Vail Ski Resort

year. As I rushed to the brightly colored christmas tree I noticed there was a huge rectangular package leaning behind it. Immediately I jumped towards the package in desperation. As I teared its red wrapping paper off i noticed that it was a pair of skis. Right then my Mom walked into the living room and told me that this would be the year that I skied. Naturally being a six year old i didn't appreciate the notion right away because I wanted toys instead. However this changed as soon as it was…

when I am preparing for ski races, waxing my skis. Preparing my skis for a race weekend requires applying multiple layers of wax to my skis. The wax we use is commonly a fluorocarbon mixture. In order for the wax to be saturated into the ski, the block must be melted with an iron. Once the wax melts on the iron, the wax is dripped onto the entire ski. In order to ensure that the wax is melted into the ski, a hand iron is slid down the ski several times. Once the ski cools from the wax,…

Soft whooshing sounds rose up from beneath my skis as they slid across the soft crystal like snow glistening in the bright winter sun. The cool and crisp air was the ideal temperature for a day of skiing, not too cold to make it uncomfortable, but still cold enough to keep the snow from melting and turning slushy. With these snow conditions and bright blue skies above, all in all, it looked to be a perfect day for skiing with my family. Accompanied by my Mom, Uncle, and 4 cousins, we woke at…

lesson in the danger of blind risk was when I attempted skiing with a group of experts just to make friends. I should have taken the bunny hill. I started out shaky; soon the ground beneath began passing faster. Before I knew it, the earth fell from my skis. As the snow covered my battered face, I felt foolish and insignificant watching my friends descend the hill and never look back. Lying there, I saw that I risked my life merely to make friends who did not accept the non-skier me.…

Deanna sipped her morning hot chocolate in quiet contemplation. She was curled up on a comfy couch in front of the large fireplace that warmed the common room of the ski resort. It was the quintessential resort filled with furs and taxidermied animal heads galore. Not to mention plenty of lacquered wood and chandeliers made of antlers. If one were to observe her they would think she was the model of comfort and ease. However, that was not the case; not at all. She was comfortable, sure there is…

I began to make my way out of the ski lodge. My family and I had just finished eating lunch in the ski lodge and I was getting ready to hit the last few slopes before I called it a day. It had been many years since I had last spent time in Colorado, my old home. I was ecstatic I had the opportunity to visit during the winter so I could once again experience one of my favorite activities of skiing. Shortly after attending my family reunion, my family made their way up to Monarch Mountain to spend…

We loved to ski, my friends and I. Every Thursday was a chance to escape into the ski hill and leave all of our problems at the door of the ski lodge. Ski club was an essential part of our lives in the winter. There was no one telling us we couldn’t eat a cookie and fries for dinner. No one telling us we can’t scream and yelp with excitement like we did on the ski hill. My friends and I were known to be the last ones on the bus, and this week would be no exception. We had just finished dinner,…

So once upon a time I decided that I would learn how to ski. Now, I'm pretty sure everybody knows what skiing is. Where you get on a lift, go up a mountain, ski down, and then start all over again. Turns out there is a lot more to it than just pointing your skis in the direction you want to go and then ta-da. Learning how to stop is probably a very crucial factor in skiing, but I thought it was so easy that I could do it without much instruction. Turns out it's very important to get instructions…

life. To truly understand the joy of skiing, you must feel the connections to everything around you. From your body to the skis, from the skis to the snow and ice, from the icy snow to the ground, you must feel and connect through all of it. That is when you can finally understand the freedom gliding through and on the snow brings. After donning my equipment, I board the ski lift. As I go up I can see everything. There are skiers in plumes of white powder, a father guiding his child down the…

feeling compared to the freezing temperature. You may not understand but skiing is fun for a couple moments and then it just works. You go down the hill at incredible speeds having the time of your life only for you to have to get off, take off your skis and walk to the gondola and ride it up for 15 minutes. But you never regret the time spent because you look forward to going again and…