First Time at Liberty This Season

We went to Liberty today for the first time this season. As far as snowmaking, Liberty hadn’t done as well as Whitetail. While Whitetail has all of its trails open, Liberty still only has a few. Nevertheless, the lift lines on the frontside were long.

While Vương and my wife skied, Xuân and I snowboarded. We started out at the learning center. We waited for 10 to 15 minutes to get on the lift and it only took us a minute to skied down. Vương got bored and wanted to take the long green trail. We took the express lift up. Luckily, the line was not too long. The long green trail was narrow and there were tons of people–many of them falling constantly. I was worried someone would crash into Vương, but he just skied his way down. My wife did a great job too. Xuân struggled on the snowboard for a bit on the flat surface. After the long trail, the kids wanted to have lunch.

They went in with my wife and I went back to the backside for the blues and the double-black slopes. I was doing fine on the blues, but struggled on the black. The double-black was so ice that I slipped on my butt all the way down when I turned on my heel edge. I needed to lean forward a bit instead of backward.

We had a nice time together as a family. I am glad to see Xuân taking up snowboarding and Vương and my wife can do the green slopes.

Back to Whitetail

It was a snow day. The kids had no school and I had no work. Of course we went skiing. We arrived at Whitetail around 2 pm. Đạo and Đán went on their own to the back side. Xuân, Vương, my wife, and I went to the learning center.

Xuân wanted to try snowboarding again and to my surprise he picked it really well. He only fell a few times. Vương was doing great skiing as well. We stayed at the learning center for a few hours and then went on Sidewinder (the long blue trail). The kids enjoyed it. My wife fell a few times, but she made it through.

I wanted to go to the back side as well, but it was already 7:00 pm. We wrapped up all day. Even though I didn’t get a chance to ski or snowboard on the blue and black trails. I was happy to see Xuân made progress on the snowboard and Vương made a huge leap forward on skis.

I’ll come back tomorrow to do my own things.

Metatarsalgia

I might have Metatarsalgia. It might have started when I played soccer for two hours and then went skiing and snowboarding on Saturday. I started to feel a sharp pain at the bottom of my left foot on Sunday when the whole family went skiing and snowboarding.

On Monday, I felt the pain when I pressed my foot against the footrest in my car. Fortunately, the pain didn’t interfere with neither skiing or snowboarding. Nevertheless, I needed to take a break to rest my foot.

I didn’t want to take any medication and I was limping around the house. My wife insisted that I should take some medication. I took an Aleve last night before going to bed and felt much better this morning. I’ll take one or two more pills in the next few days to get rid of the pain.

Somehow Aleve works like magic for me, but I am still being really careful with it. I only take it when I absolutely need to. I don’t want to abuse it.

Went to Whitetail Myself

My wife and kids didn’t want to join me today; therefore, I went solo. Even though Whitetail was crowded, I didn’t have to wait long in the single line. The back lift also opened; therefore, I stayed at the back side until I needed to come back to the base.

I started out snowboarding for five runs. Came back to the base and ate some smoked salmons. I switched to ski and did three more runs. I spent about three hours and went back home. It was a great day.

Mad props to the snowmaking team at Whitetail. They have been making snow any chance they get. As long as the weather stays low, the next few weeks will be nice.

The Whole Family Went to Whitetail

Even my mother-in-law came to Whitetail with us. Of course she didn’t ski nor snowboard, but hanging out at the lodge chatting with my friend’s mother.

I took Vương to the learning center to teach him to pizza and turns. He was doing really well all by himself. I shouldn’t have used the harness in the previous two seasons. It slowed down his progression. Xuân also taught Vương how to turn. We did three runs on the green.

After that I switched to snowboard and did three runs on the blue trails by myself. We packed up and went to Sushi Bomb for dinner.

I am exhausted once again. I still want to go back to Whitetail tomorrow by myself and have many runs before returning to work on Tuesday.

Soccer, Ski & Snowboard

Couldn’t sleep last night so I got out of bed around 7:00 am and decided to play some soccer. One of my teammates twisted his knee. He could barely walk. He would need a long time to recover. I couldn’t afford to be out during the skiing and snowboarding season; therefore, I played with care. Nevertheless, I played hard for two hours. I was dead tired.

I came back home, ate a bowl of rice, read a few pages, and fell asleep for a bit. I woke up and felt recharged again. I asked my family if anyone wanted to join me for a late-afternoon skiing and snowboarding. Only Đạo (my oldest son) and Xuân (my third son) wanted to join me.

We arrived at Whitetail around 3 pm. The express lift was not working; therefore, there was only one blue trail. The condition was not so good. New snowboarders and skiers were falling everywhere. I did three runs on skis and three runs on snowboard. Around 5 pm, we called it the day. We went to Chili’s for dinner and drove home.

These days I am more active than my kids. I ski, snowboard, skate, and play soccer. My 45-year-old-out-of-shape body is holding up surprisingly well. I hope I can continue to stay active for many years to come.

Checked Out Whitetail

I skied and snowboarded at Whitetail for the first time this season. The condition was surprisingly good given the warm weather in the past week and the heavy rain on Tuesday. Only two blue trails and the learning center opened. I practiced carving on both ski and snowboard on the blue trails. I was not complaining. It was better than nothing. I hope they’ll be able to make more snow in next few weeks.

Last Day at Seven Springs

My wife, her mother, and our youngest son went home after we checked out of the hotel. I took the three older kids back to Seven Springs for a few hours.

The crowd today was as bad as yesterday. We waited at the Polar Bear Express for almost 30 minutes. We took the green trails to warm up. Xuân got hungry so we took the North Face Lift up to Tahoe Lodge for lunch. The wait was about 15 minutes. We didn’t want to go back down and have to wait for another 30 minutes at the Polar Bear Express. We did a run on the North Face, but the boys got bored waiting. We waited another 15 minutes to get us to the top and we skied back to the main base.

Before heading home, I got them to take Cortina for a run. We spent 3 hours (including lunch) for 4 runs. We headed out around 2:30 pm and called it the day. I don’t like weekend skiing. Way too crowded.

Saturday at Seven Springs

My mother-in-law, wife, and kids joined me today at Seven Springs. I wanted my boys to experience the night-skiing scene; therefore, we didn’t need to get up early.

After having breakfast at the hotel, we headed to the resort around 10 am. It was snowing. Our mini-van struggled to get up the mountains. We were going around 15 miles per hour with a few cars tailgating behind us.

At one point, I thought we would just skid backward. I prayed to my mother from above to save us and her respond was immediate. Just a few minutes later, a snow-plowing truck pulled out in front of me and cleared the way for me to drive all the way to the resort.

I skied with Vương at the bunny slopes. After the disappointing all-day group lessons at Stowe, I decided to teach him myself. He could now go straight down hill and pizza to slow himself down. He did a great job today.

I skied with Đạo, Đán, and Xuân on the blue and black slopes. Around 4 pm, I called it off. I didn’t want to risk driving back in the dark with my whole family in the back.

We went out to have dinner at Ruby Tuesday and went back to the hotel to chill out. I am debating whether we would go straight home or go ski for a couple of hours before heading home.

Learning to Carve on Skis

Damn, I am exhausted today. Spending 10 hours a day on the slopes is wearing me out. I have been running on coconut water, croissants, smoked salmon, and instant noodles. I had Nantucket Cod at Eat’n Park two nights in a row. They were pretty good.

I started out skiing this morning. I finally figured out how to carve. I practiced carving and fixing my inside legs on the green trails. I also tried to keep my legs closer together and parallel. My new skis make carving a bit easier. I enjoyed skiing today.

I only did a bit of snowboarding before I had to leave to meet my family at the hotel. They came a bit too late for night skiing. Hopefully they’ll get to experience it tomorrow.

I am running out of steam. I hope I will be able to recharge tonight and hit the slopes again tomorrow.

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