Snow Skiing

I got to go snow skiing today.

Utah? Nope. Colorado? Wrong. New Mexico? **buzzer sound**.

Try Missouri. Yep. I snow skied in good 'ol St. Louis. In frickin' 68 degree weather.

I'd heard of this place before. It's called Hidden Valley. I even met a lady on the plane the other day who was flying in from Dallas to take her family skiing there. I had to clench my teeth to stop myself from grabbing her by the hair and shaking some ski smarts into her.

Hello!?!? One does not come to Missouri to ski. Want to see the Arch, the symbol for the "Gateway to the West"? Come to St. Louis. Want to see the best (in my opinion) baseball team in the country? Come see the Cardinals at Busch Stadium. Ever wonder about the Bowling Hall of Fame? Well, you can see it in St. Louis.

But snow skiing? Go West, you fool of a lady!

Yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking. "Gosh, Elisa, let the poor woman ski wherever she wants to". Well, I did. I didn't say a word about what a lunatic I thought she was.

Yes, it's true. I'm pretty much a ski snob.

Skiing is right up there with hockey as something I love to do. If I lived in Colorado or Utah or Wyoming, I'd quit my job and ski every day..or at least get a job that would let me do that. I fell in love with skiing in college. Angel Fire was where I first skied (Thank you Guad!). I took Snow Skiing and Advanced Snow Skiing as 2 PE credits in college. I'm not going to the Olympics anytime soon, but I can hold my own on the slopes. I've skied NM, CO, and UT. NV is on the menu for February. A whole week of blissful skiing. Ahhhh...I get chills just anticipating it!

But back to Hidden Valley in Missouri: I don't think it should take longer to ride the lift than to ski the run. I don't think a real ski resort would have ropes on a pulley to pull you up a green trail. I don't think I should have to find my own boots, pulling them off a boot tree, wondering if they've been disinfected in the last several years. There should not be bare spots on the terrain that you have to avoid. And most of all, I don' t think 99.9% of the snow should be man-made!

But it wasn't all moot.

The lift lines were quick. Thank goodness, because the lift took like 3 minutes and I could get down the trail in about 30 sesonds.

I was actually skiing. Better than anything else I could have been doing on a 68 degree Sunday.

And the best thing about skiing in Missouri?

My equipment and lift ticket were free. Yes, F-R-E-E. That's the best kind of skiing there is. *grin*

Thanks goes out to A and to T. I had a good time.

But I still can't wait to ski Tahoe next month. Woo Hoo!!

Elisa