Awesomeness.
Ski vacation. Awesome. I'm still up here in Yosemite, steelin' some high-latency "broadband" from the hotel. Broadband is definitely broad, I mean I'm doing some pings and large packets, one at a time, can be sent easily with the same delay as a 32kb packet.
I'm up here with my brother and two of his friends. I can tell you this much that my brother and his friends are... Uhh... Different. Not easy to jump into one of their conversations.
Onto the reason why I'm posting this. Yosemite, right now, is very snowy. All throughout today it's been snowing, and it takes 45 minutes to drive about 15 miles 'cause of the damn.. Snow.. I went skiing today for the first time in six years, I had stopped 'cause my dad and I got stuck and had to get pulled out, so to speak. Today was full of awesome 'cause at the very start, after we all take our first tram ride up, on the first slope my brother does a barrelroll in the snow and eats shit. Great way to start out the day There was nobody really there, it wasn't crowded, so we practically had the mountain to ourselves, save for some eager snowboarders. Problem is, with all the snow that's been going on and with so little people at the resort, the slopes haven't been "groomed" and there's a shitload of powder. On the first run down it was a pain in the ass to do ANYTHING 'cause everyone was knee-deep (though I had to be lucky and find the spot that was waist-deep) in powder. So that was awesome.
That was the warmup. We do several runs on the "more difficult" slopes which were full of awesome. During that I relearned how to keep my skis parallel and go left and right to keep my speed, which was awesome. Occasional biffs from me here and there, most of them were getting turned around (I did a 360 once!.. And then fell over). At some point, we go down a double diamond slope. First time I've ever done this in my LIFE, so you can imagine I was pretty intimidated. 50% grade. That might not be right but I do know that it was more than a 45 degree slope. I biff twice down there, just trying to make sure I stop before I can't. Third time I biff, I basically turned around again, and then fell backwards. Now that ain't much but my brother and his friends were laughing their asses off at me. For about 50 yards, I was sliding down on my back, head first, with one leg up in the air. Once I hit the easier side of the slope I flipped over back onto my feet and then back onto my ass.
Aight, for the rest of the time, we skied for hours and there wasn't much problems. On our last trip down, well, it was the most eventful. For starters, at some point I started gaining too much speed on the slopes despite my turning. I'm tired of falling, so at this point, I just go STRAIGHT DOWN.... A long ways.. A long ways on a 30% downgrade and if I decided to fall, I'd get so much shit up my back, I didn't feel like dealing with it. So I basically just went straight down, bracing my legs and gunning it down for about a minute before a flat part at the slope, finally, there I could stop without falling over. I turn around after that only to see my brother, apparently tried to do the same damn thing. When he stopped, he turned his skis to the side, but couldn't keep his balance. So he did another barrelroll and ate more shit. Somehow, he rolled through the snow just before losing his skiis, but he still held on tight to his poles so I guess that's something.
Well, to finish off our last run down, we go down the doublediamond slope again. Hell I didn't do bad at all this time around... Until the very end. Using ALL MY STRENGTH AND WITS, I kept speed somewhat reasonable, but it was still very hard to turn myself on the slope due to my speed. Towards the end, on the right side, there was this pile of powder.... Well.... I was going pretty damn fast by that point, and when I made a turn, I lost my balance so I couldn't turn the other way. I was headed right for this pile and before I could react, my skis snagged onto something and I launched forward through the air.... And I landed, head first, into the pile, and I was buried in it. Everything except for my feet was buried under snow, according to my bro's friend who stayed behind and let everyone else go. When he saw me, he... Couldn't stop laughing. He saw the whole thing, I more or less just faceplanted, hard, into the snow, and my feet were sticking out at the end. Good part is I managed to get unstuck after a while, but so far, I'm still hearing him laughing over it from time to time e.e
It's all good fun though, hell of exhausting, hell of amusing watching people fall down. I just wish I could see someone else faceplant. I think I might be home Friday afternoon, dunno yet. Just had to share my awesome adventures though, I've gotten a lot better at skiing.
I'm up here with my brother and two of his friends. I can tell you this much that my brother and his friends are... Uhh... Different. Not easy to jump into one of their conversations.
Onto the reason why I'm posting this. Yosemite, right now, is very snowy. All throughout today it's been snowing, and it takes 45 minutes to drive about 15 miles 'cause of the damn.. Snow.. I went skiing today for the first time in six years, I had stopped 'cause my dad and I got stuck and had to get pulled out, so to speak. Today was full of awesome 'cause at the very start, after we all take our first tram ride up, on the first slope my brother does a barrelroll in the snow and eats shit. Great way to start out the day There was nobody really there, it wasn't crowded, so we practically had the mountain to ourselves, save for some eager snowboarders. Problem is, with all the snow that's been going on and with so little people at the resort, the slopes haven't been "groomed" and there's a shitload of powder. On the first run down it was a pain in the ass to do ANYTHING 'cause everyone was knee-deep (though I had to be lucky and find the spot that was waist-deep) in powder. So that was awesome.
That was the warmup. We do several runs on the "more difficult" slopes which were full of awesome. During that I relearned how to keep my skis parallel and go left and right to keep my speed, which was awesome. Occasional biffs from me here and there, most of them were getting turned around (I did a 360 once!.. And then fell over). At some point, we go down a double diamond slope. First time I've ever done this in my LIFE, so you can imagine I was pretty intimidated. 50% grade. That might not be right but I do know that it was more than a 45 degree slope. I biff twice down there, just trying to make sure I stop before I can't. Third time I biff, I basically turned around again, and then fell backwards. Now that ain't much but my brother and his friends were laughing their asses off at me. For about 50 yards, I was sliding down on my back, head first, with one leg up in the air. Once I hit the easier side of the slope I flipped over back onto my feet and then back onto my ass.
Aight, for the rest of the time, we skied for hours and there wasn't much problems. On our last trip down, well, it was the most eventful. For starters, at some point I started gaining too much speed on the slopes despite my turning. I'm tired of falling, so at this point, I just go STRAIGHT DOWN.... A long ways.. A long ways on a 30% downgrade and if I decided to fall, I'd get so much shit up my back, I didn't feel like dealing with it. So I basically just went straight down, bracing my legs and gunning it down for about a minute before a flat part at the slope, finally, there I could stop without falling over. I turn around after that only to see my brother, apparently tried to do the same damn thing. When he stopped, he turned his skis to the side, but couldn't keep his balance. So he did another barrelroll and ate more shit. Somehow, he rolled through the snow just before losing his skiis, but he still held on tight to his poles so I guess that's something.
Well, to finish off our last run down, we go down the doublediamond slope again. Hell I didn't do bad at all this time around... Until the very end. Using ALL MY STRENGTH AND WITS, I kept speed somewhat reasonable, but it was still very hard to turn myself on the slope due to my speed. Towards the end, on the right side, there was this pile of powder.... Well.... I was going pretty damn fast by that point, and when I made a turn, I lost my balance so I couldn't turn the other way. I was headed right for this pile and before I could react, my skis snagged onto something and I launched forward through the air.... And I landed, head first, into the pile, and I was buried in it. Everything except for my feet was buried under snow, according to my bro's friend who stayed behind and let everyone else go. When he saw me, he... Couldn't stop laughing. He saw the whole thing, I more or less just faceplanted, hard, into the snow, and my feet were sticking out at the end. Good part is I managed to get unstuck after a while, but so far, I'm still hearing him laughing over it from time to time e.e
It's all good fun though, hell of exhausting, hell of amusing watching people fall down. I just wish I could see someone else faceplant. I think I might be home Friday afternoon, dunno yet. Just had to share my awesome adventures though, I've gotten a lot better at skiing.