK in Sundance).

Rain, rain, come and stay

make it snow

so we can play!

She has some time to kill until December…

We picked up Devin at lunch and headed up Funitel which had not been open for too long. We cal Devin a powder-seeking missle and he lived up to that reputation. We pulled him through the flats or dug him out of the snow countless times. I discovered that the easiest way to get him back on his feet in the deep snow was to just lay down next to him and literally pick him up out of the snow. Then Shirley opened up and the three of us hiked over to Break It Out for more untracked. Devin is good. Really good. What huge fun!

We’re staying home this weekend. Work has exhausted both Lynn and I and we’re both hoping to sleep in this weekend. But I confess I’m going to be jonesing for it by Sunday.

From there we headed over to Silverado. We started in gate 3 and worked right a bit. I went over to Bailey’s Cirque while Lynn and Larry stayed a bit more to skier’s left. Bailey’s had a good 4-foot jump to enter where it looks like it slid almost down to the rock. The snow at that point was not great – it was a bit icy since the good stuff was in the avi debris field down below the run. Larry and Lynn had better luck and reported fine chalky snow. Then Larry headed in. He was dealing with the morning after the night before if you know what I mean. I know it’s not nice, but I think other people’s hangovers are just funny. So Lynn and I stuck with Silverado for 3 more runs. We headed over to gate 5 and did Tram Bowl. if you know the runout there, you have two non-cliff options. One to the right through some trees and one to the left that threads the cliffs. We took the left option and the snow was fabulous. So good we did it 2 more times. We started the second lap in Bungee Bowl, which was not in terribly good shape. A bit heavy and choppy (still fun, don’t get me wrong). The Silverado lift is slow and unpopular, so at least there’s no waiting in line like at Granite.

After that we headed over to Headwall. The wind was picking up as we got over there. Our first run was North Bowl, far skier’s right (where it’s steep, of course!). I skied over to see if the small chute right at the nose was working. Too many rocks so I headed back towards Lynn. I got into a tough spot right above a chocolate chip factory but managed to find a semblance of a clear spot to get down. Superb snow right there although I was still a little shaky after the exposure. Then we did Slot-to-Classic. I almost always go far skier’s right in the Slot because the snow’s better there and I like the pitch. That’s often rough to get to and today was no exception. A couple of spooky turns and then all was well. We headed over to Classic to finish off the morning.

Sushi for lunch (I love Mamasake!) and then I went in to get Elena ready to ski. She and I had a wonderful time. We always do! I tried to get her off of the harness but she was having none of it. Oh well, she is skiing with slack in the harness most of the time anyways. We got about 5 runs in and then she was ready for a snack at Wildflower.

Looking forward to tomorrow! There’s a big storm moving in, supposedly a bit warm and very windy. So we’ll see how much skiing gets done tomorrow. Not looking forward to the drive back with holiday traffic and a blizzard.

Can’t wait until next year!