This ain't no disco.

I am home from a very full weekend of skiing in northern hickville, er... Wisconsin. We left Thursday, at the crack of midmorning. It snowed and blow-ed and knocked about 50 cars off the road between here and Delta, but we were resilient and made it up there unscathed. Everyone up there had dinner at the Scenic Drive Bar, the highlight for me being the jalapeño cheese curds. Back up at Cliffside (the cabin that I stayed in, with 8 of my closest Hoofer friends) the fire was roaring, and my loft bedroom was about 85 degrees. A little too warm...

Friday we made a pilgrimage to Iron River, WI to ski at 'After Hours'. I did about 6k, ate and did another two or so. That was more than enough. When we got back to cliffside, I talked to the owner of Delta Lodge about how hot our cabin was, and we got a lecture about the mechanics of heating a cabin in such cold weather (read: negative teens). The lecture began with, "Listen, this ain't no disco, it's northern Wisconsin." No shit. I obviously was not going to argue about it, I have no choice but to believe someone when they open with a line like that. Friday night we ate a dish with noodles. spinach and pasta sauce, bsed a little around the fire and went to sleep in a much more appropriately heated cabin.


Saturday we went to Vallhalla ski area, which was beautiful and had freshly fallen snow. Of course, there has to be SOME downside, and that was the extreme cold temperatures. The high for that day was around -4 w/o windchill. I only went about 4k, spent the rest of the time playing Blokus by the fire in the chalet. Saturday night was lasagna and game night, neither of which were all that exciting.

Sunday was spent at Ashwabay, and the best stories originate there, for me. Ashwabay is both a downhill and x-country ski resort, so they have a T-Bar lift to the top of the hill for both kinds of trails. But, apparently I am not smart enough for the lift. My roommate and I were going to be partners on the lift. As we got in position the ski patrol guy loudly said, "DO NOT SIT'. So, what did I do when the bar comes around? I sat, naturally. This caused both of us to fall. But we were not giving up that quickly. We got in position again. I was determined not to sit, and I didn't sit. But we got about 20 feet up the hill and my roommate started worrying out loud about how she couldn't keep her skis straight. And then she fell, and I fell. I fell right on the wooden bar that normally would be on your butt, pulling you up. The rope from the top extends so the bar actually reaches the ground easily. That hurt so badly. I couldn't hardly stand up or breathe. I actually almost cried. They had to stop the lift because it took us so long to stand up and get out of the way. After that, there was no way I was trying a third time. I mean, what if that happened 3/4 of the way up? I would have been screwed! Anyway, after that I was so frustrated. I tried the bunny hill twice. First time went pretty fine, I didn't fall, but I wasn't really in control either. Second time, I ended up taking my skis off half way down and crying in the middle of the hill. Yes, I am that girl. L and I made our way UP the hill via trails and then s.l.o.w.l.y. came down one of the downhill trails before heading home. Went to the bar again to watch the packers lose, sadly. Back to Delta Lodge and basically straight to bed.

Came home today to snow and blowing winds. Gotta end like it started I guess. If you want to see pictures from this weekend, including one of the result of my two falls, click here.