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Published: January 19th 2010
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Well, my past couple of weeks back here stateside have been excitingas I have engaged in many new firsts and am way excited for what else is to come. One of the best new ones was today -- my first time at Eaglecrest. I know, I know, it seems like a sin living in Juneau for almost five years now and never having gone to Eaglecrest. So today, I made the early morning expedition with Les and my two roommates - Sara and Amy. Of course we all were a little sleepy after not having the best dreams from watching a ridiculously stupid but creepy movie called The Orphan, but we made it up to the mountain around 9am.
It was a beautiful morning as we got my gear and I went to my lesson while they went for a run. It all slowly started coming back as Al, the Eaglecrest guy, gave me and this older woman Shanda a nice refresher. And I re-learned the essentials: how to stop, how to turn, how to turn and stop, and how to ride the Platter pole. Then after my lesson, I met up with the gang and had lunch! Then we
Another shot
Photo by Amy Bond hit the slopes! It was going okay at first as I caught the Hooter chair up to the top of Sourdough, but once I saw how steep it was, I got really tense. Getting off the chair lift was interesting too as it was very steep and with a little of a push from the chair, you just fly off of it.
Needless to say, it took awhile to get down the mountain...maybe a little longer than it should have and we just made it back to the mid-part where you can catch the Hooter Chair again. I fell...a LOT. Every hundred feet or so resulted in a total wipe-out, sometimes with my gear still on, other times with one ski flying off, and once losing a pole and having to hike back to get it. Oh and one very bad wipe-out that made me very happy that I had rented a helmet. But once we got to the bottom, Sara offered to go back to Platter but stupid me decided I wouldn't be afraid. After all, you fall off a bike, you get back on right? Well...that may not have been the best idea. The second time down,
Pretty views
Photo by Amy Bond I was just as nervous but started out a little better, making it a little further without falling. That is until the major wipe-out. I was doing pretty good on my switchbacks and still am not sure where it all went wrong first, but it did, my poles went flying, I lost my balance, both of my skies flew off, and I fell face forward about 25 feet down the mountain, skinning a little bit of my nose and knocking the wind out of me. Well, it took a bit to recover from that one. I rolled over and just laid there, trying to catch my breath. Then I got a little lightheaded, but it went away. I was really nervous though so Les grabbed my ankles and we slid on our asses almost halfway down the mountain until we got to a less steep spot. And it was so slick and steep that we had no trouble sliding and often found it hard to even stop. It resulted in lots of laughing and probably looked pretty ridiculous. Nevertheless, we made it to the flatter spot and I did switchbacks the rest of the way down, only falling once more
Sara stripping :)
Photo by Amy Bond before finally reaching the bottom.
It was quite a fun day even though my whole right side is pretty sore and my eyes are wanting to close even though it's only about 8:00pm. It was just another good day, one of several lately. I've met some new people these past couple weeks since I've been here. And I got a lot of hours in at work which means a nice big paycheck in about two weeks. That is always a big relief -- gotta find ways to fund the skiing, right? 😊 lol.
Life is going okay. I've been getting to know my new roommates. They are pretty nice, mellow, and down to earth. And always coming up with random things, talking about our "Davids" and I learned what the unicorn reference means. And we all do our own thing, have our own jobs and different classes so we won't see each other too much (aka get sick of each other) which is nice. And work has been pretty good. I've been staying busy with office stuff and checking out the new look to the campus cafeteria -- it almost looks like a giant pumpkin threw up but
a refreshing change. And the other day, I saw the cutest puppy in the whole world. A student brought in a little 10-week-old Labrador/Rottweiler mix and he was just adorable. His name was Stringer and he still had that little puppy breath. Oh so cute. And I had my first real sushi the other day -- the Lisa Roll (named after the awesome lady I was with) which consisted of some raw tuna on a shrimp tempura roll. Yum!! But tomorrow starts the Big D meaning no more prepared sushi -- gotta prepare it at home myself which I'm hoping Les will teach me.
And lastly, nothing beats those nights just after sunset when you look out over the skyline and see this magnificent, beautiful dark blue hue as night is approaching (a camera could never bring this moment justice). The Alaskan skyline -- nothing truly beats it as the mountains loom in the night! It's sad that this place won't be my home anymore in just under half a year, but for now, it's my life, my comfort, and bringing me the peace that I have been searching for for so long. It's my home...and it's nice to
Another mtn shot
Photo by Amy Bond be back.
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