ski

The last two weekends I have gone skiing. I am not particularly good, but I have a great time doing it. Last weekend, my friend Justin and I went to Liberty, which at just over an hour away is the closest ski area to DC. It was Justin's first time skiing and other than an incident in which he was mysteriously attracted to the trees, did a good job.

While he went to ski school - rightfully so, he didn't trust me to teach him - I ventured out on my own. With only 16 runs, Liberty is pretty small. The front side, which is mostly greens, was packed. Lines of 20+ minutes just to go up a 300 foot lift. A lot of smart people decided it would be faster to walk to the top. I eventually found the back of the hill, which doesn't have any greens, and it was a lot better. No lines at all for the two lifts on the back. After Justin's lesson ended we went met up and he showed off his new skills.

Yesterday, Sam and I went to Wisp in far western Maryland. At three hours each way, it was a bit of a hike for a daytrip, but we both had a great time. It was nice to get far out of the district for a day. The weather was warm, but it had been under 32 degrees all week so there was plenty of natural and man-made snow.

Sam is very good skier and gave me several tips, which miraculously helped quite a bit, enough to the point where I managed to very cautiously make it down a couple wide open blacks while staying in relative control. Wisp is more than twice the size of Liberty and had a lot of great runs. The greens were a bit too slow, but it has some very nice blues, including one that goes through a tunnel.

Throughout the day we joked about wiping out on the last run before we headed home. Sure enough, on the last trip down I took quite the spill after catching an edge. By the time I arrested the slide, which included a 360 degree spin, I had to hike back up at least 50 feet to retrieve a pole that was lost at the beginning of fall. I'm happy to report that there were no injuries and my iPhone survived. There was a lot of ice to pick out of my clothes, but the hot chocolate in the lodge warmed me up.

Wisp was pretty fantastic and I have a feeling we will return at some point. I'm hoping to get out at least one more day this winter, but it is 66 degrees as I type so not sure if conditions will cooperate on whatever days I am free.