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.

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.

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It took me a month to finish reading the 344-page authorized biography of Tupac Shakur. In one part, I had been busy skiing and snowboarding. In another part, I didn’t want the book to end. Through Staci Robinson’s exceptional writing, I wanted to ride with Pac for as long as I could. I knew the ending would be heartbreaking. I still remember hearing the horrific news about his passing after getting shots. My heart dropped. In addition to Pac’s life, Robinson delved into his mother’s life and the influences she had on her son. An engaging and breathtaking read.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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