This past weekend was a visit to Caberfae Peaks, my old skiing stomping grounds. I've skied there so many times, yet there are always new experiences. Most blur together and get forgotten. The fact that I'm blogging about this one, you guessed it, it's a visit that will not be forgotten.
The first new experience was a cell phone call. Wow, nothing new and exciting about that, right? Not exactly. My Dad gets a kick out of any new sounds, so this was my attempt to take him skiing with me. At the top of South Peak, I called home, asked if he was ready, then proceeded to take a run down the hill, holding the phone to my head. I'm sure it was nothing more then wind noise rushing by, but I tried to yell out things that I was doing and seeing, "Turning, Turning, Turning", "Watch out for that tree...Ieeee", "Halfway Down", and "We made it". I was treated to my Dad laughing and "That was so cool". Success! This photo was taken right after I hung up at the bottom of South Peak.
Definitely a cool experience. One that I thought for sure would make the skiing in 11 degree, freezing temperatures completely worth it, instead I walked away with two great stories from this day (note the snow covering my jacket for the next part).
My GPS is one of my favorite skiing accessories since it's first use skiing last year. It was fun not only seeing the exact paths of every run, but the speeds I shushed down the hills. Last year's record was 39 MPH. Records are made to be broken and this year I got 40, then 43, and finally 45 MPH! We all know how competitive Becca is, well she was stuck at 39 MPH. One more run, one more chance for her to break the 40 MPH mark, sure I'll lead this time down. Lead I did, right into the record books!
After about eight to ten turns at the top of the hill (to make your run look respectable), when the hill begins it's steepest descent, that's when the tuck begins. Twenty, thirty, forty, the speed increases and it doesn't take long to reach what I can only describe as two rolling waves, really two small hills towards the bottom where the elevation goes back up for a short distance. The first was up and down, the second was up then an unexpected launch into the air where I never recovered only to land ripping one ski off as I landed and slid down the remaining part of the hill. As if in slow motion, my first thought was fear that Becca would be so close behind me that she'd never see that I fell and would come smashing into me. Still sliding down the hill, I looked back over my shoulder, where I was treated to almost a movie style effect of the sun rising over the hill, yet it was blocked by a HUGE plume of snow, all the while I'm still sliding! Becca did eventually come over the hill to find me, she did say it was hard to see me with the plume of snow, but she could hear me laughing so she knew I was fine.
In all my years of skiing, there's never been a time where I've wiped out going as fast as I did, slid as far as I did, walked as far to recover my ski as I did, or had as much fun laughing at myself. Since I'm talking about records, my best guess from my GPS log, I'd say from prefall to stop was roughly 211 ft.
Here's proof that I did hit 45 MPH (which happened to be run before The Plume):
All in all, a very fun day on the slopes. The final shot is Becca and I at the top of South Peak with smiles (Her's for witnessing the rare occasion of me falling and mine for knowing I had a great day!)
No comments:
Post a Comment