Yesterday, I finally did it! I skied! Here in Bozeman, skiing is what everyone loves, most people go every weekend and every day they have off classes. It is not uncommon to hear phrases such as 'shred the gnar' and 'it's a powder day' at any opportunity. S + I have been wanting to try it for a while, to see what all the fuss was about and give it a go. I love adventure sports too, so I was super excited to finally be heading up to the local ski resort: Bridger Bowl.
We woke up before the sun, to layer up and fuel up for the day ahead, a kind friend picked us up, in his pick up truck just before 8 and then we were on our way. The resort is about 16 miles outside of Bozeman but there was a lot of traffic since we have been told that Saturday was the best ski day of 2015 so far - meaning that it had snowed so much that the powder was nearly at Coldsmoke Standard which is the finest snow powder and best for skiing on! There were debates on the way there about American versus English music and excitement for the unknown. The drive there was stunning and we got deeper and deeper into the Gallatin National Forest and towards Bridger Bowl.
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| The view from the slopes. |
Once there, after hiring skis and a helmet, we met up with the English crew, two of whom had kindly offered to teach us. I fell at the first hurdle when I couldn't get my boot to connect to my skis, after chants from the others of 'just stamp! Where is your leg strength?' - it turned out that the bindings weren't adjusted correctly or something! After I got them adjusted, it was a lot easier to click the boots into the bindings. Then we got going, up onto the easy slopes first to get to grips with the technique.
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| Looking cool with his pro skis and googles. |
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| Snowflake Slope - the easiest one! |
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| the view from the bottom of the mountain. |
After 4 runs down the easy slope - and finding it really fun to go fast and turn, Meg decided we were ready for the next one up, so off we went. I thought the technique was going to be a lot harder to master - obviously it is once you get into the harder stuff but the general gist was easy to pick up and going really fast down the slopes is so fun, really gives an adrenaline rush which just made me want to do it all day - which was lucky, cause that was exactly what I did.
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| Obligatory lift selfie with Meg! |
It kept snowing all day making the powder very soft when falling, Sean and I both fell down a good few times and it did not hurt at all, but it was very difficult to get back up! Meg and Jess had a good laugh at us for that. Right before lunch we skied the Alpine Trail twice which is at intermediate level which was much harder and steeper but super fun too! To get to the lodge for lunch we skied through the trail merge pass which was a tree lined narrow trail which was so beautiful. I think that was one of my favourite bits of the day.
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| Skis! |
We stopped for lunch meeting up with the rest of the English/American crew, eating crackers and Banana bread and marvelling at the parents who ski with their babies strapped to the front of them.
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| Post Skiing Adrenaline face! |
Lunch was followed by a couple more hours of skiing, trying slightly harder routes on the Alpine run and practicing our new found skills and going really fast! This time the whole group were together so it was fun going with everyone.
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| Chairlift View! |
Towards the end of the day, I lost everyone including Sean and Jess and so skied all the way down to the bottom of the trails alone. It was really fun and I felt really good about it despite falling half way down. Oooops!
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| The crew/failure of a selfie while trying not to drop phone off the chairlift. |
It was such a fun day, and I cannot wait to go back again, and maybe even try some harder slopes! I want to go up higher since I have heard that the views are breathtaking! Definitely caught the skiing bug!
