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Granite Lake

Granite Lake
4th of July backpacking trip 2009

Monday, February 23, 2009

Wow! We just spent the most amazing weekend skiing/boarding at Big Sky and Moonlight Basin (over by Bozeman, MT)! Trevor is on Showdown's "Team Extreme," which he has participated in for the past six Saturdays. There are 8 kids from 8 to 14 on the team, which is not a competitive team; though it is based on ability. The kids learn so much and have alot of fun. Anyway...the last weekend of the course is always reserved for a "road trip" to two different ski resorts, which is tons of fun and gives the kids some experience at other resorts. Because we were part of a "group," we got killer deals at the hotel and the resorts, which made it affordable enough for us to go (just Vern, Trev and I). The weather was gorgeous and we met alot of people. The freestyle team (high school kids) and the Peak Performance team (adults) went too, so we had a total of 45 people from Showdown. he highlight of the day at Big Sky was riding the tram up to almost 12,000 feet and skiing down; it was hard to even breath up that far but the view and the skiing were awesome! The bummer of the trip was on the last run of the day at Big Sky when we went down a DOUBLE black diamond run (with the kids) and ended up in a closed area. The kids just scatter and we always make sure they go first (in case someone gets hurt, loses a ski, etc) and by the time we realized that they were heading into a closed area, nobody could turn around because it was SO STEEP, ICY, ROCKY, and in the TREES...YIKES! Anyway, I followed this little girl named Hannah, and when she tried to turn, she caught an edge ande began falling; she rolled for a while and ended up going off a 20-30 foot cliff. I felt so helpless because I was right behind her but couldn't get to her quick enough (not that I would have been able to stop her). So...we ended up calling the ski patrol and they had to ambulance her to Bozeman, etc...ended up being her ACL (knee)...OUCH! It was probably one of the stickiest situations I have ever been in because of the ice; it was pretty much impossible to turn around and we ended up inching down on our edges. The next day at Moonlight Basin, we skiied with the parents of a little girl in Trevor's group (who are both instructors at Showdown and really amazing skiiers). I learned tons from them; I think my mogul skiing improved more in one day than all season so far! They are a really fun couple and we are hoping to spend more time with them in the future...maybe backpacking, rafting, kayaking, etc. Today was a little bit rough at school and work trying to stay awake/pay attention after such an exhausting weekend...but here we are, back to the grind...life goes on!

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