Birthday wishes do come true

So yesterday as my birthday wish I asked for snow, although there was no snow in the forecast I wanted some anyway. But Mother Nature came to the rescue, at 6:25 this morning I awoke to what I though was someone dragging a metal trash can around outside, but then it continued for a few minutes. It was early so it took a few minutues for the gears in my brain to start turning but then I excitedly realized that it was a snow plow!!!!! I got out of bed and looked outside and everything was white. Kerry woke me up 40 mins later, the plow had woken him too, and we decided it was a day for skiing, not sleeping. So we threw on our gear and headed up to the Village. We got there and it was still dumping snow and there was about 6-8 inches on the ground. Unfortunately the lack of snow over the past few weeks led the entire town of Jackson to think the same as us, and as a result the mountain was packed. My first 2 runs were a mess. Within 30 seconds of the top of the run I hit a patch of ice then a pile of fluff and I fell head first into the ground, my helmet comes in hand again and I slid head and hands first down the hill. As a result I had snow all over my belly and arms due to inproper tucking and I also recieved a buise on my hand from falling on my pole. Later the same run, I fell again on a patch of ice which I am sure will lead to another good bruise this time on my hip. Kerry and I then had to go in to fix some footbed and boot issues. After working out the kinks in our boots we I met up with another UVM'er named Sarah and we skied a bunch of runs with her. The boot-fixing break served me well and after that I remembered how to ski what we might call 'varied terrian.' Due to the lack to snow and then the sudden dump conditions ranged from fresh powder, to ice, to hardpack to death cookies, which made for some fun times. There were some beautiful soft bumps toward the bottom of the trail that I really enjoyed hitting up. In Kerry's words "You ripped them up," I guess all those miserable East Coast bump runs with the boys served me well. By lunch time Kerry's feet were killing him because of new boot and footbed issues, so we decided to head home for some lunch. The rest of the afternoon comprised of napping, eating and a big grocery store adventure. Today makes the ski day count a grand total of 4, and I bet there are some East Coasters who are beating that, but I will catch up soon.

Snow day!!! We got several more inches after this photo was taken.

Mike celebrating the snow by running barefoot into it. Needless to say his feet were a bit chilly...

What a difference a day makes.