J.Spin
New member
As I continue to catch up on my backlog of ski reports, here?s the March 5th report from skiing at Lost Trail with Ty.
Additional pictures and video are available through the link at the bottom of the report.
Lost Trail had reported 3 inches of new snow by Saturday morning, and then 5 more throughout the day, so we knew Sunday held plenty of promise for powder. Mom was staying home with Dylan to get some things done, so it was going to be another classic ?Ty and Dad? day on the hill. It was actually our first day back at Lost Trail after our Big Mountain trip, and since Ty had done so well skiing without the leash at Big Mountain, we were all hoping it would carry on now that we were back at the local slopes of Lost Trail.
I was fairly confident that Ty?s skiing would progress, so I never even pulled the ski leash out as we started our day. Ty skied Meadow Run & Meadow Trail with no problems, so we moved on to tackle the intermediate North Bowl. There, Ty did a great job of keeping up his turns and maintaining control, and I noted another little boy on the trail who wasn?t turning much and seemed to be going a little faster than he should have. At one point that boy crashed on North Bowl, and it was nice to see that Ty was maintaining enough control to stop and assist me while I helped the boy reassemble himself. Ty and I then continued the run on down to Boomer, and eventually Gunsmoke. Gunsmoke was set up with several modest jumps and rails, and to caution everyone or provide some visual clarity, the takeoff areas had been marked with fluorescent pink paint. Ty liked hitting the jumps, although he took them cautiously on the side and didn?t catch much if any air.
At the bottom of Gunsmoke, we headed into the yurt. Since it was near lunchtime, we decided to grab some grub before Ty took on the Chair 4 slopes. The special for the day was homemade beef stew with some pita bread, so I got that and shared with Ty. The stew was really hearty with large chunks of everything, and Ty really seemed to enjoy the pita along with his bagel.
After lunch, it was up Chair 4 to take on some of the powder in the trees. We got off at the mid-station so Ty could skip the steepest upper slopes, and traversed over to Sacajewea. The snow on trail was nice packed powder, and Ty also followed me on some fun forays into the powdery trees off the skier?s left of the trail. It was excellent terrain for him, as the slope was generally quite mellow. There were a few tighter tree spots, but he had no problems negotiating any of them at the speed he was going. Toward the bottom of the run, Ty decided that he didn?t want to follow me into the trees anymore. Instead, he wanted to focus on skiing the groomed snow on the trail. At times, I think he likes to focus on the trail because he can go with a little more speed than in the trees. Also, although it can be hard to tell sometimes, I think powder skiing does take more effort for Ty than just skiing the groomed terrain. In an interesting revelation from one of our ski discussions during the day, Ty said ?the powder makes me dizzy?. I don?t think he was talking about any sort of vertigo, but was instead trying to explain how he felt more unstable skiing in the powder than on the groomed terrain. It was really interesting to see how he explained this to me using his available concepts and vocabulary.
For the next run, we did another Chair 4 circuit, unloading again at the mid-station. This time we stuck to the lift line area, hitting some of the widely-spaced trees off to the skier?s left. As the trees closed in, we headed back to the trail, but before too long, Ty started getting tired. When Ty gets tired at the end of a ski day, he just starts sitting down on the trail whenever he feels like he needs to. This becomes more and more frequent as he becomes more tired, and eventually he will ask for you to hold him (I?ll typically ski with him between my legs and support some of his weight at that point). We?d reached this stage near the end of our lift line run, so I took the opportunity to bring Ty through some steeper and tighter trees that he might not get a chance to do on his own. He had a blast, although it was a lot of work for me to support him through the powder in challenging terrain. My quads were feeling it, and I had to take several rest stops to let them recover. I actually had a lot of fun getting Ty excited as we shot through narrow openings in the powdery trees, but my legs were glad we only had to do it for the last part of the run.
Ty?s need for help on the end of our run meant that he was definitely tired and done for the day, although he refused to admit it of course. He would have gladly done another run, but I knew it would essentially be me skiing, while he got to go along for the ride. So, we headed up Chair 3 and out to the parking lot to call it a day. Spring certainly appeared to be on the way, as we had a pleasant 27 degrees F when we left the mountain, but a warm 49 degrees F when we got back to town.
I was able to some pictures and video from the day, they can be seen at:
http://JandEproductions.com/2006/05MAR06.html
J.Spin
Additional pictures and video are available through the link at the bottom of the report.
Lost Trail had reported 3 inches of new snow by Saturday morning, and then 5 more throughout the day, so we knew Sunday held plenty of promise for powder. Mom was staying home with Dylan to get some things done, so it was going to be another classic ?Ty and Dad? day on the hill. It was actually our first day back at Lost Trail after our Big Mountain trip, and since Ty had done so well skiing without the leash at Big Mountain, we were all hoping it would carry on now that we were back at the local slopes of Lost Trail.
I was fairly confident that Ty?s skiing would progress, so I never even pulled the ski leash out as we started our day. Ty skied Meadow Run & Meadow Trail with no problems, so we moved on to tackle the intermediate North Bowl. There, Ty did a great job of keeping up his turns and maintaining control, and I noted another little boy on the trail who wasn?t turning much and seemed to be going a little faster than he should have. At one point that boy crashed on North Bowl, and it was nice to see that Ty was maintaining enough control to stop and assist me while I helped the boy reassemble himself. Ty and I then continued the run on down to Boomer, and eventually Gunsmoke. Gunsmoke was set up with several modest jumps and rails, and to caution everyone or provide some visual clarity, the takeoff areas had been marked with fluorescent pink paint. Ty liked hitting the jumps, although he took them cautiously on the side and didn?t catch much if any air.
At the bottom of Gunsmoke, we headed into the yurt. Since it was near lunchtime, we decided to grab some grub before Ty took on the Chair 4 slopes. The special for the day was homemade beef stew with some pita bread, so I got that and shared with Ty. The stew was really hearty with large chunks of everything, and Ty really seemed to enjoy the pita along with his bagel.
After lunch, it was up Chair 4 to take on some of the powder in the trees. We got off at the mid-station so Ty could skip the steepest upper slopes, and traversed over to Sacajewea. The snow on trail was nice packed powder, and Ty also followed me on some fun forays into the powdery trees off the skier?s left of the trail. It was excellent terrain for him, as the slope was generally quite mellow. There were a few tighter tree spots, but he had no problems negotiating any of them at the speed he was going. Toward the bottom of the run, Ty decided that he didn?t want to follow me into the trees anymore. Instead, he wanted to focus on skiing the groomed snow on the trail. At times, I think he likes to focus on the trail because he can go with a little more speed than in the trees. Also, although it can be hard to tell sometimes, I think powder skiing does take more effort for Ty than just skiing the groomed terrain. In an interesting revelation from one of our ski discussions during the day, Ty said ?the powder makes me dizzy?. I don?t think he was talking about any sort of vertigo, but was instead trying to explain how he felt more unstable skiing in the powder than on the groomed terrain. It was really interesting to see how he explained this to me using his available concepts and vocabulary.
For the next run, we did another Chair 4 circuit, unloading again at the mid-station. This time we stuck to the lift line area, hitting some of the widely-spaced trees off to the skier?s left. As the trees closed in, we headed back to the trail, but before too long, Ty started getting tired. When Ty gets tired at the end of a ski day, he just starts sitting down on the trail whenever he feels like he needs to. This becomes more and more frequent as he becomes more tired, and eventually he will ask for you to hold him (I?ll typically ski with him between my legs and support some of his weight at that point). We?d reached this stage near the end of our lift line run, so I took the opportunity to bring Ty through some steeper and tighter trees that he might not get a chance to do on his own. He had a blast, although it was a lot of work for me to support him through the powder in challenging terrain. My quads were feeling it, and I had to take several rest stops to let them recover. I actually had a lot of fun getting Ty excited as we shot through narrow openings in the powdery trees, but my legs were glad we only had to do it for the last part of the run.
Ty?s need for help on the end of our run meant that he was definitely tired and done for the day, although he refused to admit it of course. He would have gladly done another run, but I knew it would essentially be me skiing, while he got to go along for the ride. So, we headed up Chair 3 and out to the parking lot to call it a day. Spring certainly appeared to be on the way, as we had a pleasant 27 degrees F when we left the mountain, but a warm 49 degrees F when we got back to town.
I was able to some pictures and video from the day, they can be seen at:
http://JandEproductions.com/2006/05MAR06.html
J.Spin
