Sat, Feb 23 2008 - Downhill Ski / Snowboard at Blue Mountain (View Original Event Details)
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Despite the fact that it had rained the previous weekend, it turned out to be a great day for skiing as the more recent snowfall during the week added more snow to Blue Mountain's already 100 cm snow packed base! We left the Downsview just a bit after 7:30 and arrived at Blue Mountain at 10 AM to sunny skies, no wind and nice comfortable -4 degrees. We could see the freshly made and groomed snow on the slopes from the parking lot and this made us all even more excited to get going.
This time around we had 4 intermediate skiers and 3 beginners. Kate took the beginners through the process of getting started and reported the following:
Jenna, Chetan and I did the Discovery program - which includes everything - lift tickets, equipment and 4 levels of instruction. It was a fun day with beautiful weather and the comic relief of seeing one guy ski out of control right out onto the road, another woman come flying down the hill through and beyond the level 2 crowd - screaming the whole way, and many little kids in snowsuits, standing upright on the conveyer belt, motionlessly bawling their eyes out. They did not appreciate the good instruction as much as we did...
As for the intermediate skiers (Anna, Julius, Constantin & myself) we started of on the green (easy) runs on the South Base of the resort and worked our way north taking a variation of both green and blue (intermediate) runs. After a quick lunch we were able to work are our way to the north part of the resort where the lift lines where not as long. We met up with one of Anna's friend Hugh, who is also ski race instructor for a ski team that was doing some time trials on this day. He was able give each of us some great tips on how to ski a bit better then was able to "convince" everyone to ski down a black diamond (difficult/steep) run. While I had a great time trying out some of the balancing tips I just learned to go a bit faster, I had forgotten that for everyone else it was their first time going down a black diamond hill! But I'm very happy to report that all our intermediate skiers not only survived this run.... they had a blast facing up to this challenge. We even shared some hilarious moments of Julius helping Anna up on the steep slope while making sure they both didn't slide down it together :-D
We wrapped up our day by skiing our way back to the South Base of the resort and met up with our newly trained beginner skiers. I was happy to hear that all 3 new skiers enjoyed learning this new sport and are excited to participate in the next downhill ski event. Everyone had a great and fun time and are hoping to go skiing a few more times before the season ends.
Have some photos from this event that you'd like to share in our photo album? Please forward them to Erik Sonstenes at photos@torontooutdoorclub.com. Please note that we prefer to receive the photos in approximately 640x480 or 750x500 pixels - do NOT send original high-res photos. If you have a LOT of photos, please submit up to twenty of your favorites (only) for a day event, or up to forty of your favourites for a multi-day event. Thank you.