February 6, 2005

1
February 6, 2005
Whitetail Mountain
2
Superbowl Sunday at Whitetail Mountain. By
Stephanie A.
Superbowl Sunday. Blue skies, sun was shining, 45
degrees Fahrenheit. One hiker emerged from the
car with two sheets of thinly sliced prosciutto
and baguette bread. Silence reigned as we
voraciously devoured our lunch whilst traversing
the parking lot. The heavy clonking sound of
plastic boots shuffling by on concrete towards the
ticket window echoed. Next person please?
squeaked a voice from behind a microphoned glass
pane. 70 each later, we scurried over to the ski
rental shop, filled in a rental form and thrust
ourselves against the wooden counter. Size 7
please. Nope, my heel lifted within the boot as
I bent my leg forward. We dont have any half
sizes. OK then, give me a 6 please. Off to get
the skis. 130 or 140s?! I retorted, in utter
amazement. Yup, they make em much shorter now,
youll see how much easier it is to carve.
Short, yeah, but 130s? Gosh, my old ones were
170s! Alright, Ill take the 130s. Skis and
poles in hand, we rushed to the ski school
meeting area, then went our separate ways.
3
Our mobile phones did not get a signal, but by
some reason unbeknownst to us, there was a
voicemail message on them. There were 4 of us on
the mountain Bingo, signal at the top of the
mountain, and a callback number! In my
absentmindedness, I brilliantly erased the
voicemail message, heck, the callback number must
be stored in my phone! But to my dismay, oops -
nada! She was already
carving up the diamonds but we werent ready to
hit the diamonds on the first run how will we
regroup? After a few rides up the mountain,
someone from the liftchair belted out my name. I
gazed upward and it was none other than our
friend who was skiing for the first time ever,
already heading up an intermediate run! Could
that really be him??
We took a quick break, inhaling large quantities
of H2O and a bite or two of snickers, for the
ultimate energy kick. Hopping onto the quad,
three of us headed to the top of an intermediate
slope and did our thing on the way down.
4
I couldnt get the sunglass case out of my pocket
whilst in the lift chair it was caught to my
phone I tried again the phone popped out of
my pocket, we both stuck our hands out but to no
avail - eeeeeeee-bump my mobile phone landed in
the snow below us. But I wasnt too concerned, I
had my eye on a brand new pay as you go camera
phone, and this was just the perfect excuse to go
out and buy it. Furthermore, how many people
could actually spin off such a glorious tale
about how they lost their phone?
Our missing friend appeared at the top of the
slope. Now we were complete the ultimate
Austrian snowboarder, the overly energetic
American skier, the suave Japanese ski racer, and
the Russian first timer (although he certainly
couldve fooled us)! The camera made a clicking
sound as we recorded the sights and sounds of our
skis and boards as we ripped up the slopes.
5
But the mountain beckoned us further. The day
would not be complete without a challenge. We
stared up at the runs adjacent to the
intermediate run, towering nearly twice as high.
Lets go for it! We thrust ourselves into the
line. The chairlift raced all 4 of us up the
mountain. We reached the summit. In the distance
were barren hills draped in a light blue fog. One
by one we pushed off, feeling the rush of the
wind as we accumulated speed, the gentle swishing
of the mass of soft snow being pushed away as we
carved our turns. Other skiers drifted back home
to catch the superbowl. But we lingered until the
light began to fade. Whitetail mountain was ours
that day.