Freshies are ready for 2011!

Happy 2011! The Freshies kicked off the 2011 season with some celebrations at our favorite North Conway locales - dinner at the Moat, drinks at Wine Thyme's ice bar, fireworks at the park and then lots and lots of bubbly, laughter and antics back at the house. We welcomed our newest ski house member, Patrick, who partied a bit too much to last until midnight.

The first ski days of the season felt more like the last. With temps in the 40s/50s and soft snow, Wildcat and Attitash offered surprisingly good conditions with light crowds. Favorites at Attitash included Tim's Trauma, Idiot's Option, Tightrope and Illusion on Bear Peak. We introduced Patrick to his first Apres Ski experience. It turns out that he's a big charmer with the ladies.

New Year's Resolutions were put on hold for a big feast of cheese, crackers, chips, salsa, guacamole, hummus, gourmet pickles, salad, bacon wrapped scallops, burgers with Montreal steak rub, chicken pot pie and lots of red wine. The next morning, we awoke to a wonderful egg, sausage and mushroom strata. We enjoyed our breakfast while gazing out the sliding door and lamenting at the fading snow cover. Hopefully, this is not a sign of things to come.

Happy New Year! Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

The girls go a-zorbing

Three members of the Freshies headed to Amesbury Sports Park to enjoy a little zorbing adventure.
We all started with the harness zorb - where you go alone and are harnessed into the middle of the zorb. One little push from the staff and down we each went. Head over heel, topsy over turvy (Speed Racer even caught a little bit of air...but does that surprise anyone!?! Of course she went down the fastest!). Thankfully none of us got 'ill' in the zorb, though we were all just a wee bit disoriented at the bottom.

Next came the water zorb, which on a 93+ degree day was a welcome thrill. Speed Racer and Private Dancer climbed in first and down then went, sloshing and bumping about. Next came Kiwi and her British colleague "Weezy." SO happy to be in the frigid spring water zipping down.

We all loved it and can't wait to go back for more with more of the Freshies!

Kathi Hardpack Lives up to Her Name!

(Spring conditions earlier in the week) + (10 degrees overnight) = extreme hardpack conditions!! Most in the house, with spring attitude firmly embraced, decided to take the day off with ski plans for tomorrow's 40 degree forecast. But one hardy soul embraced the weather and conditions. She packs the attitude, spirit, and abs that are symbolic of the founding principles of the ski house! Whom am I talking about? No, no, not Peekaboo Street. Nope, its also not Linda Hamilton (yep, chin-up scene from T2 was where my mind was). Not Uma Thurman from Kill Bill either. Drum roll please... Yes! Its our very own Kathi Hardpack!!! Do you think it matters that the temps are cold and the conditions are extreme hardpack. Nosireee! She said "bring it on"! And then, what did she do? She brought it on in return! You go girl!!

Goldilocks and the Three Chairs

While I am thrilled to continue to provide photographic stimulation to Danger Boy (who, ironically, seems to escape the camera during his many artistic tumbles as well), I cannot let the blog go on without telling a little fairy tale of the modern kind.
Once upon a time, there was a little boy who loved to ski. In all the excitement of powdery loveliness that fell hour upon hour, the little boy eagerly greeted each ski day early in the morn to be sure he could dazzle the damsels with his moves.
The little boy headed up the chair lift and started to make his way down the mountain. He was doing fine until he realized his ski had come off. "This one is too big," said the little boy. He put the ski back on and skied onward.
The little boy took the chair lift again and again the ski came off. "This one is too big!" exclaimed the little boy again, realizing his ski was left on the trail above him. Thankfully his trusty companion Kiwi, who was nice enough not to carry a camera, picked up the ski and returned it to him.
The little boy, in despair, headed into the lodge to have the wizards fix his ski. After some time, the little boy came out and took a third chair to the top to try the wizards work. Just a few turns into the run, the little boy giggled with glee, "this one is JUST right!"
The next weekend, the little boy went out to ski with some of his woodland friends. Shortly after reaching the mountain, the spider pig noted, "hey, this ski is TOO small!" The little boy looked on in horror as he realized that in all the wonder and excitement of having 3 consecutive powder days, he mistakenly fitted spider pig's ski to fit his boot.
In his shock and anger at the mistake, spider pig wanted to eat the little boy for lunch, instead, he chewed off the heads of the wizards who helped the little boy fit his ski and they were never heard from again.

Just Like Old Times

With Kiwi's impressive advances in carving up the mountain with elegance, speed, and attitude, I was worried that I wouldn't be able to add to my collection of pix of her.

Didn't remain worried for too long...

The EarlyBird gets the worm (or fresh tracks in this case!)

Yeah, yeah, we have a reputation for taking our time in the AM before we head out to the ski mtn. First chair, schmirst schmair, used to be our motto. That was until the Wildcat 4-day blizzard of 2010! Multiple feet of fresh snow and expectations of huge crowds on Friday/Saturday helped us get our butts in gear to actually arrive at the mountain around 8AM. Yep, that's right!! Check out the clock below - this was just before pulling into the p-lot.

We did this EarlyBird thingie three days in a row (Fri-Sat-Sun) - holy cannoli!! Cravings for fresh snow, soft bumps, and sweet landing zones has inspired us to achieve things that some thought just weren't possible.

Let's see how long it lasts...

Blizzard of 2010 at Wildcat!

From Feb 24 to Feb 27 Mother Nature decided to drop 54" of fresh stuff on Wildcat. Yes, 54"! That's not a typo. For those of you that like to think in feet that is 4 feet, 6 inches! Yowzza! That's almost the height of Private Dancer! Weirdly, there was about 3" of slush covered by 3" of snow in N. Conway during the same timeframe. Not so great, but just enough for the x-country ski & chocolate festival on Sunday.

Check out the pow-pow in these pix, especially taking note of the trees - just a bit more snow and the poor guy would have been completely covered, looking like an upside down snow cone!

Lucky Jeans and Kiwi have their game faces on for a day of powder skiing. You go Wildcats!

Below are Danger Boy's ski poles - he's actually under all that snow, trying to work his way to the top!

Things are looking good for amazing skiing in March at the 'Cat!