Some photos...

Sunshine and a dusting of snow makes for a pretty morning walk....

A little love.

Lingering fog dancing in the sunshine.

Dusting.

Serene.

Bluebird.

Shadows.

Birch tree.

Not too much baseball happening.

A discouraging day

I awoke this morning, after a long night of vivid dreams, to a very cloudy and overcast morning, I laid there confused (since I had heard that we were going to have nothing but sunshine for the next week), then the weather report came on the radio (country of course since those are the ONLY stations we have here). The weather report said we were going to have another partly sunny day here in town, something certainly wasn't adding up. Eric, Sean, Kerry and I headed up to the hill despite the cloudy weather. After a stop in the rental shop, me to get skis, Kerry for snowboard boots and Sean and Eric for lift tickets, we headed up the hill. We got to the top of Apres Vous to realize we were having a classic Jackson inversion (cold and cloudy at the base and warm and sunny up top). After the funky weather we have been having though the snow on AV was bad (east coast crunch with quite a lot of death cookies). I took one run down and realized I either needed to find something better or just go home. The death cookies (imagine lots of little rocks of snow, lumpy and crunchy) caused a lot of vibration in my knee and caused intense pain. We headed up to Casper where it was more sunny for more of the runs. I did a few more runs, but instead of the ache I had been expierencing in my knee the past few days, there was intense searing pain. After 2 runs I went into the Casper lodge and sat on the couches by the fire, if I had had a book I think I would have hung out there all day. After a little break I elected to try again on my knee. The pain was still happening and I noticed my left ski was wavering more than I was comfortable with. I told the boys I needed to call the day before I did any damage to my knee. On my way down the trail we call the gully Kerry noticed a rainbow right on the cloud line. After stopping to admire the rainbow we noticed there was an awesome sundog. I dobut we would have seen either if I hadn't been going slow because of my knee. I am going to take a few days off of skiing and see how my knee feels, but I fear this is going to be an uphill battle between my brain and my body.

Sundog.

Ski day count 20 (already at 1/2 of last year).

Back at it

I made it through my first 2 days of skiing. The first day was on Tuesday, I went out with a big crew of friends from back home and also the rental shop. We lapped the bunny slope for a while and everyone went through the little terrian park that we were calling park-a-sorous. I took out our basic rental skis from the shop, the Rossingol Voodoo 74 in a 146. They were an interesting ski, certainly built back my confidence, they were light and easy to move around, but really didn't hold edges well. After a few laps on the bunny slope Sean, Eric and I went up to Apres Vous (the intermediate area). We did a few runs and then went in for lunch. On the bunny slope there was no pain at all, but it is also flat. The intermediate area caused my knee to be a bit achy, but nothing major. After lunch I took the gondola up. I got to the top though and had a moment of panic when I realized I had no idea how to get down since I had never paid any attention to the signs I didn't know what was rated blue and also was groomed. I ended up facing my fears and went on the trail I got hurt on. I really had no concept of how far I had gone on one leg. After working until 6:15 we went home and went to the WORT for bluegrass Tuesday.

First run on Tee-Wee.

Riding AV.

First real run with the brace, notice how huge my knee is.

Riding the rope tow!!

Top of the gondola.

Another Tuesday at the Wort (great expressions here).

The engineers.

PBR.

Wednesday I worked from 7:45 until 2 so I elected to take the day off from skiing. Our boss in the rental shop told us that at the top of the Tram (the highest point at Jackson ~10000ft) in the cabin they serve waffles and that with our employee pass it is only 2.50 (a bargin for food at the resort). Alex, Jacki and Kerry and I all rode up the tram to get waffles. We got there at 2:35 only to find out that they turn off the waffle irons at 2:30, but because we were so excited they turned them back on for us. The clerk asked us all how we wanted to pay, and I guess he must have assumed we were 2 couples because he asked if we wanted to pay couple by couple, we laughed and all said "no singles..." Alex, Kerry and I got Nutella on ours and Jacki got brown sugar buteer. They slightly overcooked Kerry's so we got one for free with strawberry presevers and whipped cream. It was a good time with awesome friends. Afterward the rest skiied down and I took the tram down.

Our new 100 person tram.

Today was day 2 post MCL. Kerry and Jacki were trying out snowboarding so I hung out on the bunny slope for a few runs. Jacki was snowboarding for the first time ever and Kerry for the first time in 6 years. Somehow, despite the fact that I was on skis I managed to give Jacki some of my limited snowboarding advice even though I haven't snowboarded in 2 years and have gone a total of 8 times. She did really well, especially after AJ gave her a mini-lesson. After a few runs I went up to Apres Vous and did a few blue runs, my knee felt really good and my biggest complaint of the day was that my ears were cold. After the other day on the performance skis from the shop (Rossignol Voodo 74's) I decided to take out some demos (Rossingol Scratch BC Girl). The Scratch BC were so much more responsive and lively. When I first rented them out I noticed that the edge was compressed in, which seemed like a big problem, but the guys in the repair shop told me to give it a try and just to keep the damaged ski on my non-injured leg. They also told me to bring them back in if they felt funny, but they felt great. I managed do 12 min laps of Apres Vous lift (liftline to liftline) which is pretty respectable (pre-injury record was 10 mins). My knee is feeling really good. Tonight Caroline, Melanie and Els (they all stayed at our house for 2 weeks while they were homeless) came over and made us all dinner. It was great. Now we are down to 5 in our house, Kerry, Mike and me and then Sean and Eric (friends from UVM). It is much quieter these days.

Ski count at 19.

Some random other photos....

Monday night at the Caddy.

Sean and Kerry riding geese ($24,000 geese).

$42,000 cowboy, now we have to ask why these are sitting outside.....

1st ski day tomorrow!!!

Well tomorrow is the big day! My first day back on skis since my MCL tear. I am feeling pretty excited, but also very nervous. I am borrowing a pair of skis from work in a 146. They are our very classy performance skis (ie. the cheapest skis we have). A bunch of people from work are going to come out and do a few laps with me. We will see how it goes..... fingers crossed!.