Thunder Ridge 12/6/14 (Instructor Training Day)
AM Session:
I pulled in at 9:40 not wanting do be late for the first day of on-snow training for the Snowsports School applicants (which I was one). It was nice. No rain, relatively warm. I booted up in the lodge as more people showed up. About 60 applicants today, 80ish applied. Not everyone came because you only need to come to 3 out of the 5 training sessions. The "Great March" of instructors began at 10:15 as we trekked across the base area to the bunny hill. Its a nice bunny hill that’s steeper than most with a 50 vertical drop and an ANCIENT Bovrig double. They had piled up more snow than I thought they could’ve. Coverage was decent till the afternoon. We were divided into groups of 6. Each group given an experienced instructor. Of course, this being my first day out on snow, I was super eager to take a "free" run. But alas, our instructor wouldn’t let us do that. He turned out to be literally the slowest instructor out of the dozen or so that taught the applicants (but he knew his stuff and was incredibly nice). Most groups had gotten on the lift by 11am, at the latest. Not us. Still learning the gliding wedge. We didn’t ride the lift till 12, and by that time we were being called into lunch. I thought "oh, maybe he’ll say forget it and let us ski down." NOPE! 15 minutes later we got down, after learning how to wedge down the hill. We hustled to the lodge where we had 1/2 an hour to eat lunch, which everyone else had already started. It was while we were eating that the first drops of non-frozen precipitation began to fall…
PM Session:
Poncho on. Jacket zipped. Hood up. Another muddy walk with a different instructor. This time we took turns teaching the rest of the group. Still hadn’t gotten to take a run, and it was 2 o’clock. At 2:30 we switched instructors. He asked if we wanted to take a run. HOLY SH!T!!!! YESSSSSS!!!! I’ve never been so excited to ski a bunny hill. It could’ve been Zermatt or Snowbird for all I cared. Things had gotten pretty rough by then. Bare spots, dirt. The rain picked up. But none of that mattered- I was skiing. Back down to reality. More teaching and instructing. I organized my "students" so that we could ride the lift. Fun. At 3:30 we were disbanded and I got 2 more runs to myself. Things were rough by then. More dirt. Lot’s of grass. I was the last one off the chair before they shut it down. By then everything was soaked. Calling BS on my waterproof pancho and jacket. Gloves were dripping when I took them off at 4.
I’ll be back tomorrow for the second session. Too warm to make snow tonight. Too little snow to do any serious repairs. Tomorrow will be fast and fun. Don’t know if I’ll need ice skates or skis. I’ll get to "wear in" my new XL facemask that is a certain material that I like. I don’t do fleece. I’ve been looking for years to find one in XL (big head problems).
Day Grade: A+++++
Run of the Day: Anywhere there was snow
Sneaked in a quick pick of the trail.
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From the base lodge during lunch.
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The Face isn’t quite ready yet.
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They gave us lift tickets. I had to lol when they gave us them. We’re the only ones here! The rest of the mountain was closed!
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