Today is the first full day of 5 on the ground here at Camp Tremblant, aka the Cottage, aka where D’s parents live. The general plan is to ski on days 1, 3, and 5. On day 2 we’re in charge of dinner so we’ll do something low-key. Day 4 is the big family party so again, we’ll play it low-key as we all need to make food to bring. This will also be my first (and second and third) trip to the big mountain, Tremblant. This will be a graduation from small hills to the big one. Moving up from AAA ball to the big leagues. Note how non-distinct I am in the picture below. This only makes sense to those who have seen my ski outfit from years past.
As a refresher, this is a totally new setup for me. We picked up a new ski outfit not too long ago, as well as helmets for both D and I. In addition, we leased new skis & boots for me with the intention to buy at the end of the season, assuming I don’t hate this. Currently we have 6 ski days penciled in for the season, with another 4 as possible, plus other random days that might get converted into ski days if all goes well. If I hate skiing this much, I guess it’ll be a one-and-done lease package and I’ll return to my half-ass philosophy of “skiing by throwing myself at the ground and trying to miss.”
The new skis are sharper and shorter than the ones I’ve been using, so in theory I should be able to turn and stop much better than before. The new outfit is sized properly, as is the helmet, so I should be more comfortable. All of this adds up to the expectation that I would be more comfortable, better at doing the things, and thus I would enjoy it more and want to do it more. Having said that, I have no expectations on the day because I really don’t want to show up and think everything is going to be amazing because I effectively bought a new coat and helmet.
As it turns out, everything was amazing because I bought a new coat and a helmet. The weather was so amazing I am just going to litter this thread with the pics.
Ok maybe the skis had something to do with it. Previously, my skis were older, and I guess less wide at the tips, and too long, and most likely not sharp enough. With all of this stuff out of the way, I was able to have a much more enjoyable time, and everything worked a lot better than it ever had before. I’m not going to say I’ll ever be going especially fast on these things. But the whole day, soup to nuts, was far more enjoyable because of the new equipment. The only downside is that D can no longer pick me out from 100 yards because I’m not as visually obvious as I used to be.
I don’t know how the slopes are rated across the country but it seems a bit like biking. A blue at Camelback is not a blue at Tremblant. Some of the pitches on the blues today were steeper than anything I’d seen before. The mountain is huge, so you get more variation from start to finish. In that respect it makes sense that it needs to be an overall average of the trail. But it feels like blue was definitely a higher pay grade here than in Pennsylvania. I was able to ski the blue trails pretty reliably today. In fact, I only fell once (on the slopes) when I was going a tad fast and I hit some ice, and I was being buzzed by a pack of racer types at that particular moment. I got a little rattled and hit the deck.
When I fell, it was a little steeper and icy so I kept sliding down the hill for a while. By the time I swung my leg around to dig in a bit, I had gone down the slope a fair distance. My other ski was maybe 10 feet up the slope. At this point, some woman skis up to it and starts to kick it down to me. Ok, to be accurate in the narrative, I thought it was D, because she’s dressed in black and has dirty blonde hair coming out of her helmet. So, as she tries to kick the ski down to me I sit there like a load watching her, just waiting, not putting any effort into trying to get it. Then it strikes me that this woman is, in fact, some random stranger just being nice (typical Canadian!). At this same moment she gets it loose and slides down. I say thank you and she is on her way.
As I try to stand up on this 88 degree slope (whatever) one of the red ski guys comes up to make sure I’m ok. These people here – all very nice. Other than this one crash, I fell over after I went through one of the gates that feed into the chair lift. But that was more about me not paying attention and just tipping over sideways like an idiot. In the grand scheme of my ski history (all 7 times total) this was by far the best day. In all, we were out there 4.5 hours which also surpasses my longest day on the slopes.
Solid way to kick off the 2018/19 ski season. Came home and hit the hot tub, then crushed the dinner which was beef bourguignon.
Traveling Normandy 