Hitting The Hill

After Kian's skiing debut in Whistler last month and a promise fulfilled that I would get him some new ski goggles, Kian has had a pretty darn healthy interest in doing some alpine skiing, darn it.  Putting our Stevens Pass nordic hosting benefits to work, and going to work as hosts several times, we earned a couple free passes at the alpine center.  Annie had Kian on the "bunny slope" daisy for several runs one weekend and the next weekend I got him back out, but took him up on Hogsback and Kian nailed a couple blue runs. 

We have been the benefactors of a really cool ski harness that our new little friend Kasen Krebsbach loaned to us, or rather, his parents loaned to us because we actually haven't met Kasen yet since he's only 5 weeks old and was born a few months early, so he's still in the hospital.  But we'll be sure to thank him when we meet him.  The harness isn't really used that much but its a real confidence builder for Kian since he can call me to "pull out the ropes" when he feels like he's in over his head.  I've nursed him down top to bottom on just a few runs but I rarely had any tension on the reins because I knew that he could do it and he didn't really need my assistance.  A couple times we gots our signs crossed and he stopped short and I'd run him over, or he'd go when I thought he was stopping and so I'd jerk him out of his alpine boots, but generally for him it was pretty seamless.  It was I who had to work my bootie off to keep just the correct tension/slack, and doing so meant scouring the hill in a constant snowplow, not easy.  Seriously, holding yourself back down a run is tough on the legs so I encouraged Kiki to let them run every chance he got.  Fun times.

He loved being up there on the lift, out there in the fresh air, rolling around the snow, and he's doing really well.  As long as he's having fun and I can keep it cheap, I'm into it.  Only two weeks left at Stevens and I'm hoping to get him up for at least one more day on the hill.  Next time I'll stop on the helmet cam -- on him and me, and I'll be sure to post some footage.

Its still somewhat winter-like up here in the NW but its finally warming up.  Even in the city on those cloudy, pissy days its been getting down into the 40s and we're still running heat here in the house on occasion.  Crazy stuff. Come on summer!

 Kiki in his Carharts (and goggles, in case you didn't notice).