Happy New Year to all my blogger friends. Well, 2008 is over. Good riddance! In four days America will end an error, the Big three have at least temporarily survived, and winter is in full swing. A temperature of -25 (with windchill) broke the record for the coldest day in the D (Detroit). It was not enough to stop me and my son, Derek from skiing at the local ski hill, Mt. Holly .
Me on the left, Derek on the right. Cold as it was, it was a bright, sunny day. Perfect for getting out and shaking off that cabin fever.
This is the top of Derek's favorite run, Canyon. The little shack you see there is the start of the shalom racing course. It drops off steep right past the shack and has a nice combination of speed and ridges on the run to make it interesting...
My favorite run is Thunderbolt. White Lightning is the run off to the left, Thunderbolt is on the right. You can't see the end of either run. The end is past those trees, about 1/4 mile (30 seconds or less). I've thought about trying snowboarding, but they are always sitting on their butts at the top of the hill reattaching their rear binding, which they must unhook at the bottom of the hill to board the chairlift...
The ski patrol. I'd love to join it, but there is a 16 week course that must be completed. Mainly it's first aid, but there are also techniques for transporting injured skiers down via toboggan and such. They are all volunteers, but the big plus is that you get to ski for free all season, on duty or off. It is also reciprocal anywhere in the US. If you are a ski patrol in Michigan you can patrol in Colorado, etc. So if you like to ski and like helping people it's a win win scenario. It would fit nicely with my Coast Guard experience. With all of the traveling I do I don't know how I'd ever get through that long course.
Mt. Holly trailmap.
