Farewell to a friend . .

[sunvalleylaw]

Old Man Winter, and Ski Season 2009 - 2010.

The mountain closed yesterday,(though there is plenty of snow left if you want to hike for it). (See webcams here: http://www.sunvalley.com/mountain/webcams ) It was a very fun year, with SV under new management that is bringing forward looking change and new vitality to a grand old resort. Our new terrain park (think jumps, rails and stuff), a renewed emphasis on local skiers and family skiing, and a better attitude overall contributed to a fun year, despite it being a meager snow year. This mountain skis great with very little snow anyway. Well, time for the next season, but in honor of the 2009-2010 season, here is "Funeral for a Friend, Love Lies Bleeding."

5GYI6XJH9Ss
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GYI6XJH9Ss

[Robert]

But welcome to my best friends - spring, summer and fall! :D

[aeolian]

Some ski areas on Mt. Hood are done for the season also.

Here's a little story. A couple of years ago I took my children to try skiing. I used to ski and I told them that I can show them the basics if they want to try skiing, but they wanted to try snowboarding. I told them then they are pretty much on their own once I signed them up for lessons since I don't know anything about snowboarding.

As to be expected the first day was hard and although they had fun they did not make much progress. This winter they asked me again to take them skiing but this time they want to try skiing (my children are now 16 and 13). I took them up them once in December and once in January. Both times I signed them up for lessons, but before and after the lessons I trekked up and down the little rope tow slope to show them how to use the skis to turn and balance. During the second time the instructors took them up on the lift chairs and they managed to come down the easy slope. A couple of weeks ago I decided to take them skiing again and I was not going to send them to lessons this time. They told me that I should ski with them to give them some supervision and help. I am 61 years old now, and I haven't had skis on for over 20 years so I wasn't sure I can still ski, but when I was helping them I got the sense that my muscle memory is still there for skiing. Anyway, we ended up having a great day of skiing. I managed to go down the green ski run all day without falling over once. My children also did well. They not only managed to come down the slope at least once without falling, they also managed to ski down the slope the whole way without coming to a complete stop; I figured that is probably about 8 minutes of continuous skiing.

They were disappointed when I told them that the place we went to ski is now closed for the season, but they already told me they want to ski next year.