The Noodle, the Pizza and the Edgie Wedgie
>> Sunday, January 10, 2010
Today I took Ethan to Pebble Creek for his first day ever on the slopes. Instead of trying to teach him ourselves, we felt he'd benefit much more from lessons than from mom or dad trying to teach him what little we know of skiing. In the end, it paid off because he had a huge smile on his face all day.
I see it every time I go to a ski hill but it still amazes me – how good kids are at picking up skiing. Seeing little toddlers today cruising the bunny hill makes me want to get Madeline on skis even more. We'll wait until next season though. She's gonna love it!
The weather was sublime, (28ยบ, full sun, no wind), and the crowds were minimal. The upper hill is in rough shape still. They need much more snow. However, they've been making snow on the bunny hill (where Ethan's class stayed all day) and it was actually more fun staying on it and shadowing Ethan as compared to gouging my skis and board on the crap up higher.
Someone asked me why we chose Peeble compared to Kelly Canyon (which is only about 20 mi. versus Pebble at about 65 mi.). I've always preferred Pebble due to the fact that the angles are consistently steeper and longer than Kelly's . Hell, Pebble is much more narrower than Targhee but has almost the same vertical relief to it than Targhee does. Plus, the backside of Pebble Creek (Mt. Bonneville) is one of the raddest backcountry stashes that I've ever ridden. Oh yeah, and it's cheaper than Targhee.
Towards the end of the day Ethan estimated his class made about 11-12 runs but he wanted to do more with his dad. So after class let out we hit the 'ol bunny hill 2 more times and I was blown away at how good Ethan did. I found myself shouting to him at one point to slow down because he was booking and I thought he was going to smack into the Ski Patrol shack. No worries though, he stopped on a dime and looked back at his paranoid dad, shrugged his shoulders like "What? I got it." "Oh yeah," I thought, "he's hooked."
One the way home he kept asking when we where going back. In his mind, not soon enough I'm sure.
