Skiing in the Southland

So, we are sitting on the deck at the lodge in Virginia’s Shenandoah Mountains when an SUV with Florida plates screeches to a halt at the end of the parking lot and a family of four jumps out onto the snow. While everyone grabs handfuls of snow Dad throws a pile into the air and shouts, “We’re playing in snow”!

I have never seen camouflage outfits used for skiing. They must have had these clothes for hunting in the closet and thought, “Well, there’s a warm outfit”! Southern accents were, of course, everywhere. Daughter Jess and I had never skied in 50 degree temps before. So we were surprised when the folks in front of us in the lift line announced that they had never been so cold in their lives! Their noses, they said, were practically frozen off. We almost fell down chuckling in out light sweaters and jeans.

I had two incidents involving chair lifts.

I joined Jess and granddaughter Molly on one first thing in the morning. Perhaps I hadn’t sufficiently limbered up at that point. I was on the inside which spins around at the top faster than the outside edge. Jess and Molly popped up and off. I needed a little time to stop chatting, groan and grunt, actually push myself sort of upright and by then the chair had passed the drop off point slightly and I had to make a split second decision, so I jumped. I was confident I could land on my skis and I did. But then I fell on my bum. Luckily no one was on the chairs right behind me. I flipped off my skis and move to the side. Daughter Jessica seemed more excited than the situation called for. She’s a worrier.

Later that day granddaughter Lillian and I were to take the same chair up the mountain. She told me not to help her. I’m sure that’s what she said. So I didn’t grab her and lift her on. I sat down. The chair pushed her forward and she fell. I passed over her while hearing her mother scream. The chair lift stopped and the attendant helped Lilly onto the lift with her mother and sisters. When we got to the top Molly suggested I ski down immediately because Mom was angry with me. What a worrier.

There were deer everywhere and mountain goats at the top of the very top lift. Jess and Molly went up there to feed the goats peanuts. I didn’t. The trails down from there are all double black diamonds and actually require some skiing ability. And falling off ski lifts on the kiddie slope doesn’t develop a lot of confidence!