Black Diamonds, Blue Squares, and the Like

It wasn't until about 9:30 or so until we got moving out the door and onto the slopes. Garrett had to rent his skis and the rest of us unpacked our equipment to get dressed for the day. Before long, we had our passes in hand and we were lining up at the main lift to head up the mountain. It was about 10 degrees currently, and it didn't look to get much warmer. What we weren't expecting was the wind.

1500 vertical feet later, the four of us found ourselves in a wind storm that would put a white squall to shame. I'm not sure how hard it was blowing, but it was actually difficult to stand in one spot without being forced into a slide down the hill. Funny thing was, it was only really like this over 11,000 feet. Once below that line, blue skies and barely a flake of snow in the air.

We spent the first part of our day on Peak 9, primarily sticking to the Blue Squares and Green Circles to warm up. We slowly headed down and took the Peak 8 Superchair up to the midpoint of Peak 8. We stayed on this part of the mountain for a few hours, exploring most of the more difficult runs, with Garrett and I even making our way down a few of the Black Diamonds. The diamonds are different here, but not extremely different. Maybe a little steeper, and definitely more mogul fields, but it's relatively the same. What's different here compared to the east coast isn't just the length of the runs, but the width. Almost every run is completely wide open, and not nearly as claustrophobic. Incredibly invigorating.

Around 1:00 we stopped at the Bergenhof Restaurant at the bottom of Peak 8 and took about a 45 minute break, using the time to regain our energy, grab some food, and plan the rest of our day. We only had about two hours left until they closed the lift, so we decieded to head back to the main lift, conviently only about 200 yards from the front door of our condo, and spend the rest of our day over there, so we didn't get stuck on the other side of the mountain.

After a few more runs around Peak 9, an amazing run through the trees on a run called The Upper Lehman and a slight mix up that brought us to the top of Peak 10, we decided to call it a day. However, at this point we were at about 12,000 feet and the only way down were some pretty intense Black Diamonds and one Diamond/Square. Lisa had already gone in, so Garrett, Claire and I headed down, dropping nearly 2,500 feet in about 12 minutes.

We grabbed some dinner at the Brecksville Brewery, relived the day over a few beers, then split up before we all headed back towards the condo. Lisa and I decided to lay low and hang out for a bit to recover our energy, while Claire and Garrett went to the store to purchase some groceries. Upon their return, we all decided to head down to the snow sculpture exhibit close to town square, after which we walked through town, stopped in a few random stores, then headed back up to the room. We're now watching Stand By Me, eating cheese-its and trail-mix and one by one, getting ready for bed. My eyes are heavy writing this, so it's about that time for me as well. Tomorrow is another day of skiing, and now that we're more familiar with the hills, we know what we want to explore, on and off the mountain. In the meantime, I have a book to read, a nightly ritual that sends me off to sleep with the light on, and the pages resting, folded awkwardly on my chest.