Live from Boise following the Idaho Erben's one post at a time…

I Want to Go Skiin’

With the swiftness of a late spring snow squall, another weekend has come and gone.  Instead of camping out around the homestead doing chores and singing songs around a maypole or other equally happy activities, we made a point to adventure it up this weekend.  However, I started it off...

Starting around Tuesday of last week, we had a fair amount of spring-ish weather blow through -- you know, it is March -- in like a lion.  Not much down here in the valley (never is, yes, it is somewhat boring), but the mountains had a pretty white covering on them most morning commutes, when you could see them.  I paid little attention to it all, figuring (ok, assuming) it was more a dusting of soft snow instead of massive dumping of fresh pow-pow.  Well, come Thursday, a buddy at work sends out an APB, looking for cohorts for a Friday adventure.  Come to find out, Bogus Basin, the local ski area about 20 miles up the road to the northeast of us, had been receiving fresh snow all week, and was up to 20-24" of new snow.  My beautiful, sweet, loving wife was supportive, and I locked in the plans to travel up around noon on Friday.

Oh Friday...what a day Friday was...

I packed my lunch, packed some after boarding snacks, and loaded up the boarding gear into the pickup.  I departed at the same time as Flossie and Nora, taking Tyler in the pickup with me.  He is all about riding the pickup with daddy now -- you know, mud, guts, diesel exhaust, all that jazz.  I worked a few hours as the anticipation started to build.  I committed some changes at 11:30, finished up some leftover Chinese, and poof, picked up a pal from work and away we went.

We arrived around 1:30ish, party cloudy skies, not much of a breeze at the base, and a fair crowd of other folks playing in the snow.  We took the Deerpoint lift up, slid off at the top, and took an easy run down.  Oh my...even with plenty of tracks, the sides were barely touched, and it was soft all over.  The board made a sweet singing sound as the soft snow and board made gentle contact as I wisked down the hill.  We quickly hopped on over to the backside, and entered heaven.

The snow...was...incredible, and it was everywhere.  Cat tracks were more ungroomed runs, with powder everywhere.  Zipping down to the Superior chair, we headed up, and began a four hour pleasure tour of the backside of Bogus Basin.  I am really at a loss on how to describe it, it was just an amazing day to be out on the snow.  It was so soft, the board was floating on a light meringue of white joy.  Where the wind had touched, there were natural jumps that allowed you to point it, hit it, and if you missed the landing, you had a huge charmin-like bedding of snow to ease you down.  Oh, the work it took to come down the runs though, constantly carving and working the snow, so enjoyable, yet so strenuous, yet so worth it.  Truly one of the finest in my short history of snowboarding.

After arriving home, Tyler quickly welcomed me back, explaining how much he missed me for the two hours or so he had been home without me around.  He then asked if he could go skiing too, so, his mother and I consulted, and we hatched a plan for Sunday, and spent Saturday getting the chores knocked off to play the next day.

On Sunday, Nora woke us up as usual, and she started in on her yogurt while the rest of the house slumbered.  I started gathering up the gear, and Tyler soon plopped down the stairs, and quickly remember what the day would bring.  He did well dressing himself, cleaning his teeth and such, and was eager to go skiing (and also eat a breakfast bar in the Tahoe on the way there).

The drive was uneventful, about 28 minutes navigating town to get to Hill Road and Bogus Basin Road, and another thirty minutes to zip on up the winding roads.  For those keen enough to remember, the last time the Tahoe and Erben family went up this road, it was September, and we came back with the worst stomach flu I have ever seen.  It was nice of Flossie to mention that point as we started heading up the road.  However, the kids are just super travelers, and in addition to chattering at each other, they watched out the window, saw the snow covering the ground around 4800 feet, and had no apparent car sickness.

Arriving, Tyler and Flossie headed in to get Tyler signed up for lessons.  We received some bad information (ok, miscommunication) on group lessons for Tyler's age group, so this time, he would have a private lesson.  As Flossie and Tyler picked out his rental gear, Nora and I parked the car and dressed for the wintry weather.  It was about 18 to 20 degrees, with a stiff wind at the base when we arrived.  Thankfully the wind subsided, but it was still chilly for Treasure Vallians (remember, in Wyoming, at 15-20 degrees, folks put on a long sleeve shirt, so we are still a bit more hardy than your typical folk in this part of the country).

Tyler's lesson was at 12:30, and he was geared up at 12:00, so we spent a few minutes in the lodge before heading out.  There were a number of people, but it was not overly crowded.  We had the requisite 15 minute bathroom break (all that snow gear and then we have to go poddy), and headed outside to meet Tyler's instructor.  Nora and Tyler were very keen on the snow, and had some fun playing with pieces of ice while we waited for a few minutes.  As Flossie helped Tyler put back on his gloves, Nora offered to hold up the skis for her brother, and looked very good doing it.  Almost like she was going to hijack them and hop on the chairlift herself...

[flickrset id="72157615000760126" thumbnail="square"]

Tyler headed off with his instructor, and after putting on his skis and talking for a few minutes, they were up on the Coach chair (a double chair) for the bunny slope.  As they rode up, Nora, Flossie, and I walked up closer toward the bunny slope.  Along the way, Nora was enthralled with the scene.  She waved at Tyler, she waved at other kids, she stared at people on skis, she ate snow, she fell down, she got up.  At one point, she was standing up looking out, Flossie and I were looking up the hill for Tyler, and looked back to see her flat on her back laying still.  For a second we thought she biffed it, but she was there, eyes closed, smirking.  She thought it was cool to lay in the snow.  I tried teaching her snow angels, but mainly she just wanted to lay there.  Hell, the snow was so soft, so did I.

Tyler came down, and looked to be doing well.  In all, he made three runs in his hour lesson, working on his turning skills the entire time.  From the chat with the instructor, it sounds like his right leg is stronger right now, enabling him to turn to the left more easily than the right.  A few more lessons and hopefully he will have the turning thing down.  He had no problems getting up on the skis, walking on them, getting on the lift, or stopping with a wedge -- it seemed to be fresh in his mind from our Brundage trip.  A few more lessons and we will have to try a day on the slopes with Mommy and Daddy.

Oh, and went we arrived home, it started snowing huge wet flakes for about thirty minutes.  Eros and Ralph had a nice buildup of accumulation in only a few short minutes in the backyard:

Eros and Ralph take on wet snow as they make a quick jaunt to the backyard.

That was a mighty fine weekend in Idaho...