Happy Ski Year!

I love skiing on New Year's Day.  The slopes are empty.  Everyone stays up late the night before, and nobody wants to get up early to go skiing.  But I do.

Good mornin' Mt. Hood

My ski-buddy Kim had a carful of people who wanted to snow-ride on NYD.  Her sister, her teenage son, and three of his friends.  And of course me.  It was a full vehicle travelin' the road to Hood.

A sexy telemark skier

The mountain got a 16 inch dump of snow Friday night.  I'd heard Saturday (New Year's Eve) was an absolute zoo at Mt. Hood Meadows.  But today all was calm and quiet.  And sunny too.  Oh yeah!

Hood peeps out from the woods

The four boys grabbed their snowboards, and instantly ditched us old mommies.  Kim's sister headed for the bunny slope.  That left Kim and I free to explore.  And check out what was left of all that new snow.  It was a beautiful blue-sky day. Hood towered, gleaming white, high above us.   And the snow, although skied out, was still soft and fluffy.   Best of all, lift lines were non-existent.  (Have I told you how much I love skiing on New Year's Day?)

Kim takes in the glorious view

Kim and I rode the new Stadium lift over to Shooting Star.  We had some fine trips down Star's trails.  I spied this great view of Hood from one of the cat tracks.  I made Kim pose and got this great shot of her (wearing her new "bling" goggles).

BIFF!

Then Kim offered to take a pic of me in the same spot.  I handed off my camera and side-stepped back into position.  Or I should say I tried.  My skis were right on the edge of the slope and my maneuvering caused a backward slide.  I tried to stop myself, but in the process tumbled to the ground.  Having camera in hand, the situation was much too tempting for Kim to pass up.  She took a shot to document my great biff.  What are friends for?

Time for my photo op

But Kim took a non-embarrassing photo of me too.

Kim takin' some turns

The Cascade lift was open, so Kim and headed over to check it out.  The views are always wonderful from the top of Cascade.  And being a clear day made for a perfect vantage.  We could see Mt. Jefferson and the Three Sisters far in the distance. 

Enjoying a good run

From the lift, Kim and I saw a couple ski patrollers heading down an empty trail.  The trail looked good, so when it came time to unload, we headed over.  Midway down the run, we noticed a ton of people around us.  What happened to our nice empty ski trail?  Kim said we must be trendsetters.  Everyone wanted to ski with us!

Cascade Lift and Mt Jefferson

Later in the day, the snow began to get bumped up.  We revised last year's "Kim and Linda mogul rating system".  Most of the runs, the moguls only rated an "A" or "B."  But down some of the trails off Cascade, we encountered groups of "DD's."  I decided to try a run where I'd seen some people heading, went over a rise, and ran into a bunch of massive moguls that qualified as  "Dolly Partens."  Kim wasn't happy with me for leading her into this!  (I think she might've used the b-word)

Heather Canyon

The bumps finally got to poor Kim, and she headed in.  I took a couple more runs, but then my legs started talking, so I decided to quit.  I found Kim and her sister sitting at a table in the cafeteria.   But the boys were no where be found.  They were still somewhere out on the slopes.

Man in pink??

While waiting for the boys, we passed the time people-watching in the lodge.  Kim spied a man wearing a neon-pink one-piece ski suit.  It was straight out of the 80s.  But a man wearing pink?  (Maybe he lost a bet.)  We tried to refrain from pointing and staring.  I attempted to take a photo of the guy without drawing attention to myself.  I turned off my camera's flash and held it in an inconspicuous position.  I got one blurry shot as proof of our sighting.  It's not every day you see a dude in a pink snow suit!

Kim's son and friends finally located us.  We loaded up her rig, and headed for home.  But road conditions were super-icy and and traffic soon came to a screeching halt. We were engulfed in a massive traffic jam.  What is normally an hour and a half drive took us four hours!   Ugh!

Aside from the traffic, it was great to be up on the mountain.  A perfect way to spend New Year's Day.  Happy New Year! Or should I say - Happy Ski Year!