Timberline 2011

For the 3rd year in a row, we took a ski/snowboard trip to Timberline, WV. We left South Riding right after school ended on 12/21 and arrived at Timberline 3 hours later. Our friends Rob and Lisa and their kids John (same age as Daniel and in his class) and Ashley (same age as Joshua) also came with us. We rented a big house that's a short walk to the bottom of the slopes. It was nice to have a big place - complete with hot tub! - to relax after a day of skiing (or, if you're Joshua, snowboarding).

The first day all the kids took lessons - Daniel in level III skiing, Joshua in level II snowboarding, and John and Ashley were skiing for the first time. All the kids lucked out as they were signed up for group lessons but ended up with private lessons as the resort was very quiet on Thursday and there were no other kids signed up. Joshua had two instructors as one was new!

Unfortunately the resort had received no snow (unlike the past couple of years where it's had several feet by this time of year) so only a couple of runs were open where they had been able to blow snow. Timberline has a lot of snow blowers as this is how they maintain the slopes during the season. It was very warm the first day - we were unzipping jackets (kids were trying to take theirs off) and I didn't even wear ski gloves, just some running gloves. With the top of the mountain closed, we weren't even going up to where it gets really cold!

Thursday night it rained and we were really worried the snow would be washed away and we wouldn't even be able to ski on Friday. Friday morning we got up slowly and watched as the rain turned to sleet, then snow. So we sent Stuart to the slopes to assess the conditions. He called from the slope and said conditions were good, even better than Thursday. So we quickly got the kids ready and headed over. After about an hour of skiing the same runs as Thursday, we heard an announcement that Salamader was open. This was great news as Salamander is a very long green run (probably about 2 miles) from the very top of the mountain. We instantly took the kids up there. It's a long lift ride after the short hops we'd been doing. It started getting colder and colder on the lift and we were pulling up our balaclavas and zipping up our jackets. At the top the visibility was very poor. Still, it was great to do such a long run! Joshua was on skis at this point but switched to snowboarding - which he prefers - after lunch. He's only allowed to switch once per day because it's clearly difficult to switch from one sport to the other as they're so different, and he gets a bit frustrated.

We had a full day of skiing Friday and planned not to ski on Saturday, but then it snowed again overnight and when we woke up Saturday we thought we may as well go. We're glad we did because the resort wasn't crowded (although busier than Thursday or Friday) and Salamander was even better, with good visibility. Stuart and I both bought ourselves new skis this year which I think helped us enjoy the snow more, too!

Daniel tends to ski on his own these days, preferring not to be slowed down by his brother or parents. It's funny to watch him getting on and off the lift by himself and skiing well on his own. Sometimes we shout "hello" when we see him go by on the lift or skiing down as we're on the lift, but I think he's a bit embarrassed. He's definitely reaching that point where he wants to pretend he doesn't know us. We try to keep an eye on him and make sure one of us sees him every now and then, but we're glad he's confident enough to go on his own.

Anyway, this is why the only videos we have are of Joshua, perfecting his snowboarding technique. Enjoy!

Here's a link to our youtube page for all our videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/Alisongittelman72