Hooked

I missed the terrains. I wish I could just ski or snowboard everyday during the short winter. I loved these winter sports. My wife isn’t happy that I want to hit the slopes every chance I get. In addition to taking advantage of my seasonal Epic pass, which cost around $700, I am not getting enough time to hone my skills. Since I am skiing and snowboarding, I have so much too learn and I am obsessed with learning new skills.

My kids are getting bored with skiing and snowboarding because they are not picking up new skills. After hitting the double-black-diamond slopes, they have nowhere else to go. I encouraged them to learn carving, hit the trick terrains, or picking up new techniques, but they didn’t want to. In fact, they would rather sit in front of their computers then skiing or snowboarding. Đán, in particular, is such a fantastic snowboarder. If he puts his mind into it, he could go really far. Unfortunately, his mind is stuck on his PC. It is such a shame.

Having access to the slopes is a privilege not every kid could have. Last weekend, Đạo met up with his friend who wanted to try skiing for the first time. Her dad spent $600 for the three of them just for one day. The price included lift tickets, rentals, and lessons for her, her dad, and her brother. With skiing and snowboarding, you are either all in or all out. Imagine our family of six going for one day skiing. That’s $1,200. I can’t afford that.

At this point into the season, all of our passes are paid for themselves. I don’t even make my kids go anymore. If they don’t want to go, they can stay home and rot their brain on their devices. I don’t have any issue hitting the slopes myself. Even on the weekends when the lift lines were packed, riding single was always faster. In addition, the backside was always less crowded.

My obsession is creating a bit of a friction between my wife and me. She introduced me to this game and I am now all in. I made it clear with her before we decided to renew our passes. If we wanted to do this, I would need to hit the slopes as much as I could, even if she and the kids wouldn’t want to.

Back to Whitetail

Đạo, Đán, Xuân, and I went to Whitetail today because Đạo had a ski date with his female friend. She’s a nice who loves rock climbing. She was trying out skiing for the first time. He took her on Sidewinder. She struggled a bit but managed to get down.

The weather was quite warm and the snow is thinning out. The bases of my skis were scratched up because I went over some big rocks. Mother nature is not giving us cold temperatures. We have about a month and a half left to ski.

I was sharing a lift with two older women. They were talking about ski techniques. I asked one of them advice on carving. In order for my skis to bend and grip the snow, she told me, I needed to push my knee forward and toward the inside of my outside ski. She even gave me a demo after we got off the lift. It seemed to make sense. I tried it, but it still felt awkward. I need to spend more time figuring it out.

We had a fun day with the kids. I missed seeing Vương skied though.

I have been blogging about all of my ski trips. It is probably boring for my readers, but I wanted to document all of my skiing and snowboarding experience.

Today at Liberty

Since Sunday, I have been resting, taking Aleve for a few days, and drinking zero alcohol. The sesamoiditis seems to subside. I still feel a bit of a pinch. I went to Liberty this morning to ski. I didn’t want to take a chance with snowboarding. I am not sure if the boots or the way I put pressure on my toes caused the pain.

As I had thought, the ski boots would keep my feet in place. The bottom of my left foot didn’t feel any pain when I skied. I was able to ski down the double-black slopes without any issues. I even filmed myself skiing down the double-black slopes.

I skied for about three hours. I tried to learn carving on the blue slopes. My goal is to be able to carve on skis by the end of this season. I set that goal three seasons ago and I haven’t reached it. Snowboarding distracted my progress. I’ll get it this time.

Skiing With Scouts

We spent the past three days skiing with our Scout pack. My wife rented a condo right by Whitetail. We arrived on Thursday evening. After checking in and had a quick dinner, we headed over the resort for a night skiing. The weather was warm, the rain was pouring, and the trails were foggy. Nevertheless, we were able to ski.

Đạo, Đán, and Xuân went to the back side for the blue, black, and double black slopes. Vương, my wife, and I stayed at the front. We did the first run together on Sidewinder, which is a long green. Because of the poor visibility, my wife didn’t want to go back. Vương and I went back for three more runs. He was skiing ahead and I was snowboarding behind him. At some points, I couldn’t see him. Luckily, he just went straight down without falling. We went back to the rental house and I started to feel the sharp pain at the bottom of my left foot (Metatarsalgia). I couldn’t sleep much because of the pain.

Friday morning, the pain didn’t go away. I was not sure if I could ski or snowboard. I took one pill of Aleve. I planned to teach some Scouts who had never skied before a quick lesson. Fortunately, I didn’t feel too much pain in my ski boots. I taught four teenagers how to “pizza” and “French fries.” I also explained to them the ski stand. Just the first half hour, I took them on the magic carpet. To my surprise, they could ski very well. They only fell once or twice and they already could do the magic carpet on their own. After that I took each one up the lift with me. With just a few hours, they were able to get on and off the lift themselves and they could ski down all by themselves. They spent the entire day skiing on the green slopes. My mission was accomplished.

In the afternoon, I skied on the back side for a few runs then switched to snowboarding. My foot didn’t feel too much pain until we went back to the rental house. Parents of the four kids I was teaching came over to our rental house for dinner. We ate, drank, and karaoked until 10 pm. The pain came back again, but I couldn’t take an Aleve because I was drinking.

Saturday morning, the pain was getting more excruciating. We cleaned up the rental place and checked out at 11 am. We headed over to the resort once again. I took an ibuprofen. It didn’t help much. I snowboarded with my back foot in pain, but I managed to do a few runs on the back side. We left Whitetail around 2 pm because I couldn’t take it anymore and the kids also wanted to go home.

It is now 11 pm on Saturday as I am writing this. I just took another Aleve hoping the pain will go away tonight, tomorrow, or the next few days. I need to rest my foot before I go skiing or snowboarding again.

Notes From My Doctor

Yesterday, I went for my annual check up. Everything else seemed good except:

  • LDL-C is 129 and goal < 100. Maximize lifestyle efforts: lose weight, exercise, and follow low fat diet. Return fasting in 6 to 12 months.
  • Fasting glucose is in Prediabetes range, so exercise to build muscle and to lose body fat. Avoid refined sugar and limit quantities of rice and pasta to only 1/2 cup cooked.

Damn, all the skiings and snowboardings aren’t enough. I need to watch my diet as well.

Bold Decision

I snowboarded at Whitetail for a bit today. I did about 6 runs on Bold Decision to practice short turns on the double black slope. Thanks to the soft snow coverage, I did not slide down on my ass like I did at Liberty. I still couldn’t complete my short turns. I could do a heel or a toe turn then slid down. I couldn’t find a comfortable spot to make the next turn. I need to learn how to snowboard down the double-black slopes with ease.

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.