A Beautiful Day of Skiing

I took the kids and a friend of my oldest son skiing today, and we had a blast.

I am too cheap to get a room at the lodge, so we woke up early this morning and drove two and a half hours to Monarch Ski Area. The kids requested I make an MP3 disk for the truck. One of the main requests was The Beatles. Do I know how to brain wash my kids or what?

Monarch is one of my favorite places to ski. They don't draw the crowds that the resorts further north pull. It's far enough from Denver to make it inconvenient. Hurry for us! This resort has some other major bonuses that I really like. They have a great ski school. They also have one of the lowest lift ticket prices in the state. On top of all this, their lift lines are no where near as bad as the big resorts.

So I made a reservation for Erik to take another lesson. He was really needed professional training. Our trip between Christmas and New Years confirmed that I am ill equipped to teach him.

We got the the resort just before the lifts started. I got Erik's lesson plan squared away, but his lesson wouldn't start until 10:15. I took him up the short lift to the bunny hill to work with him while Kevin and Taylor did their own thing for a bit.

Erik has been skiing a few times since he was 5. Not often enough to give him much confidence. He did really well on the lift to the bunny hill. Got on perfectly, got off equally well. His problem is in his turning and stopping. He tends to panic and won't concentrate on what he needs to do. It's funny how Kevin is the exact opposite. Erik did fine on the first runs, but he was freaking out whenever he got any speed up. I dropped Erik off at his lesson, then contacted Kevin on the radio so I could join up with them.

The weather was perfect. Sunny and relatively warm for a ski resort (a balmy 20F in the morning, warming to around 30F in the afternoon). I had heard from people that had been skiing there yesterday that it was extremely windy and snowing. We picked the perfect day.

The boys had been warming up on green slopes while I was away. They desperately wanted to get on some blue slopes (Note: For those that don't know, ski runs are rated Green for easiest, Blue for more difficult, and Black for expert... then there are the double black diamonds and such for the extreme folks). We headed for the top of the mountain. On our way up I saw these beautiful views of snow covered pine trees and expansive vistas of the near by mountain ranges. These pictures don't do it justice. The snow was absolutely perfect. You couldn't ask for better conditions.


Kevin and Taylor are snowboarding. Kevin is getting pretty good, but Taylor was struggling, even though I was told that he has done quite well in the past. I came to find out that this was only his second time. I agree, with that new info in hand he's doing quite well.

We took a lunch break and met up with Erik's class at the lodge for lunch. Erik informed me that they had a great lesson and that they'd already been up to some Green runs (not the bunny hill). I was pleasantly surprised. He sounded like he was a little tired, but excited about the progress he was making. They headed back out after an approximate 45 minute break. That boy was going to be really tired. Hell, around 2 p.m. I was getting pretty damn tired. I must be getting old... blah, blah, blah.

I finally broke away from Kevin and Taylor to go get Erik around 3:15. He was taking a break in the ski school lodge while the rest of the group was doing another run. He was thinking they would have time for one more run, but I informed him that the lesson was over. His instructor finally came by and told me they had been on every lift and skied a bunch of Green runs.
I thanked him for taking good care of my son and teaching him what I couldn't.

I figured it was getting too late for another run, but Erik asked if there was time for one more. I decided there was time since the lifts were open for another 10-15 minutes. We took the shorted lift up. It lets out onto a number of great Green and Blue runs. Erik picked the run called Rookie. As we got off the lift I noticed that he had a lot more control over his speed and turns. Then I lead him onto Rookie and to my surprise, he followed me with no hesitation. I reminded him that just this morning we had mad a bunny hill run where he was panicking at an even slower speed.

His confidence and form was all there. I was totally amazed. Then as we turned onto another trail on the way down the mountain we ran into Kevin and Taylor. They also were blown away at Erik's sudden skill on the planks. Erik's ego had a big boost. He wants to call my sister in Michigan tomorrow and tell her all about it (she was with us when we had to get the Ski Patrol to give Erik a ride down the mountain on a snowmobile during our post Christmas ski trip).

I hope to get them up there at least one more time before the resorts close. I told Erik that he and I will ski together, but next year he should probably have another lesson just to remind him of what he had forgotten. He is psyched.

This was one of the most perfect ski trips I had ever been on. It was serious fun.

Wish you were here