Aurora with the Rough Riders and Evan and Brandon with the Kids' Vacation Center skied everyday we were in Steamboat, Tuesday-Saturday, with instructors. By the end of the week, Evan was skiing blue slopes, including Bill's favorite of a few years ago--and in spring weather, home of some of the slushiest, messiest, ugliest snow on the mountain, and hence a real feat this week--Vagabond.

At left, Judy and Aurora pose with their gear, looking cool and ready for anything. Unfortunately, that "anything" turned out to be a pleasant Gondola ride at the end of the day on Saturday, followed by a painfully slow descent down the first 1/8 or so of Why Not (the green slope that goes all the way down the mountain and really can barely be called a slope at all) for Judy, Aurora, and Christina, and then an even more painfully slow ascent up Rudi's Run. Tired, scared, or just out of sorts, Aurora decided she wasn't doing anymore skiing, so we all got to take off our skiis and hike up, back to the Gondola. Along the way, we met a helpful mountain ambassador, who tried to talk Aurora into putting on her skiis again (no go) and a sneering man who, Aurora having sprinted on ahead, apparently thought that Judy and I were too terrified to ski down Why Not by ourselves. Upon finally reaching the top, Judy and I decided that we would never again hike up a ski mountain in ski boots. We were also accosted by a clueless woman who tried to make us take her picture. Calmly, still catching her breath in the high-altitude thin air, Judy replied in the negative, explaining that though we were normally very nice people, today, at this moment, we were not particularly energetic enough to do so. Ultimately, we had a nice Gondola ride back down, with myself at least fighting off the thought that we could've just done this round-trip Gondola ride to begin with, and saved ourselves the trouble of the hike. To be fair, I have to say that Aurora did very well skiing on Preview with Judy early that same morning, as you can see from her pizza pie (wedge) at above right and her effortless skiing into the liftline at left. And then there's her happy skiing smile, at right with me in the Gondola line. Ah well--concentrate on Aurora's pretty smile and excellent early-skier form on Preview--the green slope at the foot of the mountain, at right--and banish the hike from your mind, Christina. . .

Below is a Friday afternoon shot of all the skiers in the family this week except for Bill, who I believe was at the fitness center on a stairmaster when we took this, and with Lisa (who, though she didn't ski, did get to do a lot of ferrying people back and forth to Walmart and the mountain and ski school and the Steamboat Grand, etc., etc.). Brian and Robert skied hard everyday--Robert got very, very sunburned, as you might be able to tell from his face, below. I got a little sun too, but nowheres near as much as Robert. Nearly every morning, Robert and I and Brian would go out with Judy and Bill to ski First Tracks, which entails getting to go up the mountain at 8:00 in the morning with an instructor, before the mountain really opens, and getting to ski the good snow. Though it was a slushy spring week, with lots of push-piles and melting on the lower mountain, the upper mountain was often beautiful--hard and fast--in the morning, and occasionally very icy.

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