In The Sun Valley Sun



Snow sculpted sleigh



Austin and I went to Sun Valley for the weekend.  The drive to Sun Valley was….well it makes the drive through Nevada somewhat comparable.  Maybe even a little worse becaues you come up on some 'towns' of like 20 people and those small towns freak me out.  I think they are creepy.  I just don't understand why people would live in the middle of nowhere.  But once we got to Sun Valley, it was very quaint and cozy.  We checked into the Sun Valley Resort and walked about the grounds.  The halls were adorned with classic photographs of 1940s and 1950s celebrities gracing the famous slopes.  I love seeing the ski fashion then, but I don’t know how they ever stayed warm in what looked like spandex pants and wool sweaters with no water proof gear.  It also showed pictures of these celebrities using the world’s first chairlift pictured below:

I wish I could show those people the chairlift that I ride at the Canyons now.  It is called ‘The Orange Bubble’ for obvious reasons and it has heated seats and the bubble obviously shields the wind so you are quite toasty when you step off the lift.

The following day, I tried my hand at cross country skiing.  I used classic Nordic skis, and Austin was on skate skis.  These Nordic skis are just a half inch to an inch thinner than my Alpine skis, but that change in width makes a HUGE difference.  I felt like Bambi on ice all over again.  I was instructed to keep my skis parallel and slide my skis into a groomed track around the snow covered golf course.  Slide, slide, my feet went and I was thinking this wasn’t so hard.  But then three minutes later, I was huffing and puffing.  It also doesn’t help when a 70-something year old is passing you by several miles per hour.  I had no idea that this sport required so much upper body strength.  You know what, this sport is actually quite stupid.  If I designed these skis, I would put hooks on the bottom of the skis so that when you slide your foot forward, you could push off from it.  But no, these dumb skis seemed to be sanded down to be as slick as possible so you are essentially dragging your dead weight body along the snow.  The highlight of the trip was when Austin skated ahead of me and lost balance.  His enormous 6’3 body goes plunging at a diagonal into the snow, head first, knees flared due to the tangle of the skis, and his body looks like a diamond on his side.  Austin is quite athletic and good at all outdoor sports that I have seen, but man, when this kid eats it, he eats it epically.

Hunched over a bit 'cause my arms and legs are BURNING.

 

The second day, I wanted to try again and challenge myself a little more.  When I challenge myself a little, Austin always challenges me more and usually ends with me cursing at him a bit but when it’s all over, I am happy for the challenge and end up apologizing for my inability to cope with difficult situations.  The same occurred today.  The challenging track we took had some uphill parts.  Do you know what it is like to keep skinny skis parallel in the track going up a hill, only using your arms to heave you up?  It’s ridiculous!!  It’s pretty much a matter of life or death, and when you have nothing more in your arms to give, you go sliding backwards.  And then you know what happens?  You eat it.  And then you really end up yelling at your innocent partner for getting you into this IMPOSSIBLE situation.  Well, I eventually made it up the uphills through my side-stepping skills, and I realize that my new years resolution of not being so emotional (whether its crying after a stressful Comcast phone call or getting mad that Austin is telling me how to beat a Harry Potter video game level) isn’t exactly successful.  But I’m trying to practice and use my words better.  But hey, it’s not a myth when they say red heads have a fiery personality.