bdfreetuna
New member
To cut to the chase, conditions were overall great at Killington.... really soft snow and nice powder.. They had WAY to many ropes up though on trails I would have totally skiied and they looked totally legit to ski.
Anyway, I wasn't out there to slay the mountain that day. I was out there to introduce the love of my life to my favorite past time.
We had gone out for like 4 years, then broke up as our paths took different courses, and just a month or so ago we started to really reconnect. I asked her if she wanted to go skiing and she said she would love to try it.
Since I am an expert skier I assumed I would be an expert ski instructer. That turned out to be mostly not true
Anyway, we got up there early and rented her some skis. They wanted to give her like 140mm skis since it was her first time but I was like come on I ski 185s and anything less than 160 isn't a real ski... so she ended up with 150's or 160's I don't remember... at least a decent pair of Rossignol Bandit rental skis and she is like 5'10" so she dont need no short ass skies...
Anyway... we took a couple runs down Snowdon or Snowshed or whatever the easier mountain is. Her first time riding up the lift was slightly scary they had to slow it down a little but it was fine. She got off the lift okay and I taught her how to snowplow and go real slow while I was skiing backwards giving her tips the whole way down.
She fell a few times but did pretty well. So we took like 4 runs like that and she started to get fairly confident and was having fun even though she did wipe out a bunch of times.. at least the snow was soft that day and she mostly laughed it off.
Then I came up with a stupid idea. "Lets go on the K-1 Gondola that will be fun!"
So we rode up that and by that point her legs were already getting tired. We took the green circle all the way down but she fell a bunch of times and I could tell she was getting frustrated and her legs were just not conditioned to skiing and she had a hard time setting her skies straight across the mountain and standing up a few times. She started to get frustrated but she was trying her best.
We got about halfway down when she just needed to take a break, because its a long way down the Gondola to the K-1 base lodge and her legs were really giving out. A ski patrol came by and noticed we were just sitting there and she was frustrated, so we talked to him for a while.
We came to the decision that we might as well get her a sled ride down the rest of the hill. The sled was there in 5 minutes and I grabbed her skies and followed the sled down. She was slightly embarrased but she also had fun on the sled. I said "Thank you SOOOO much" and shook his hand and he was like "Dude, it's totally my pleasure"
Ski Patrol RULES and Killington mountain ambassadors are the real deal. She could have probably gotten down the rest of the way but by the point her legs were so tired and they just really saved us a heck of a lot of frustration and they were so cool about it.
We got back to the lodge, had a few drinks, had some food and a lovely chat. I took her out to a nice restaurant afterwards and overall she had to admit it was an incredible day although a little intense and maybe next time I should get her some actual ski lessons instead of trying to do it myself.
In the end.... it went very well considering.
Here is a picture of us at the top of the K-1 gondola... this was before her legs gave out and she was still having a good time
Anyway, I wasn't out there to slay the mountain that day. I was out there to introduce the love of my life to my favorite past time.
We had gone out for like 4 years, then broke up as our paths took different courses, and just a month or so ago we started to really reconnect. I asked her if she wanted to go skiing and she said she would love to try it.
Since I am an expert skier I assumed I would be an expert ski instructer. That turned out to be mostly not true
Anyway, we got up there early and rented her some skis. They wanted to give her like 140mm skis since it was her first time but I was like come on I ski 185s and anything less than 160 isn't a real ski... so she ended up with 150's or 160's I don't remember... at least a decent pair of Rossignol Bandit rental skis and she is like 5'10" so she dont need no short ass skies...
Anyway... we took a couple runs down Snowdon or Snowshed or whatever the easier mountain is. Her first time riding up the lift was slightly scary they had to slow it down a little but it was fine. She got off the lift okay and I taught her how to snowplow and go real slow while I was skiing backwards giving her tips the whole way down.
She fell a few times but did pretty well. So we took like 4 runs like that and she started to get fairly confident and was having fun even though she did wipe out a bunch of times.. at least the snow was soft that day and she mostly laughed it off.
Then I came up with a stupid idea. "Lets go on the K-1 Gondola that will be fun!"
So we rode up that and by that point her legs were already getting tired. We took the green circle all the way down but she fell a bunch of times and I could tell she was getting frustrated and her legs were just not conditioned to skiing and she had a hard time setting her skies straight across the mountain and standing up a few times. She started to get frustrated but she was trying her best.
We got about halfway down when she just needed to take a break, because its a long way down the Gondola to the K-1 base lodge and her legs were really giving out. A ski patrol came by and noticed we were just sitting there and she was frustrated, so we talked to him for a while.
We came to the decision that we might as well get her a sled ride down the rest of the hill. The sled was there in 5 minutes and I grabbed her skies and followed the sled down. She was slightly embarrased but she also had fun on the sled. I said "Thank you SOOOO much" and shook his hand and he was like "Dude, it's totally my pleasure"
Ski Patrol RULES and Killington mountain ambassadors are the real deal. She could have probably gotten down the rest of the way but by the point her legs were so tired and they just really saved us a heck of a lot of frustration and they were so cool about it.
We got back to the lodge, had a few drinks, had some food and a lovely chat. I took her out to a nice restaurant afterwards and overall she had to admit it was an incredible day although a little intense and maybe next time I should get her some actual ski lessons instead of trying to do it myself.
In the end.... it went very well considering.
Here is a picture of us at the top of the K-1 gondola... this was before her legs gave out and she was still having a good time
