Sunday, February 19, 2006

Isaac's First Ski Trip

Isaac and I went skiing yesterday at href=“http://www.cooperspur.com/”>Cooper Spur. It was fabulous.
The conditions were the most perfect that I think I have ever seen. A
bitter arctic wind has swept the sky completely clear of clouds and
haze the past few days, and dropped the temperature down into the
teens. The wind was still blowing hard in The Gorge as we drove east
on I-84, which made me nervous about the day ahead, but with Mt. Hood
looming large in front of us our van climbed highway 35 from Hood
River and the wind quickly became calm. At the resort the blazing sun
made 18 degrees feel like 40, and the snow was a fine dry powder. It
was a shades day for sure.

Cooper Spur is the perfect resort for a kid to learn how to ski.
Kids under 7 ski free (or was it 6?), so I only had to pay for my lift
ticket and Isaac’s rentals, which were incredibly cheap. There is a
single double chairlift and a rope tow that cover a whopping 50 acres
of terrain (the big resorts in Utah cover thousands of acres). Kids
music played from the speakers on the tiny little patio at the
miniature lodge, and the rental shop dude told Isaac how “awesome” his
little skis were, cementing Isaac’s early enthusiasm for this
tremendous sport.

I struggled teaching Isaac at first. He proved to be a more
difficult student than Ily and other friends my age I’ve taught.
After a bit of, um, harsh words between us, Isaac wisely called for a
snack break at 10:30. He sat in the sun on the patio while I went to
retrieve the grub from the van. On the way back I stopped at the
ticket/rental office and paid for a group lesson for him. After
apologetically telling Isaac what a horrible teacher I was he became
pretty excited for ski school.

The class was a success, after an hour he was riding the rope tow
and snow plowing down the short bunny hill all by himself. We rode
the inner tubes a bit, broke for lunch, and he was ready for the
chairlift. At least, that’s what he told me. Isaac fearlessly rode
to the top, and even though it took about an hour, and some serious
effort on my part to keep him from giving up and sliding down the hill
on his bum, he made it all the way down. I knew it was a success when
at the bottom he didn’t head straight for the car like he’d
threatened, but for the rope tow to reassure himself that even though
the big hill gave him trouble, he was still master of the bunny hill.
A little more tubing and it was time to head home, with Isaac asking
when we could do it again. Cooper Spur hasn’t seen the last of the
Murdocks.

Be sure and check out the href=”/gallery/isaacs-first-ski-trip”>pictures and video!

Posted by Bryan on February 19, 2006

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