Presidents’ Day Skiing

Sort of.

We got a late start, so the plan of a full day of family skiing turned into a half day. I woke up early to run, but the kids were tired, so I didn’t push them to get up too early. Eventually they were up, we got horses fed, and headed up to Keystone. Not much traffic had us there at around 11:30.

Our plan was to head up, go to the backside and ski. I reserved a spot for Kendall to tube later, and we were ready to ski down the backside. Only Kendall didn’t want to. She’s nervous, and lacks a little confidence. It’s unwarranted because she skis well, but we typically need to start her on a green. So she and Tia rode the gondola across to the next peak while the boys and I raced down Mozart and caught a lift up to the top of the Outback.

And waited.

We got to the lodge, hoping to find Tia and Kendall, but they weren’t there. We waited about 10-15 minutes with Kyle searching the lodge, before deciding to just go down and try to catch them. I didn’t have service, so we couldn’t communicate. On the way back up, I finally got a text through to Tia, but they were on their way back to the tubing hill. I thought we’d go over there, but then we had the sticky glove.

We got off the lift with a minor panic from Delaney. One of his mittens had gotten caught on the lift and pulled off, heading back down the mountain without him. He was upset, but I gave him my gloves and took his one. He and Kyle headed down the mountain to see if they could get it, and then were supposed to come over to the tubing area. I raced down the mountain to catch a lift up to the tubing hill, putting the single right glove on my (forward) left hand, and then tucking the right one in my jacket.

I got up to the top and found Kendall and Tia. I took Kendall, letting Tia get the chance to ski a little. Kendall got to play in the snow fort a little, and Delaney showed up. I assumed Kyle was coming and told Delaney to watch for Tia or Kyle and ski with them while Kendall tubed. I watched, having been tubing and not thinking it’s great fun. Delaney joined me, deciding not to ski (what’s with this boy?) and we sat there while Kendall went up and down. She seemed to be having fun, but with 10 minutes left she said she’d had enough. I agree. It’s not that great after a couple runs.

We walked back out and found Kyle, who had been in a panic. Evidently when he and Delaney got to the top of Outback earlier, they had different ideas about what to do. Kyle thought they were skiing down to the lift that would bring them back. So he started down, but Delaney walked over and caught the gondola back. So Kyle thought he’d lost Delaney and spent an hour going up and down the backside, and calling the ski patrol, to try and find him. Kyle was annoyed, and I can understand. It’s very stressful when you lose a kid.

We caught Tia, and she went to ski the last run down with the boys. Kendall didn’t want to ski, and was throwing a bit of a fit, and we started to walk to the gondola. Halfway there she changed her mind, so I strapped on her skis and she headed down. I buckled in and had to race to catch her, despite being only about a minute back. We got to the mid station and she was tired of trying to catch them. So we boarded the gondola for the trip down to find Tia and the boys.

Kendall threw another fit at the bottom, saying her boots were killing her and she “couldn’t” walk. She could, and shuffled the few hundred yards to a restaurant where we took a break, ate dinner, had some laughs and relaxed. Kendall needed food, I needed to warm my one hand without a mitten, and everyone wanted to wait there instead of sitting in traffic. When we saw a long backup on I-70 at Georgetown, it was definitely a good idea.

We left around 6:30 and headed back, hitting almost no traffic. A great day, and fun, even though I only got in 3 1/2 runs. I get up there a lot, and I will go back in a week or so, and it’s not that big a deal. It was disapointing that I didn’t get the chance to ski with Tia, but it was good to get everyone up there, but I’m a little disappointed that Delaney and Kendall don’t enjoy it more.