First Day Back

My first day back on the slopes and I couldn’t ask for better conditions at Stowe. It started to snow right before I hopped on the 8:00 am-opening chair. In the past, I would kick off the season with snowboarding, but I chose skiing instead. I should have taken it easy, but I dived right in. I skied all over the mountains. By 10:30 am, I was exhausted. My legs gave out after trying to carve.

I took a lunch break and relaxed a bit. I went back out and couldn’t ski anymore at 1:00 pm. I was done for the day. Either I am getting old or I was drinking too much alcohol during the off season, but I felt the pain. Or it could just be how the first day went. If I remember correctly, I got frustrated and disappointed on the first day back. It will get better once my body gets back into the groove.

It wasn’t bad, but I should have known better. I thought that practicing off season should have prepared me for the season, but that was not the case. I hope tomorrow will be better.

On a different note. When I arrived at Stowe yesterday, I went straight to guest services to check on my pass. It was already activated. I also wanted to activate everyone in my family, including Vương, even though he might not be able to ski at all these seasons. The process took a while as the experienced staff trained the three new staff members on how to do dependent passes for employees.

As she handed over our activated passes, the experienced staff told the new staff members: “See! Working here saves you thousands of dollars.” I smiled and replied, “That’s why we’re here.”

I love the network of employees. Any Vail-owned resort I went to, the employees were just so wonderful. We believe in the skiing culture. We work here because we are passionate about the winter sports. I can’t wait to kick off the season at Whitetail soon.