Hi folks,

I woke up this morning with plans of rounding up the kids and enjoying 
the sunshine at MRG. Then I remembered the telefest this weekend and 
thought better of it, so I deftly changed direction and the family 
headed up to the local hill to take in the beautiful weather at the Snow 
Bowl instead. Upon hearing this, Diane announced that she wanted to ski 
Allen from the top. Allen is the signature advanced trail at the Snow 
Bowl, and features enough steeps to be seriously daunting to a cautious 
intermediate skier like Diane. But she figured that with all the soft 
snow, slim crowds, and of course the beautiful sunshine, this was to be 
the day to go for it. I should point out that she has never skied a 
black diamond trail of any sort on any mountain, ever, so this was a big 
leap for her.

Rather than going off and hitting their favorite jumps right away, the 
kids all hovered around and went up the lift with us, and buzzed around 
Mom offering their encouragement as she slowly, cautiously, but 
confidently made her way down the upper steeps. The spring slush was 
eminently forgiving and by the time we reached the bottom she was ready 
for another run, so up we went again, kids again tagging along for the 
spectacle. Run Two was even better than the first, and for the rest of 
the day Diane skied nothing but more black diamond trails, primarily the 
short trails over off the little lift, where she could practice on the 
steeps with smaller increments of commitment.

It was great day, and everyone finished the day smiling; even when Diane 
took a particularly awkward splat, and we admitted that we weren't 
laughing with her, we were in fact all laughing at her, she even took 
that with the good humor it deserved. Sometimes the rewards of skiing 
come where you least expect them.

After Diane went in, I did a few runs with daughter Gillian, and we 
finished up with a high-speed bombing run down Ross. The trail was 
mostly empty, and skied it just about as fast as I possibly could while 
still remaining comfortably in control, with Gillian right on my heels. 
At the bottom she passed me in a tuck, and then complained that she had 
practically had to stop at one point because I was skiing so slow and 
she couldn't safely get by. Kids.

This was sort of the winter equivalent of those lazy summer days where 
you sit around the back yard, reading a book in the shade and playing 
ball with the kids. If I can't be off skiing powder in BC, I'll take a 
day like this.

Dave G.

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