My teacher, as our earned class trip, took us skiing again. As with the first, school-organized trip, we went to Camelback Mountain (www.skicamelback.com) in the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania. We got there around noon, and got twilight tickets (12:30 to 10:00 PM). For me the total cost (ticket, rentals, helmet) was $60. I got organized more quickly than the last time, since I was more familiar with the layout of the base area.
On this trip, my accomplishment was making it past the bunny hills and the one beginner slope of last time. My experince with the lift that went up to those trails was a little scary the first time; the chair speeds up for a few seconds after you load (it's not a fixed chair lift; one of their two high speed quad-chair lifts), but I got over it. I took the following trails (in order of being on them): Little Ceaser, Julius Ceaser, and Honeymoon Lane. I found the first two to be somewhat easy, and the third a little hard. My most hated trail was The Meadows, which is a single green circle (the first two above trails are a green double-circle), is pretty steep, and I can't really zig-zag or 'S' down the mountain that well yet, and I ended up crashing into a net fence (and it took me about three or so minutes to get up and get my pole untangled) all the way at the bottom, past the end.
We stopped skiing at about 5:00 PM, and began a barbeque at about 6:00. We had burgers and hot dogsfor dinner, and headed home at about 7:30.
All in all, I had a great time, and if I were forced to get away from the computer and do any outdoor activity of my choice, I would choose skiing for sure. But for now, I will limit how tough trails I will choose.

 

 

 

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well thats good, its good that you enjoyed yourself, even better that you are among the few who know how to ski/snow-board i think it would be kool but ill never learn >_< hamburgers and hot dogs oo sounds yummy.. i had chicken tonight lol..neways did you take ne pix..i doubt you did i bet you were having too much fun! i wouldn't blame you! i mean with advancing a whole ski level..it would take me a long time!!! haha

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I get to go snowboarding this Friday with school. With any luck, I'll avoid the crashing thing :\ But probably not. This'll be my first time in two years, and I've only gone twice before. On the plus side, I'm going with a few friends who aren't so great at it, either, so it won't be that bad. I figure if I can walk away from the hills at the end of it, I did ok. Hopefully it'll be as much fun as yours sounds XD

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The only time you crash is if you go too fast and don't slow down in time. I crashed into a net fence (fortunately not a chainlink metal fence). Falling is something else; I've seen a snowboarder fall a few times straight, but he got up really quickly from it. I find that if you fall while skiing, it's not so easy to get up. I find it easier to just release the bindings (if you didn't break off) and get up while not attatched to the skis.
Oh so sorry Albus, I only took a couple of pictures after we were done, of some random stuff. I'll get around to uploading them eventually.

 

 

 

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michaelper22, do you know about the ice hocky style stop where you crave unto the snow? If not ask one of your friends they schoud know how to do it. It's a fats way to stop and not run over things.

I as well enjoy skiing, but i have stoped for the last two years to snowboard. I still ski once in a while but all my friends snowboard. Other way i just enjoy being up in the mountains.

Good luck on skiing, never give up it's a great sport.

- John

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Nope, i never heard of it, but I'm guessing that instead of doing the V-way or pizza or whtever you call the thing, you make a quick turn to be parallel to the mountain and end up scraping off some snow? Something like that? (Tell me if I confused you.)
I will never give up on skiing; if I had to get my lazy behind away from the computer and do any outdoor activity of my choice, skiing would be #1 (evn higher) on the list. I love skiing, and I will impatiently wait until next winter to go again. Any way, Camelback's last day of operation (only weekend) is either this Sunday (today, as I write this post; they don't have night skiing anymore, so they are closed now), or next Sunday, to be decided by like Wednesday.

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I have never been skiiing o_o that must be really fun.....

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How's Camelback? I go to college in Pittsburgh, so I'm not all that far from it, but I haven't tried it from a mixture of being too busy, cost, and being a stuck up Vermonter who laughs at easier mountains ;-)

If you're over about five years old (and judging from your writing, you're *much* older) you should talk to your instructor about teaching you how to ski parallel. It's a little scary at first, but it gives you a huge amount more control than the wedge ("pizza pie"). Little kids are the only people who need to be taught the wedge, and that's because their legs aren't strong enough to keep their skis parallel.

Two things that might help you a lot: 1) Make sure your knees stay bent, and that your shins are always pressed up against the front of your boots. Think about keeping your body perpendicular to the slope of the mountain. Leaning back is easy to do, but it causes you to loose a lot of control. 2) Rather than trying to slow down with the wedge, turn and stop by placing pressure on the outside edges of your skis. It's perfectly fine to turn back and forth a few times across the slope and then stop if you get going too fast; and it teaches much better form.

Best of luck on the skiing -- it's a real lot of fun.

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