March 19: A leisurely day of pure skiing, followed by a drudgy day of travel.
The Juneks bugged out Thursday morning, taking a 7:00 pm flight out of Denver, so they spent the day looking at condos to buy in Beaver Creek. They’re pretty serious about buying a second place where they could spend part of the summer as well. Getting out of Houston to the mountains of Colorado in the summer would be awfully inviting, I assume.
Since Ellen had a Thursday reservation in the “play school” daycare/babysitting (we cancelled her ski school and turned in her equipment after Wednesday’s successful outing; she had had enough, and we didn’t want to push it), but Mary was on the wait list. If she didn’t get in, then AM and I would have to arm wrestle over who got to ski and who stayed at home with the kids. As it worked out, Mary got in the play school, so we were all free to ski. We all started out together: Chris, Kristi, Katherine and CJ Merkl and AM, Gina and I. We headed off to the right side of the map: Beaver Creek was the mountain originally developed, but they further developed Batchelor’s Gulch (where the Ritz Carlton was built) and Arrowhead Village, and we went off to explore those runs. Katherine had spent the night with Gina at our condo the night before, and they had spent the morning mapping out all of the lifts and runs we were to take. AM and Kristi just wanted to ski greens, but the kids were hell-bent on pushing some of the harder blues. After the initial run, it was pretty clear that AM and Kristi weren’t going to be able to keep up. So Chris took off with the kids, and I skied behind AM and Kristi in case either of them fell. Occasionally, one of the looping green runs they were taking would cross and recross a blue run, and I’d wait at the top of the blue until they had circled back, then I’d race down the blue to them. When they stopped for lunch, I took a quick blue run, and when they wanted to take an early afternoon break, I broke off for some black-and-blue time. I was fairly good on the blue mogul runs, having figured out how to drop into the turns, but it’s still way too much work.
When you think about it, skiing is a weird sport. But it is a lot of fun. It’s fast if you want it to be, it’s a good workout, and there’s something in it for almost all skill levels. Much of the skill of it is being comfortable with sliding on snow and developing an instinctive feel for the physics of it. It’s also something everyone in the family can do. But it’s damn expensive.
Today (Friday) was nothing but travel. It’s 2 hours drive from the Vail area to the Denver airport, and about a 2 hour flight. Add in packing up, returning the rental car, and navigating DIA (that’s one hell of a stupidly put-together airport), and then the hour you lose flying east, and it’s pretty much all day. Especially when you’re trying to keep the cats herded.
So how did we all do? Gina is an excellent skier, but hasn’t moved up to poles yet. She’s not a daredevil by any stretch, but she’s not afraid of any slope or terrain. In fact, she loves grove skiing, maybe too much. She’s getting tall, though, and she’s not the pocket rocket you see in other kids on the slopes. I hope she keeps her skills up even though we’re only likely to go skiing every other year or so.
Ellen I’ve described fairly well. It is simply hard to connect to her to find out what she really thinks and feels. It’s just an autism thing: Chris and I were discussing how some autistic kids can’t understand abstract thoughts, and some can only communicate in abstractions and can’t communicate in direct concrete thoughts. I asked her in the airport what she thought of skiing, and she said, “Great!” Then I asked if she was ready to go again, and she said, “I’m done with skiing. I’m not skiing again.” Back to back responses: skiing was great, but she’s never doing it again. The two days we took her skiing, she said over and over that she didn’t want to go, and resisted us getting her clothes on. But eventually we did, and she went up to the mountain and went off with the ski instructor (with AM or I along as well, but still . . .), and even though she had a few rough patches where she said she didn’t want to go on, eventually she would. She would sing while she was skiing, or recite all of the characters in Finding Nemo. I think she had fun, but can’t really connect with skiing. But we’ve got pictures of her skiing, and I think she’ll do it again. Given the progress she’s made from 2 years ago (our last skiing trip), I think she may be ready to jump into it with both feet next time we go.
Mary is our ski school dropout. She bailed out the third day of ski school after lunch, and didn’t even go on the 4th day. I didn’t see her but AM did, and said she was a pretty spastic skier. She is such a strong and independent character, and can really be a pain in the butt. She thinks she’s as old as Gina and can do whatever Gina does. She is very demanding of attention, and will interrupt adults in conversation or break things if she’s not the center of attention. And when she melts down, she really melts down. She’s very fortunate that she’s cute, cause her crap gets old fast.
We first went skiing as a family 4 years ago, when AM’s sister Roey convinced AM that she should bring the family out to Tahoe for a ski trip. Roey was living large and single in San Francisco (but dating a great guy, Trevor Carone, who would become her husband), and she had a share in a ski house in Tahoe. She had recently learned to ski, and was bemoaning the fact that she would be a much better skier now if she had started when she was a kid. So she convinced AM that a ski trip would be good for Gina. See, AM had never skied before, and had absolutely no interest in skiing; she would never have agreed to a family ski trip if it weren’t for the fact that Roey convinced her that it would be good for Gina. Funny thing, though, is that AM learned to ski fairly quickly and easily the first day out. We got a semi-private 2-hour lesson, mainly so AM could learn and so I could learn what the instructor taught her and be available to help out later, reinforcing the lessons or watching her form. She picked it up pretty easily, but she’s also an exceedingly cautious skier. I don’t think she’ll ever get on the blues, but she’s a confident green skier. Wedge turns and sweeping traverses, but she does get some speed up. She tires fairly easily, mainly because she’s not used to the type of physical exercise skiing entails (add altitude, and it’s easy to get tired).
Me? I think I said so earlier. I got to break away for a large part of the afternoon of the last day, and got some serious, hard, fast black and blue skiing in. My last couple of runs were in shirt sleeves, it was so warm (and I was so confident I wouldn’t fall). It got slushy because it was so warm, but when it’s a lot of fun skiing bare-armed.
On the bus from the airport to the car, AM was bemoaning the cost but was pretty positive about a family ski trip in 2 years. She did acknowledge that Gina would be better off skiing every year, something I fully support (since I’ll get to be the one that takes her). We’ll see how that goes. American Airlines does last minute weekend rates throughout the year, and occasionally you can get cheap airfares to ski locations like Denver or Salt Lake City, so maybe Gina and I will take a long weekend some time next winter.
Anyway, it’s good to get back home the Dallas, just in time for the runaway gorilla season. Next up in the Dallas Drummonds Christmas Blog: blogging from the Grove Park Inn. I’ll have to see if they’ve got wi-fi there. . . .
Top: the Keller Glade. I wish I had a photo looking down; it's nothing but trees down there. I could easily pull a Sonny Bono on that run.
bottom: Gina gets big air
The Juneks bugged out Thursday morning, taking a 7:00 pm flight out of Denver, so they spent the day looking at condos to buy in Beaver Creek. They’re pretty serious about buying a second place where they could spend part of the summer as well. Getting out of Houston to the mountains of Colorado in the summer would be awfully inviting, I assume.
Since Ellen had a Thursday reservation in the “play school” daycare/babysitting (we cancelled her ski school and turned in her equipment after Wednesday’s successful outing; she had had enough, and we didn’t want to push it), but Mary was on the wait list. If she didn’t get in, then AM and I would have to arm wrestle over who got to ski and who stayed at home with the kids. As it worked out, Mary got in the play school, so we were all free to ski. We all started out together: Chris, Kristi, Katherine and CJ Merkl and AM, Gina and I. We headed off to the right side of the map: Beaver Creek was the mountain originally developed, but they further developed Batchelor’s Gulch (where the Ritz Carlton was built) and Arrowhead Village, and we went off to explore those runs. Katherine had spent the night with Gina at our condo the night before, and they had spent the morning mapping out all of the lifts and runs we were to take. AM and Kristi just wanted to ski greens, but the kids were hell-bent on pushing some of the harder blues. After the initial run, it was pretty clear that AM and Kristi weren’t going to be able to keep up. So Chris took off with the kids, and I skied behind AM and Kristi in case either of them fell. Occasionally, one of the looping green runs they were taking would cross and recross a blue run, and I’d wait at the top of the blue until they had circled back, then I’d race down the blue to them. When they stopped for lunch, I took a quick blue run, and when they wanted to take an early afternoon break, I broke off for some black-and-blue time. I was fairly good on the blue mogul runs, having figured out how to drop into the turns, but it’s still way too much work.
When you think about it, skiing is a weird sport. But it is a lot of fun. It’s fast if you want it to be, it’s a good workout, and there’s something in it for almost all skill levels. Much of the skill of it is being comfortable with sliding on snow and developing an instinctive feel for the physics of it. It’s also something everyone in the family can do. But it’s damn expensive.
Today (Friday) was nothing but travel. It’s 2 hours drive from the Vail area to the Denver airport, and about a 2 hour flight. Add in packing up, returning the rental car, and navigating DIA (that’s one hell of a stupidly put-together airport), and then the hour you lose flying east, and it’s pretty much all day. Especially when you’re trying to keep the cats herded.
So how did we all do? Gina is an excellent skier, but hasn’t moved up to poles yet. She’s not a daredevil by any stretch, but she’s not afraid of any slope or terrain. In fact, she loves grove skiing, maybe too much. She’s getting tall, though, and she’s not the pocket rocket you see in other kids on the slopes. I hope she keeps her skills up even though we’re only likely to go skiing every other year or so.
Ellen I’ve described fairly well. It is simply hard to connect to her to find out what she really thinks and feels. It’s just an autism thing: Chris and I were discussing how some autistic kids can’t understand abstract thoughts, and some can only communicate in abstractions and can’t communicate in direct concrete thoughts. I asked her in the airport what she thought of skiing, and she said, “Great!” Then I asked if she was ready to go again, and she said, “I’m done with skiing. I’m not skiing again.” Back to back responses: skiing was great, but she’s never doing it again. The two days we took her skiing, she said over and over that she didn’t want to go, and resisted us getting her clothes on. But eventually we did, and she went up to the mountain and went off with the ski instructor (with AM or I along as well, but still . . .), and even though she had a few rough patches where she said she didn’t want to go on, eventually she would. She would sing while she was skiing, or recite all of the characters in Finding Nemo. I think she had fun, but can’t really connect with skiing. But we’ve got pictures of her skiing, and I think she’ll do it again. Given the progress she’s made from 2 years ago (our last skiing trip), I think she may be ready to jump into it with both feet next time we go.
Mary is our ski school dropout. She bailed out the third day of ski school after lunch, and didn’t even go on the 4th day. I didn’t see her but AM did, and said she was a pretty spastic skier. She is such a strong and independent character, and can really be a pain in the butt. She thinks she’s as old as Gina and can do whatever Gina does. She is very demanding of attention, and will interrupt adults in conversation or break things if she’s not the center of attention. And when she melts down, she really melts down. She’s very fortunate that she’s cute, cause her crap gets old fast.
We first went skiing as a family 4 years ago, when AM’s sister Roey convinced AM that she should bring the family out to Tahoe for a ski trip. Roey was living large and single in San Francisco (but dating a great guy, Trevor Carone, who would become her husband), and she had a share in a ski house in Tahoe. She had recently learned to ski, and was bemoaning the fact that she would be a much better skier now if she had started when she was a kid. So she convinced AM that a ski trip would be good for Gina. See, AM had never skied before, and had absolutely no interest in skiing; she would never have agreed to a family ski trip if it weren’t for the fact that Roey convinced her that it would be good for Gina. Funny thing, though, is that AM learned to ski fairly quickly and easily the first day out. We got a semi-private 2-hour lesson, mainly so AM could learn and so I could learn what the instructor taught her and be available to help out later, reinforcing the lessons or watching her form. She picked it up pretty easily, but she’s also an exceedingly cautious skier. I don’t think she’ll ever get on the blues, but she’s a confident green skier. Wedge turns and sweeping traverses, but she does get some speed up. She tires fairly easily, mainly because she’s not used to the type of physical exercise skiing entails (add altitude, and it’s easy to get tired).
Me? I think I said so earlier. I got to break away for a large part of the afternoon of the last day, and got some serious, hard, fast black and blue skiing in. My last couple of runs were in shirt sleeves, it was so warm (and I was so confident I wouldn’t fall). It got slushy because it was so warm, but when it’s a lot of fun skiing bare-armed.
On the bus from the airport to the car, AM was bemoaning the cost but was pretty positive about a family ski trip in 2 years. She did acknowledge that Gina would be better off skiing every year, something I fully support (since I’ll get to be the one that takes her). We’ll see how that goes. American Airlines does last minute weekend rates throughout the year, and occasionally you can get cheap airfares to ski locations like Denver or Salt Lake City, so maybe Gina and I will take a long weekend some time next winter.
Anyway, it’s good to get back home the Dallas, just in time for the runaway gorilla season. Next up in the Dallas Drummonds Christmas Blog: blogging from the Grove Park Inn. I’ll have to see if they’ve got wi-fi there. . . .
Top: the Keller Glade. I wish I had a photo looking down; it's nothing but trees down there. I could easily pull a Sonny Bono on that run.
bottom: Gina gets big air
posted by Jeff at
5:56 PM
