Brave Little Soldiers

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We are brave little soldiers. We woke up this morning still a bit stiff and wondering how the hell we were going to pull today off. We overcame our fears and jumped in the car to Alyeska; we wanted to give the big mountain a go. Apparently I’m a bad tour guide, though, because my car windows weren’t clear enough to take pictures through. Instead, Glenn had to roll down the window and freeze for a minute or two at a time. I tried to make up for it by narrating along the way. We got to Potter’s Marsh and all I could say about it was that it wasn’t named after Harry Potter.

We arrived at Alyeska and got ready to go snowboarding once more. I decided to give snowboarding one more try; it wouldn’t be fair to leave Glenn in my ski dust only his second time snowboarding. We got all our gear & jumped onto chair 7. At the top we had to decide which run to take. We sat down and buckled up ready to go down one run and changed our minds. Too lazy to take the bindings back off, we crawled on our hands and knees 20 ft back up the mountain to start another run.

I should’ve stopped while I was ahead. I couldn’t remember how to stop. Our lessons were only two days ago, but I couldn’t for the life of me remember any other way to stop besides falling. I’d start going, get faster, freak out, scream, then resort to falling on my face in order to slow down and gain control. Bad system.

Glenn was doing much better than me. He only fell to give me a chance to catch up with him, or so it appeared at least. Though, I’m sure he didn’t do it on purpose every time. He would wait forever it seemed because in addition to forgetting how to stop, I had forgotten how to get up.

The beginning of the end: I was rocking back and forth trying to get up. Too far forward. Too far back. Just right. Up again. Faster. Faster. Don’t know how to stop. Hands down. Lower center of gravity. Wham! Glenn grinds his board to a halt further down the mountain and runs back up the hill to where I’ve whacked my head. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. I threw in the towel then and there. I wouldn’t even touch the buckles…Glenn had to un-strap them for me. I do have some good news though; not surprisingly, a snowboard makes a great sled.

And I’m back on skis. Guess what? The rental boy was not surprised to see me back so soon to get skis. Neither was the chair lift man. Luckily I’m a great deal better at skiing than snowboarding, which, actually, isn’t saying much. But it means that I could ski and take pictures of Glenn at the same time. Glenn is amazing! He makes snowboarding look so natural. Even when he falls it’s graceful. He did have one or two funnies though. My favorite: Glenn came to a stop at the bottom of the run, and stood there for a minute with an ear to ear smile of pure pride that said “I did it.” Plop. He was down on his butt a second later.

Another afternoon of hard work and we were dead to the world once again. The evening finished with dinner at the Double Musky followed by a muscle relaxing Jacuzzi & sauna.

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Photos

Drive to Alyeska
The scenery along the drive to Alyeska Ski Resort.

Giant Ice Cubes
More beautiful scenery along the way.

Chair 7
View from Chair Lift 7 at Alyeska.

Just a "Rest"
Glenn having a rest along Chair 7.

Not "Just a Rest"
Glenn getting up on his snowbaord, or at least trying.

Sledding!
Brittana developed a new snowboarding technique after a fight with the ground.

Watch Out
Brittana aiming for Glenn.

Brittana Showing Off
Brittana stops just in front of Glenn--showing off her amazing stopping skills (not that amazing).