~ Gavin Sellers, overlooking a drop onto a blue trail
Day 3 in Colorado was another cold day, with a promised high of 5 degrees! We skied with my uncles/uncle's cousin and headed to Beaver Creek - as it was not quite as high as some of the other resorts, and therefore potentially warmer. The resort was BEAUTIFUL!
We had some fresh snow to ski which was bad and good. The runs at this resort were fairly flat (at least the ones we started out on), so Gavin had a hard time getting any momentum going - especially with the fresh powder. After a couple green runs, of which we had to "skate" quite a ways on basically flat land, I decided we could try a blue hill. The blues had been utter failures the day before, but there was no way I was pushing/pulling Gavin over these runs all day!
We went up the lift, talked about trying a blue run, and mapped out our path on the trail map. I had Gavin play follow the leader with me, I stayed just one turn ahead of him, and he quickly got a good sense of skiing side to side, carving out the mountain. A huge improvement vs going straight down the mountain in a snow plow! And this was only the fourth day in his life he's ever skied!! *insert one very proud mama here*
Pretty soon, he had the hang of it, and wanted to ski in front of me. He was so controlled and methodical - I was so impressed! In fact, there were times I started thinking you know, you could go a little faster, but I would much rather be slow and steady than flying out of control into trees.
After building up our confidence on the first blue run, we were ready to take the mountain by storm. Mapped out our run on the trail map again. Started going down the mountain. Then Gavin decides he wants to change course and go down "Rose Bowl" - now that he can read he likes to make decisions based on the name of the run!
Oops - Rose Bowl is one of the ungroomed trails. Lots of fresh powder. Not to mention the MOGULS! This was a bit of a frustrating run because we just kept getting stuck in the powder. But we made it down to the lift. By the time we got back up the mountain, it was time to meet up with my uncles for lunch. The lodge had an amazing dining room and I had a lovely treat - grilled portabello mushroom burger with roasted red peppers and garlic aioli - yum!
After lunch we skied with my uncles for a bit. We trekked to some runs on the other side of the mountain. More flat trails. Gavin and I managed to get into a bit of a rhythm. As long as he didn't come to a complete stop I could get my momentum going and come up behind him and give him a push. But if he came to a complete stop, to get him going I would get in front of him and swing my pole back to him and he would grab it as I gave it a good pull to get him moving. It was 5 degrees out and I was sweating buckets!! Definitely a workout - but it kept me warm and I got some exercise anyway.
Despite the flat parts, we had some more really nice runs in the afternoon. Gavin started absorbing the inconsistencies in the snow with his knees, rather than falling every time he hit a rough spot. He stopped and "took a rest" when his legs got tired, or his butt for that matter. Seems like all that control was giving him a glute workout! I also noticed that when we would catch up with my uncles and they would ski ahead of him, he would start to parallel his ski's a little. Somehow just seeing them as examples ahead of him helped his form. We even went down a blue run in a lot of fog - it looked a little scary from the lift, but he made it down just fine. I wish I had taken some pictures or video - but it was way to cold to ski without a glove on.
After leaving the resort, we stopped by a bakery where I seized the opportunity to buy sandwiches for dinner, since Gavin was once again too tired to go out to eat. Another yummy meal - smoked salmon sandwich on marble rye!!
And that was Day 3 of our trip. Unfortunately the next day was even colder and we opted to head home instead of ski. To be continued....
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