Dec 28 - two for two

I'm not sure where to begin, the day had so many ups and downs, and that's not even counting skiing ! It's lucky that we'd gotten some things done the night before ...

As usual I was up early, especially with the time change, ate, fed Abby, took Abby for a walk so that she could do her business. Why do they call it business ? Never mind. Ignore that tangent.

Shortly after Sandy got up, David showed up to borrow a knife, which reminds me that it never came back. The knife was for buttering muffins -- their breakfast. He also said that Mom, i.e. Sandy, needed to help Megan and Kim because they weren't sure what to wear etc. Sandy went over to help them get organized but time was slipping by. They were also finding that their boots hurt ... but then again they'd never worn something as uncomfortable as ski boots can be.

Sandy took Abby for a walk, not realizing that I'd already done so ... while I had a shower. David et al showed up promptly at 8am ready to leave but we were still organizing so we got away a few minutes later. Up at the mountain, we dropped Kim, Megan and Sandy off and David and I headed up to the parking lot. I had a devil of a time getting my ski boots on, thinking that they were just stiff -- which they were -- more on this later. David was halfway across the parking lot when he called out to me -- one of the heel pieces of his boot had disintegrated. His boots have/had replaceable inserts at the toe and heel ... but these boots are probably 20 years old, not something where you can go out and buy new pieces. However, they seemed to still ride in the skis alright ... we skied down to the chalet to meet up with the rest of the gang (the parking lots are uphill from the base lodge).

In the meantime, Kim and Megan had both exchanged boots, or perhaps it was only Kim, and they were getting ready to go out. As David walked into the chalet more pieces broke off from the bottoms of his boots and he decided to rent boots. That became a story unto itself ...

1) very efficiently he was already being fitted when I went back to check on him (the place was a zoo)
2) next, he's in line for "adjustment" because he was told that they wouldn't rent to him unless the skis were adjusted for the boots
3) I say to him -- better check because the sign says that they are not qualified to adjust Atomic, and that's what your skis are, I'll hold your place in line (which was long)
4) he comes back ... no real answer ... I go to the cash and ask if we can just pay for the boot rental, don't need skis, "yes" is the answer
5) out of that line, into the cash line ... he comes out later to say that he's been told that he cannot pay until they've scanned the boots (bar code) -- which puts him back into the "adjustment" line
6) he's prepared to just go skiing and pay later in the day -- who is going to know, he's already wearing the boots and outside of the chalet ... however ... back inside to the line he goes
7) I go in to check on him ... slow moving line ... ask someone else -- how can we get these boots scanned, he doesn't need to be in the ski adjustment line
8) this person sends us to the repair window, which has no line ... the boots are scanned ... he gets into the cash line ... pays and we're ready to roll

In the meantime, Kim and Megan head down to the ski lesson area. We go down and watch them for a bit -- they have one of those "magic carpet" things there and are being shown the basics -- putting skis on, walking, up the carpet etc. It's quite comical with people falling on the carpet and piling on top of one another. David takes a video ... we head up the hill.

For the next hour and a half we ski a few different chairs hitting the groomed runs and lastly a steep gladed area back down to the base. The snow is medium to good, not much fresh but still in good shape. There is no fluffy stuff though. We head down to meet up with Kim, whose lesson ends at 11:30 ... find that there is a huge line for the express chair because the one beside it is stopped. We decided to go in, have our lunch, and soon after Kim shows up. She's had a good time, spent in the magic carpet area (for want of a better name) and is in good spirits.

David and I headed out shortly after noon, the queue for that chair having died down. Before that, though, I encountered a problem with my boots. I'd forgotten that I'd resolved at the end of our last Whistler trip that I could not use them anymore. The fabric at the heels had separated from the padding and the stuff moves down with your feet making it almost impossible to get the boots on. I'd taken the left boot off at lunch and had a very difficult time getting it back on. In fact, there was some padding under my foot -- padding that eventually worked its way up as I did a couple of cruising runs after lunch -- but I knew that this was likely the last hurrah for these boots.

Anyway -- a couple of high speed cruises and then David and I skied those glades the rest of the day. On one run we got too far down for an easy exit and ended up with some walking / hiking to get back to the exit trail. We were not outside of the boundary, but too far down this particular glade. We were worried, separately since we were separated, that we were going to end up at the road and hiking back up to the base lodge, but it wasn't that bad.

We got down to the base and found Sandy and Kim at the t-bar line, Kim still having a good time, Sandy telling us that this was their third time up. Great ! David's comment was -- that's one for two ... He took a video of Kim getting onto the t-bar and waited for her to ski down. I waited for a bit and then went up for one last run -- a run in the open, not in the glades. At that point it was 2:50 ... Megan was due to finish at 3:00 ... but the lifts run until 4:00, amazingly since by that point it's almost dark.

When I got back down, David was still waiting at the same spot -- Sandy and Kim had now gone it to collect Megan and we were to get up to the car and come down to pick them up. Up the t-bar we went and got off 1/4 way up which got us to parking lot number 1. The drive down was short and long .... there was a long queue to get into the drop-off lot. David walked down and then later called me on the walkie-talkie to say that Megan was just getting off the hill (almost 3:30). I was still in queue for the lot, but eventually that moved and I parked, went inside, found them almost ready and we got out to the car and were on our way back to Jasper. Megan had a great time -- two for two -- even though she'd never left the magic carpet area. Success !!

Back at the ranch (motel) Abby was delighted to see us, as you might imagine. Sandy took her for a walk; I had a snack and got changed into my civvies; she got changed; we left for a ski shop. In the meantime, Sandy had heard from David that they'd managed to get a different room (Kim did this) -- turned out to be a two-bedroom suite, no extra cost ... hey, things are really coming together here ! They were going to move rooms while we shopped. We planned to eat at the steakhouse adjoining the motel.

Sandy checked the steakhouse menu -- very expensive -- so we resolved to check out things in town. I'm saying "in town" but that's literally only about 1 mile away. The Tonquin Inn, our motel, is close to the beginning of the "strip". We parked by the two ski shops that I wanted to check out ... found that the first one didn't sell boots or skis ... Sandy checked out "George's" (a restaurant) and we went into the Totem ski shop. We were there for a long time. I tried every boot in the place, it seemed, finally settling on the Rossignol top-of-the-line. It was the most comfortable, although it had one small pressure point as I was sitting, creating a degree of doubt. The 2nd and 3rd down the line didn't fit as well; nor did other brands; I guess I'll know for sure today ...

We got back to the motel around 6:15, called David, they walked over to our car and we headed to the restaurant. We had an excellent meal, not really any more expensive than the pizza the night before (the pizza was overpriced). Kim had spaghetti with mussels; David a rib-eye steak, me Osso Bucco (sp?), Sandy salmon with beet risotto and spinach risotto and other things, Megan a burger and fries. A fitting end to a great day ... success on the hills; success of sorts with respect to equipment (David found the rental boots very good); good food and a good time.

Today is supposed to be colder. Yesterday it wasn't much below freezing in the afternoon; today's high is supposed to be below -10C. I'm glad that they got the introductory day over with on a nice day -- today they can concentrate on skiing. Kim will be with an instructor and one other person and they'll start on the t-bar. Megan gets to leave the magic carpet area, moving up a group and also hitting the t-bar. They should both make good progress.

David and Kim are already talking about skiing on weekends in Edmonton. There is a small hill quite close to their house.

I've had breakfast and so has Abby. She's waiting not-so-patiently to go outside. Ok ... time to brave the cold ... -14C out there .... brrr.

Onward & Upward !