rachel, snowboarding DSC00008.JPG rachel, sitting on snow DSC00009.JPG I take a seat too DSC00010.JPG Fergus gets a good view at top of the runs DSC00011.JPG
Got to airpot Arizona. Got to hotel Holiday Inn at 6:30ish, met Rachel shortly after ... that would've been 1:30ish in the morning Irish time. Off we headed N, in Rachel's car. 3hrs later (ish) we found Flagstaff .
We drove up & down a bit and eventually found a nice enough place to stay (snow ploughed into heaps all around Flagstaff). Then drove up & down a bit trying to find an open restaurant that wasn't called McDonalds! A good few places were shut at that stage but we found a Roma's Pizzareia. James demonstrated pizza consuming skills.
The restaurant guys told us where we should've gone so after that we headed & found lots of bars in downtown Flagstaff just a bit along further from where we had looked. So of course after parking we went and had a beer. After practically all falling asleep over our beers we headed to hotel (before 12, before 7 Irish time.
We succumbed to the dreaded McDonalds for breakfast ( a bit smallish for me). We drove up to the snow (a few miles N of Flagstaff). Arizona Snow Bowl
We guessed at shoe sizes and weights (are there 14 pounds in a stone?), hired snowboards & bought liftpasses & headed straight out. All chairlifts so the only bad thing was the practically enevitable fall at the top (followed by the high speed inelegant crab crawl away from danger). We started going down a big wide green. That was lovely ... I was surprised enough that I could stay upright and fall without bruising myself .... this was to change shortly. Next we went up a bit further ... both Rachel & myself were a bit dubious about leaping into a black at this stage so we got off at a halfway station on the highest chairlift. Fergus met us after his black bit .... I just about managed the narrow blue fine really. A bit more falling for me on that though. My calves were getting stiffer & stiffer from constantly edging sharply on the steep slopes to keep to a reasonable speed whereupon falling off I wouldn't crack every single bone in my body. Just one or two at a time.
Next chairlift up we went all the way to the top ... to the black. Fast graduation! I was actually reasonably pleasantly surprised to find that the black wasn't THAT steep. Just a bit narrow. I could get down (with a bit more bruising) but definately easier than doing a black on skis on day 2 of skiing! At this stage I met another friendly American & he was telling me how well his 3yr old was skiing ... I was a bit flabbergasted when he told me he was starting his 1.5 yr old too!!! (he's taught all his 5 kids). Anyway ... nice to know some small people can have snow fun! :) I saw him much later in the day on the last run when I was quite sore and I think that my obvious bruisedness entertained him a bit ... he'd done snowboarding a bit himself & knew it was my day 2.
Anyway .... back to morning. After another run my body was battered and I was shaking a bit from lack of sugars. Two Gatorades + burger + soup + chips and a rest (listening to quite a good blues/jazz live band) later we were ... er ... not quite raring to go but eager to get the last part of the torture ... er, I mean fun over with. Time was pressing (ski lifts closing at 4) so we went up & down about 3 more long run times. Rachel & myself were practically the last people to come down. The snowpatrol passed me coming down at the bottom & I saw 1 skier after. (I was feeling quite fragile and reluctant to fall much for the last while ... so that slowed me a bit more) I did have great fun though ... up the top on wide runs had gone off piste slightly and befriended a v small tree. We were also last in the ski rental place & they were asking what kept us!
Fergus drove back to Flagstaff & we all got more colours of Gatorade type things in the shop. Parched all day I was. We ate a bit of snow on occasion.
