Skiing One Run

We are in New Hampshire for a week of skiing. It’s been beautiful with gentle snow multiple days. We are with Patrick’s cousins, which means the kids are having a big time with people to ski with, play games with, eat with, and watch movies with. The adults are having plenty of fun too! We’ve played Kingdomino, Love Letters, Pandemic, and more.

The first day we got here, it snowed 6-8 inches. That made the run off of Bear Peak really fun, but also full of powder. Patrick and I took Porter and Harlan up, since there wasn’t any beginner terrain open–just one long blue. It was challenging, and Porter was discouraged. At one point, he and I took our skis off and walked. I wish I’d done that the next time things got dicey, but I didn’t. I went back up after we got the two little guys down and had a perfectly glorious run. So much beautiful snow coming down, the white mountains in the background, idyllic!

The next day, Patrick, Seamus, and Gilbert decided to try out Wildcat mountain. It also, unfortunately, only had one run open, a blue-black mix, so Porter, Harlan, and I decided to stay off of it. Yikes. They made one run down, ate some lunch, and were ready to call that a day.

By Saturday, we were really hoping (needing) some beginner terrain to open on the mountains, but it wasn’t happening. Harlan and I stayed back on the snow belt (super bunny slope) with me pushing him up and him finally starting to get the hang of it on his own. Patrick and Porter went down the huge run off the top. I can’t believe Porter made it down that. The bigger kids were all having a blast, and we barely saw them. We kept looking at the learning lift, hoping Attitash would open it. But they didn’t.

On Sunday, Patrick discovered that Wildcat was opening a green run, and Harlan had been practicing with his leash, and we thought it might be okay. But Porter, tired and frustrated, pitched a fit and refused to go skiing on Sunday. I stayed back with Porter, playing a game, telling him to enjoy his quiet time because he would definitely be skiing the next day. Seamus and Gilbert skied Attitash with their cousins.

Monday, all the forces came together beautifully. Seamus and Gilbert went down the blue on Bear Peak all day, while Porter and Harlan practiced on the Learning Hill at Attitash. Harlan graduated from his leash. The day was sunny and the snow was soft. Perfect conditions for learning to do it. The two boys cheered each other on, leaned into their turns and were totally proud of themselves and exhausted after a couple of hours.

Today, we did basically the same thing, but Gilbert, wanting to practice his turns, decided to join us on the learning hill. He got a few pointers from Patrick and basically made it look like he was on one ski the whole way down, just kept his legs zipped. Porter and Harlan continued their runs, Harlan getting a lot more confidence to the point he started coming down almost too fast, but he was always able to stop.

While we only skied 2-3 hours a day for the six days we skied, we enjoyed the flexibility of having a pass so we didn’t have to worry about skiing all day to make it “worth it”; instead we just did what the kids wanted to do and rested when they were done. It’s nice to see them all getting better and having fun out in the snow.

The house is really nice, but it’s a little scary to hear the snow sliding off the roof with a crash onto the deck! We’ve been through more than 50 packs of hot chocolate, lots of pasta, spring rolls, apples and oranges, and two pounds of beans.

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