Today was the day that Lauren has been waiting all winter for – a chance to go skiing at Buck Hill. Ever since she went with her 8th grade class, she has wanted to come back. It was a homeschool day, so we got a spectacular deal for half-day lift tickets + rental equipment. The line was really, really long for rentals because there was a large public school group, but we mostly know by now that when something is a special deal, it’s likely to be crowded.
After just a few minutes instruction on how to fall and get up + how to get around without poles, Natalie and Gloria were off to the beginner hill, led by Lauren. I was glad to see they had a “magic carpet” lift like the one they have for the tubing hill at Elm Creek. It is easy to get on and off.
I stayed with Jamie as she learned how to snowplow to slow down and stop. She moved to the beginner hill pretty quickly and then past that to the intermediate hill, which included riding the chair lift. Everyone had been on one of these quite a few times from the alpine slides at Wild Mountain and Lutsen. We tried moving beyond that but accidentally went on the expert hill. That was scary because it took all my body strength to capture her and slow her down without us both crashing. She made really impressive progress by getting to the intermediate hill on her first day, I think! It helps that she is pretty fearless.
And speaking of fearless, Gloria and Natalie were bombing the expert hill on THEIR first time skiing. It is clear to me they have great body sense and a huge sense of adventure. Katie was adventurous enough to try snowboarding but since she had been gone for the entire weekend previously, she was extremely tired and it didn’t end up working out for her.
The weather was completely perfect – sunny and upper 20s. We even ate our lunch outside in the sun on the deck of the chalet. We all agreed we would love to do this again.
