Holiday Valley - Day Four

Skiing Our Ass Off Our last full day on the mountain… I was up at 6:40am. Like the last three days, it was snowing at rise time. But by the time I put on some coffee and finished my exercise routine, the sky cleared and sunshine prevailed. It was gorgeous! Online, I noticed that the forecast called for accumulating snow later. We’d simply enjoy the sun while it lasted. Mindy was still sleeping when I left for my run. That must’ve been near 8am. It was an incredible run against the sunny back drop. Mindy got up soon after I returned. She wasted little time starting breakfast. She baked maple bacon in the oven, and it smelt absolutely delicious! We made quick work of our maple bacon and scrambled eggs. In short order we were showered, dressed, and on the lift by 9:55am. Not only was the sun shining, but the winds were calm too. Very nice! We took a few easy runs for warm-ups, and ended up at the bottom of Cindy’s & Mardi Gras. As early as it was, the crowd was already thickening. Up to that point, we hadn’t waited in much of a line all week. Now, the line at each of the popular lifts was much longer than we’d previously seen. After a few more runs, we decided to head back to Eagle, figuring it would attract a smaller crowd. You can’t access it from a lodge. You’ve got to ski to it. Our hunch was correct. There wasn’t much of a line at all. Even still, the four black diamonds were far more active than the previous day. We enjoyed a handful of runs on Eagle and Falcon before the line at Eagle began to thicken. It was the perfect storm; Saturday, reasonable temps (low 20’s), and sunshine. Mindy’s phone rang around noon. She contemplated not answering, but I encouraged her to take the call. It was Lindsey telling Mindy that Landon was ill. And in true Lindsey fashion, she did so in somewhat of an accusatory manner, almost as if we’d ignored his symptoms before we left. Mindy was pissed, to put it mildly. But that’s Lindsey. Rather than fight the overwhelming crowd, we decided to take an early lunch and skied back to our condo. We thought about doing the Wall but opted out last second. Even after successfully completing it, it still looks intimidating. We hung out at the condo for a good two hours sipping beers and scarfing down sandwiches. We spent some time surfing then net and listening to some of our favorite music via You Tube. By the time we headed back out (3pm) the sky was clouded over and light snow was falling. The crowd was already thinner. We stuck to some of the less popular runs through early evening until taking another break around 5pm at the Yodeler Lodge. We ran into our Columbus buddies once again. They let us know that there was a good band playing upstairs. We eventually made our way up. They were right. The band was very entertaining playing lots of good music. A gathering of local business women befriended Mindy and coaxed her into dancing with them. Mindy was having a ball. I stayed back and enjoyed an EBC Pale Ale. We headed back out for more skiing just as darkness was setting in. We skied the Chute, Edelweiss, and Yodeler several times. There was no line at the Chute lift. It was incredible. Both of us were feeling no pain. During one lift ride, we got to talking so intently that we forgot to raise the bar on our lift chair. I realized it at the last second, and threw up the bar, and jumped off the lift. Unfortunately, Mindy didn’t have enough time to respond and chose to stay on the lift. The operator stopped the lift and allowed Mindy to exit via the attached platform. We laughed it off. At the bottom, she fell getting back on the lift. Holy smoke! We eventually made our way back to Cindy’s and Mardi Gras. For the first in both trips, we bought a sugar waffle from the stand at Cindy’s base. The smell of cooking sugar waffles is hard to walk away from. Realizing that tomorrow (Sunday) would be our last day on the mountain, we decided to call it a day somewhat early in part to conserve our energy. We skied back to our condo at 7:15pm. We were both tired from four days of skiing anyway. At the condo, we discussed the pros and cons of heading out on the town but ultimately opted to stay in. Nothing feels better than peeling off snuggly fitting ski attire and slipping into ones pajamas. I poured myself a HopSlam all the while watching Crime Solvers. I drifted in and out of sleep for the next couple of hours. We headed to bed at 10pm.