Vail Day 2: The first day on the slopes

Holy crap dude.

So the boys spend the day in ski school. They are both standing up and stopping consistantly... and Jeb is able to turn pretty well. Another day of ski school and they'll be monsters. We had the geared up big time. We spent a ton of cash on the gear... but it was worth it. It was -8 with a windchill of -26... and they were both fine. In fact... both said they got a little hot.

yeah baby. yeah.

As you can imagine when we got back to the hotel I got all manner of demonstrations of various stopping and turning manuevers. Jeb also protested bitterly that he was not allowed to go down the black diamonds.

DrWho and I also spent the afternoon in ski school... her as a beginner... and me as advanced. She was very pleased with her progress and had a great deal of fun. And of course... in the advanced course I was in... we did what one calls "executive skiing."

If you're unfamiliar... "Executive Skiing" describes a certain style... where one gets to the slopes about... 9:45.... hits some lazy blues and greens... then has a nice leisurely lunch by the fire for an hour or two.. then its back to the greens and lazy blues till about 3... then its time to retire for cocktails by the fire. Relaxed as it was... I was very disappointed to find myself sweating.

Still I am very much impressed by the Executive Skiing.... as it allows for signifant time for reading by the fire.... and Pride and Prejudice, and Zombies is fairly difficult to put down.

As for Vail itself... its staggering. First of all there are well over 200 named runs. 200. The layout is simply stupendous. Its such that even a hardcore seasoned skier could spend a day piddling around greens and blues and be perfectly satisfied... simply because of the way the terrain varies. You can ski for 7 hours straight... never hit the same slope twice... and never be even remotely close to lost. Considering the size of the places.. that's pretty amazing.

Needless to say... we're miserable.... we hate it... you should never come here.