We all remember many early mornings waking up to get bundled up, then drive to Big Mountain where we would go skiing for the day. Some of my earliest memories of skiing are when we would try and gather everyone's clothing the night before. This would usually take a long time as we were always missing one pair of goggles or a couple of "good" mittens Mom had made. Mom had made these great water proof mittens that kept our hands really warm. Actually...I still have a pair or two. Once we gathered everything together, we would have to pack the lunch. In the morning, all we would have to do is get up and get dressed. I am sure there were a few times when the effort probably felt more than the worth of going, but we really enjoyed it.
In the early days, Mom would do this all by herself. Then she would drive us up, meeting Aunt Jan and Danny up on the slopes. Mom and Jan would stay in the cabin/ Alpine Lodge all morning while we took skiing lessons. I always asked why mom didn't go skiing too in those early mornings. She always replied, "I want to be here for you when you come in from skiing. I want to make sure your lunch is ready and you have a place to sit." I think I knew then, and probably before, what an incredible Mom I have.
Only a few days do I remember being woken up early and dreading getting out of bed. more for the fact that is felt like four in the morning to me. After I slept the hour long car ride to the mountain was I truly prepared to ski. Mom also didn't get that rest time :) I would usually wake up when Mom stopped the truck at the base of the mountain road to lock the hubcaps. I never understood why she had to go out and mess with the tires. All I knew was that it made the ride safer. In the later years of skiing, we would catch the bus at the McDonalds in Whitefish and it saved us loads of time and energy getting up the mountain. Not to mention it was fun to people watch all the strange characters.
In ski lessons we developed all sorts of games. If we really liked the run we just went on and our instructor told us we were going to go somewhere else, we would usually lose a glove or a pole and then would HAVE to go on the run again. I also remember a ski lift helper who we thought was so silly because he wore a different hat every time we saw him, and he would usually remember our names. Sometimes we would drop something as we were getting on the lift or fumble so someone had to either bring us back our pole or if we fumbled enough, we got to ride the lift all by ourselves.
I remember going on the t-bar and learning to first go down those hills. When we were a little older we were involved in some races, but never were too competitive in skiing. Actually, I was always terrified of jumps and doing anything that would break my neck or lead to me being our of control. But I think everyone in my family loved speed. It was always just so fun.
One time we were skiing as a family and I really wanted to try poles. Lesley and I did not have poles yet, and we always thought they looked fun and easy to use. I talked Lindsey into letting me use on of her poles for a run down chair two. We were going to head over to chair one. I was the last one headed down the hill because the poles were not as easy to use as I one thought they would be. I was struggling pretty bad with them. I was almost to the part where you cut across a ski run to head over to chair one, I remember looking down to see if I could see anyone in our family. I saw Mom waiting for me (of course) just a little bit down the hill. After seeing mom I looked down at my skis and completely tripped. The pole I was holding jammed right under my goggles as I was falling and gave me the blackest eye I have ever had. I remember crying and Mom walking up to me so see if I was ok. I only remember crying for a bit and mom telling me to put snow on it. I remember taking a small break then skiing the rest of the day. By the time we got to the car my eye was BLACK. I was in the second grade, and guess what? I was so proud of that black eye. I thought I was so tough.
When Dad came skiing with us it was a completely different ball game. No matter if the day was beautiful or freezing cold, Dad wanted to get his money's worth...and time. I don't blame him. We were not allowed a lunch break because technically we could get in two or three more runs. He would always give us the choice take a lunch break, or go on the Big Ravine, and over to Chair Two. He was always so convincing and we usually appreciated the lunch more when we got to the truck in the early evening.
Ben switched over to snowboarding when the sport first started becoming popular. And he learned really fast. I remember getting the hang of snowboarding later in high school and it was fun to be challenged with something new. Lesley and I would actually just go snowboarding some days, though we really did prefer skiing. One snowboarding event I remember is when we were almost ready to go home. We were all on chair three and Mom said we could all do one more run down chair three. Lindsey really wanted to try and use Ben's snowboard and thought it would be pretty easy. What felt like an hour later we could see Lindsey inching down the hill. She would stand up on the snowboard, then face plant. Over and over again. I don't know what was more frustrating, waiting for her at the bottom, or actually being her getting a mouthful of snow every time she stood up. She eventually just took off the snowboard and walked down the hill. Lindsey eventually stuck to skiing, which was probably best because she was the best skier out of all of us.
Junior high to early high school we tried tubing. The first time we did it because someone for got their boots or it was so cold and foggy we decided to stay lower on the hills. We loved tubing and it was fun to slide down the hill and get pulled back up by a giant bar.
All of us kids remember yelling from the chair lift at random people pretending we knew them. We would yell, "Hey Paul! Yeah Paul...you in the red hat! Hey wait for us at the bottom!" or " Charlie, you dropped something!" We would laugh and laugh and laugh. We were so funny. I am sure we all tried spitting on people while we were riding the chair lift. I think we succeeded a few times with that too. We would also laugh and laugh when we put our faces together with our goggles on and move them back and forth. It would distort the other persons face and it was so funny.
Lesley and I went a lot alone skiing in High School due to certain circumstances. I remember skiing as fast as we could down the mountain and playing all sorts of games. We had a plan to go on every run on the whole mountain. And I think we about succeeded. We would take turns choosing. I remember one time taking a run that we were unfamiliar with. We started down a fair well trodden path but pretty soon we could not see ski tracts and we kept guessing which way to go. We were on the back side. Finally I remember being so frantic because both of our directions were off and we both thought we had to go different ways. We started heading up hill. I remember saying a few prayers by then because I did indeed think we were lost. Finally we saw we were behind and to the left of the only chair lift at the bottom of the back side. We were so relieved to get oriented and I don't think we ever strayed to far from the paths again.
We all loved the gully. Ben also grew to love the snowboard parks and he was amazing in them. I remember trying one of those boards with my skis and I completely face planted it.
There we a few times I got so cold my fingers and toes would just ache. Thank goodness for hand warmers. I also remember those perfect days where you could unzip your jackets and almost get a sun tan.
Thank you mom and dad for all the fun. I think I could write for hours and hours on all the memories I have from skiing. Hopefully someone else adds to them!
Lauren
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