Dannic, The Prince of Cats

Posted by Dannic on March 23rd, 2008 in General

Took a trip to Mammoth Lakes today. Much better than being bored and I wanted to get some skiing in. I haven’t been skiing in years.

Mammoth Lakes is in the Eastern Sierras of California. Not far from Bishop. Many people from Los Angeles come to ski there on long weekends. It is only a short 3 hour drive for me from my hotel.

The drive there isn’t all that great but it does take you through Montgomery Pass in Nevada. Fortunately for me there wasn’t any snow or ice on the road at this time of the year.

I arrived rather early for me. About 10am.

The rental of ski’s and the lift ticket for the day was fairly reasonable. It was about $108 for everything I needed. Skis, Poles and Boots with a 1 Day Lift Pass.

Of course I had to purchase a few other things but we won’t get into that.

Being as old as I am and completely out of shape, this was going to be an interesting day.

I took the lift up and decided I would stick to the Green slopes since it has been many years since I have even attempted to ski. I think 1990 was the last time.

I quickly found out how out of shape I was. My legs and feet were aching with effort. Had to make a few stops. But I did make it to the bottom without having a fall. Of course I was so worn out that I had to take a break.

I did this twice more. Taking a break between each run. Figured I better just stick to the Greens.

On the Third run, I did a dumb thing. While making one of my turns, I placed the wrong pole down on the snow. Since it was the wrong pole I turned into and onto it.

This caused my ski to ride up the pole.

Have you ever tried holding a pole with a 190lb body running up it? Me either. It was my first time.

Skiing up my ski pole caused it to jerk me to the ground. This wasn’t a pleasant experience. I’ve never done the splits before.

Gratefully, I didn’t do the splits this time either. But it was almost as bad. I ended up face first in the snow. One ski pointed up. The other down.

I know I can do that. My hip told me so. It complained but performed the feat. As did my Knee on the same side.

Took me a moment to untangle my legs. I’m sure it was amusing. I got a good chuckle out of it after the spinning down the slope stopped. Unfortunately, no one was nearby to share my amusement in my misfortune.

Got to the bottom once again without further incident. Took my break. It was a little longer this time. My thighs were starting to ache from the lack of prior use and current overuse.

Finished my break and took another trip back up the slope. By now I am fairly confident in my skills once again. Got my one crash out of the way. Zip down the slope without incident.

Of course, I’m old remember, I took another break. Sat down in a chair in the lodge and took a nap this time. Didn’t really mean to but that’s what happened. Woke up about an hour later with some massive burning in my thighs. Looking at the time, I decided I was done and returned all of my gear.

Now, if you have had an amusing time reading this, I’d like to point out some things about Mammoth Lakes.

Mammoth Lakes is a great resort town. Quite a few things to do and see. Of course there is Skiing. But there are other things as well. What they are, I couldn’t really tell you. But the community is rather large with many rental units.

The slopes are very well groomed. With lots of lifts. I think the longest I waited in line for a lift was about 2 minutes. There is one Gondola that leads to the top of the mountain but I didn’t take that one because I would have had to take slopes I wasn’t interested in skiing.

I did a bit of skiing around Denver and some in Austria/Germany. I am sure they have changed since I was there but I would highly recommend Mammoth Lakes if you are interested in skiing anytime soon.