Spring Skiing at Snoqualmie

Mikayla, Alexia and I were thrilled to take advantage of the "nice" weather today by spending the day skiing at Snoqualmie Pass. Grandpa Dave had planned to join us for the day, but he's now quarantined on The Island with the flu. We pray that you all get to enjoy a speedy recovery.

After the girls expressed continued interest in being cooperative, I agreed to take them both. In the past I've avoided this situation because I just couldn't see how teaching them both to ski at the same time, by myself, would work - it seemed like a disaster waiting to happen.

Now that they both have a little more experience and Independence, I agreed to make a whole hearted attempt. Since the Snoqualmie runs are almost all in view of the lodge, I was more comfortable taking them down there instead of Mt. Baker where the terrain is much more complex, making it difficult to keep people in your sights.

The morning weather provided classic Spring Skiing conditions, but was followed by afternoon freezing winds and a little bit of snow/rain.

We started off on the 'magic carpet' which is basically the same thing as the 'people movers' in some airports. We found that it's actually faster to remove your skis and walk back up the hill than it is to take the 'magic carpet'. Here is a video of the girls racing down the magic carpet 'slope': (link)


From there we moved on to the chairlift. The beginner chair only holds two at a time, so Mikayla stepped up and agreed to ride solo and I was thankful that no one needed to argue about it. Eventually Alexia rode the lift solo once also and you could see she was as proud as a peacock about it.

After Alexia discovered she had developed a blister and declared she was done for the day, we let Mikayla take two runs completely on her own. Here is a video of her finishing her first solo run... her breath at the end cracks me up. Way to go Mikayla! (Link)


After that, Alexia decided she was ready for another run or two so we made our way back to the beginner lift. Here she is acting like a penguin sliding on her stomach. What a nut! (Link)


On our final run, Mikayla made her second trip through the "terrain park" and ended up sailing off a 6 foot high jump without realizing what she was doing. It took a fraction of a second for her to think "Hey, the snow is really smooth all of a sudden!" and then "Uh oh, it's smooth because I'm no longer on the ground!". She landed hard and busted the binding on her rental ski. Thank goodness we paid for the $1 damage insurance. She hobbled her way back to Alexia and I and we agreed to call it a day and look for a Starbucks.

Thanks, girls, for having such good attitudes and making the best of the day. I had a blast!

~E