Holiday Valley - Day Three

... Another Brick in the Wall I was up around 7:30am. Just like the day before, I prepped a pot of coffee then whipped out a quick round of sit-ups and push-ups. Before diving into my run, I spent some time on Mindy’s laptop downloading the past two days worth of photos and writing in my blog. I left for my run around 8:30am. I ran the exact same path as Thursday. And yes, it was snowing fairly heavily again. No big deal. Back at the condo, I offered to make breakfast while Mindy went to fetch her new ski attire at the Creekside Ski Lodge, provided she still wanted it. She accepted but opted to get her shower first. That made total sense. I’d try to shower while she was gone conserving as much time as possible. While Mindy was gone I showered and made breakfast sandwiches – egg, turkey, and cheese. We didn’t get out to the lift until almost 11:15am. Our goal for Friday was to do the four black diamonds off of Eagle: Falcon, Eagle, Hoot Owl, and Raven. We skied Cindy’s Run for a warm-up then took the Mardi Gras lift to Morning Star. We skied over to Eagle which had no traffic at all. And yes, it was snowing hard. We did Hoot Owl and Raven first. In my opinion, they’re the easiest of the four. Mindy had no trouble with either. We did them about four times collectively. I was impressed with Mindy’s courage, but perhaps even more impressed with her much improved technique. I kept on her about trying Falcon. She finally agreed. We ended up doing Falcon and Eagle about 6 times collectively. I don’t think she fell once, and neither did I. In our opinion, Falcon was by far the most complicated, requiring the most technique and skill. On top of that, there’s a ledge that sits just above the Falcon slope. I found the bravery to leap off of that twice before descending Falcon. What a rush! We made our way back to the condo for lunch and a brew around 2pm. Believe it or not, after a satisfying and delicious lunch we both decided to give the Wall a try. Why not? Crash – both of us bit it. I fell and lost a ski making my second cut. It’s icy even with all the new snow, but that’s because it’s so steep. Humbled but not beaten, we both decided to try it once more. This time, I skied it successfully. Mindy fell once again, but close to the top. She quickly regained her composure and skied the rest of the way down without incident. We were proud of our achievement. After more skiing and a couple food/beer breaks, darkness finally set in. Ahh night time, my favorite time on the mountain. We spent the evening hours skiing Edelweiss and Champagne with a few blue runs sprinkled in for good measure. We called it a night around 8pm. Not sure about Mindy, but I had one heck of a buzz! We talked about heading back to EBC, but once we were warm and cozy in the condo we saw little logic in heading back out. Instead, we put on our flannel pajamas, made meatloaf sandwiches, and drank a couple of beers. Nothing, I mean, hey, nothing tops a HopSlam anyhow. :) We were asleep by 1030pm.