Blues are relative

No, I'm not depressed. No, it's not about John Lee Hooker, who's death may or may not have been caused by one of my friends M. But that's another story.

I'm talking about ski runs - what else?! View of Nevada from Heavenly Resort
Here in North America, the ski runs are rated green (easy), blue (more difficult) and black (most difficult, with a sub-rating of single diamond or double diamond = expert only). I think the corresponding colours in Europe are blue, red and black. I have now managed to ski in five(?) resorts, and generally do the blue runs, although I have recently started black diamond runs - groomed only, and at least initially with my heart in my mouth. Eew. But fun. The definition of blue seems to be relative to the other runs at a particular resort and varies greatly between resorts. My son and I were skiing at Keystone in Colorado last January, and we headed off down a slope that was labeled blue both on the map and at the trail head. It was ungroomed, virtually vertical,and had moguls. Note for non-skiers: Once you start down, it can be very difficult to go back up. That's why they have ski lifts.

William whisked off down it on his snowboard, and was patiently kneeling down at the bottom looking up at me while I v...e...r...y slowly worked my way down. Picked my way all the way across one way. Stopped. Carefully turned around trying not to accelerate. Picked my way all the way across the other way. Repeated - each time descending about three feet.

When I finally got close enough (after 6 or 8 times back and forth) I yelled down in a nervous, high voice (very unlike my normal husky, sexy one), "This is blue??" The word blue pitched up into an unintentional squeak. It's a little stressful to be afraid for your life.

He yelled back, "I would hate to see one of their black ones!"

It was really cold there, but I was sweating profusely and my legs were wobbly by the time I got down. Good exercise! Or something. We headed straight for the bar at the bottom via the nearest green.

Another random photo from last year

All the resorts I've skied:

Boreal Mountain Resort (previously Boreal Ridge)
Heavenly Ski Resort
Northstar-at-Tahoe
Sierra-at-Tahoe (previously Sierra Ski Ranch)
Diamond Peak (previously Ski Incline (I can see why they changed it))
Homewood Mountain Resort
Alpine Meadows
Sugar Bowl
Keystone
Perfect North Slopes (aka Dinky Ball of Solid Ice in Southern Indiana)

Ok, that's more than five.

This is in the California Bar in the California Lodge at Heavenly. I think they should have called it The Grizzly Bar, but nobody ever asks me. Well, at least I used some of the photos I took last year...

Keystone

Our trip wasn't all fun-you-can-have-with-fondue. We actually did get in some skiing/boarding. It snowed steadily the first day, and intermittently the second, but that didn't stop us. We're not fair weather skiers. I finally remembered the camera on the third day, which actually happened to be partly sunny. We even saw some of the famous Colorado Rocky Mountains a couple of times. Sort of.

Proof that we were actually there. Can you tell it was COLD?Note how close together my skis are! When I'm not moving.

This is the view of my son that I had most of the time:

And then he would disappear in the distance. I would ski down and find him waiting for me. Can you tell it was COLD?

For lunch we stopped at The Last Lift Bar. His t-shirt says "Intelligunt Desine." Wonder what kind person got him that for Christmas? Is that a small furry animal attacking his chin? Yikes!

On our way down the mountain in the afternoon there was a photographer taking action shots:
Hmm. Maybe I should stop mugging for the camera and concentrate on my stance. That could be a photo of my son, or it could be a photo of any number of boarders on the mountain dressed exactly alike. Did I mention it was COLD?

Der Fondue Chessel

Well, my son and I made it back from our Colorado ski trip unscathed. We flew into Denver, rented a car, drove through the Rocky Mountains in the wind and snow for two hours, and arrived with just enough time to check into our condo and catch a gondola to another gondola to the top of the mountain for our dinner reservation at Der Fondue Chessel. Night gondola rides in the dead of winter are not as fun as you might think.

It was about 7 degrees Fahrenheit, and my son had only been wearing a heavy sweatshirt. Before we left the condo I asked him if he wanted to put on something warmer. So he put on a hat. Uh, huh. Luckily they gave us blankets for the gondola ride or I would have had to deal with a human popsicle.

While we ate, we were serenaded by Those Austrian Guys. I could tell they were really Austrian. The spoke just like our Governator, wore lederhosen, and sang Edelweiss.

There were only about 15 people in the restaurant, and at one point Those Guys got most of us up and doing The Chicken Dance (an Austrian tradition of which I was previously unaware (I thought it was Spanish)). Unfortunately, I accidentally left the camera on the table where my son could reach it.

I got him back, though.

We were were near Buffalo Bill's gravesite, so as a tribute we had buffalo for the raclette course. Along with shrimp, scallops and venison sausage. I refused to get him the lobster. Lobster on top of a mountain in Colorado. Lobster that would have had to have ridden on a plane from Maine, a truck from Denver, and TWO gondolas to get there. I didn't even ask the price.

Yes, that is chocolate fondue. Mmmmmmm.

My kind of god

My son and I are flying off to Denver, Colorado at the end of the week to do three days of serious skiing/snowboarding. Woo Hoo! My knees are beginning to hurt just thinking about it. The only out-of-the-Lake Tahoe-area skiing we've done was one day on a large ball of solid ice in southern Indiana. Southern Indiana? That is very close to Kentucky-ya'll know-one o' them southern states. What were we thinking?

We are going to Keystone, but I just found out that only a couple of mountains over, Breckenridge will just be finishing up the Ullr Festival. Darn! We're going to miss it. I've always had a soft spot for the Norse Gods. How can you not like them? Most (ok, four) of the days of the week are named after them. People have written operas about them (ok, one person, four operas--bad example if you don't like opera). And Ullr IS, of course, the Norse God of Snow! In the article, I like the way they had to specify that Ullr is a mythical god. Unlike any other gods that man has dreamt up.

Of course the Asgard were real. Haven't they ever watched Stargate SG-1?