Chair 3!

Us headed up Chair 3!

So if you are going to marry a skier, you must become a skier. It's basically the law. And before dating Jeff, and having lived in the PNW for more than ten years, I could count the number of times I had strapped some sort of plastic to my feet and tried to go down a snowy mountain on one hand. But Jeff is determined. So this year we went to the Mt Spokane Ski Swap, hosted by the Mt Spokane Ski Patrol, waded through the throngs of people also looking for good deals, and got me some skis, boots, helmet, and gloves. And then we went and bought ourselves the Mt Spokane Stocking Stuffer pack of tickets, which is 3 lift tickets for $100, which is a good deal.

So we went Night Skiing yesterday to see how many times I can fall on my butt, and amazingly, it wasn't that many. Having skis that actually fit the size of your body (the two times I went last season, I used Jeff's mom's skis, which fit in the boots but were about 4 inches taller than me, which is bad) make things much easier. Jeff's other goal of this mission was to get me down Chair 3 (see map here). And he succeeded!! We stayed on the Northwest Passage, which is the easiest of the runs off Chair 3, but I still made it down...until I would get to the Cat Track. Then I would fall. And falling on the Cat Track is a no-no because it's basically the interstate highway of the mountain. But luckily it was night skiing, and by the time we headed up Chair 3, it was late into night skiing and most people were in the lodge having a beer. So we did Chair 3 three times, and by the end I couldn't really put any weight on my left leg because it was working so hard, but I was still standing. Barely.

A Mt Spokane employee photo-bombing

After that, Jeff had the need for speed and I had the need for hot chocolate, so I headed for the lodge and Jeff did a few runs by himself. Jeff actually used to teach at the ski school at Mt Spokane, so he's a good skier and was being an amazing boyfriend and not leaving me in the dust. Then he joined me for hot chocolate, and we went home. It was fun and a great way to start the ski season.