This weekend was the annual Baboon Heart "skifest," a tradition started years and years ago in Vermont when none of us had kids. It has matured over the years--it's in Maine now, and everybody who came up for the weekend was accompanied by at least one future ultimate player--but the central part of the weekend is, and always has been, the skiing aspect.
For years this meant that I didn't fully participate in Skifest because I couldn't ski. Sure, I tried a couple times, but I was lousy and didn't have much fun falling down--or even off--the mountain trails. So I eventually gave up and just went snowshoeing instead.
But now we have two kids who can ski (thanks, Day After Day skiing program!) and so learning how to ski has once again come into my field of vision, largely so that my lack of ability doesn't prevent my kids from fun, pro-social opportunities to cruise down a mountain. Like Skifest.
So anyway this weekend was Skifest, and we took the kids to Mt. Abram, which is located somewhere in the middle of Maine.
We (our family, as well as Pete, E, Tai, and Ada) got to the mountain at 12, muddled through the rentals process, and finally got to the actual slopes around 1:15. We did a few runs down the bunny slope while we waited for Lucia and Natalia, who had to have gear fixed back at the shop. The bunny runs were good for me--I didn't fall, and they gave me a chance to practice my limited skillset. Sure, I told Celia that I wanted to do these easy runs to get a sense of whether she could ski the bigger slopes, but that was kind of a lie. I knew she could do it. I wasn't so sure about myself.
Lucia's arrival gave me another excuse to stay among the beginners. She and I rode the "magic carpet"--a slow conveyor belt that takes you to the top of the slope--together, and then I showed her how to snowplow/pizza her way down to the bottom. (Imagine that: me teaching my daughter how to ski! Cauchon would have been proud.) Mainly Lucia held onto my arm and tried to keep her skis from crossing, but that was ok--we made it down without too many spills, and (more importantly) no tears.
We repeated this a number of times--magic carpet to the top, then Lucia and I slowly making our way down. Celia and Andres joined us for a few, which was nice, as they offered some encouragement to their sister. But they got bored before too long, and each of them went off to do a real run with an adult (Andres went with E, and Celia went soon after with Natalia).
Celia carves down the mountain.
Lucia stuck with it. The second run was better than the first; the third was still better. On some runs down I would let go of her arm to see how far she could make it--and she did great for about 20 yards before losing balance. She didn't love the letting go, but once she was on her own, she was all smiles.
After an hour even I had had my fill of the magic carpet and I was itching to put my skills to the test. Would I embarrass myself like all those years ago at Stowe? Or could I actually complete a trail without nosediving into the snow?
Andres agreed to go with me. He seemed nervous. He asked if I knew how to get on the chairlift ("yes," I told him), and then alerted me to the impending arrival of the chairlift moments before it happened. ("Ok daddy get ready!") That was cute. He also asked me if I knew how to get off the chairlift ("yes," I told him), but he gave me a brief refresher course anyway.
We made it off the lift without incident (perhaps a first for me), and then zipped over to the Skyline Trail, and enjoyed a leisurely, meandering trip down the mountain. We talked about how the trails here at Mt Abram were different from what he was used to at Nashoba. We saw some slope-side homes, and we talked about how cool those were as well. He asked me about the time I fell off the trail all those years ago too. I guess it's a funny story now.
We approached one bend in the trail, and Andres cautioned me to go slow--just in case. Thanks, man. We both made it around without incident.
A few more minutes of easy, fun skiing and we were all the way down. We did it! Well, I did it--this green circle trail was likely a cinch for Andres. (Later on, he would go down a blue trail with Natalia, while I was finishing up with Lucia at the magic carpet again.)
Certainly it was the best day of skiing I have ever had. (My only regret from this trip was that I didn't go up the chairlift with Celia.) The one real run was good--but even better was just seeing how much each of them has improved. Last year, Celia and Lucia took their first skiing lesson. This year, Celia was able to do the real trails, and Lucia actually seemed to be having fun despite the falls. It was so much fun, in fact, that on the way back home we talked about doing a whole day of skiing next year--or even occasional trips to Nashoba Valley and Wachusett during the winter. Everybody seemed on board with the idea.
How did this happen? A family of skiers? I would never have thought this could be my future.
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