Skis Unlimited - Ingmar and Bodie at Stratton 2-13

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The 2009/10 Season Begins

The 2009/10 Ski Season Begins

The ski season will begin locally on Saturday 12/19 when Berkshire East opens. Some of the bigger mountains up north have been open for a week or more with pretty good conditions reported by skiers who have stopped at the shop. I hope to be able to ski on opening day but that depends on how busy the shop is. I am looking forward to another great seaon this year...and I hope to improve enough so as to not embarrass or hurt myself!!!

Ingmar and Bodie at Stratton 2-13

Written by Bob Perry

Saturday, 14 February 2009

It was a beautiful day on Friday the Thirteenth so Keith (Ingmar) and I decided to go up to Stratton Mountain for some skiing. I drove up to Bernardston and left my van in the parking area and got into Ingmar’s car and he drove me up to the mountain. We arrived at the hill just before the lifts began operating. When we got to the ticket window Ingmar gave the ticket man the passes that he brought with him and he tried to explain why he was getting two tickets but the ticket man’s only response was “Sir, have you been drinking this morning?” I sort of backed away from the window and pretended not to know Ingmar.

When Ingmar left the window area I grabbed a ticket from him headed for the lodge to get booted up. It was pretty cold out and the wind was howling so Ingmar decided to put every piece of clothing he owned on. This took a long time so I went to get a locker and use the potty. When I returned he was ready so we headed for the slopes. The nice lady at the desk told us that they were making snow on the top of the mountain and Mike’s Run was not going to open until later. Since Mike’s Run was the only “bunny hill” trail on top of the mountain, Ingmar took me over to the high speed “American Express” chair lift. We rode the lift up the hill and exited onto the “learning area”. I, being a new skier, needed to go on some easy trails to work on making turns and stopping safely. Ingmar went on ahead and I slowly made my way down the hill (he stopped several times to wait for me) and I did learn one thing on the way down to the lift: Ingmar can ski a lot faster than me!!! So what I say…. At least I made it down the slope without falling or having a panic attack! After a couple more runs with me, Ingmar headed off to the top of the mountain to scout out Mike’s Run via the Ursula lift. I then explored the trails on the bottom half of the mountain while I awaited Ingmar’s return. I skied for about an hour or so and I was riding up the chair lift when I spied Ingmar skiing down the hill. He stopped and I told him that I would meet him at the lift. I skied down the hill to the lift where Ingmar met me and said that the top of the mountain was open so Ingmar and I then rode up the hill and skied down to the gondola. The gondola ride was a pretty windy and chilly trip with the damn bucket swinging back and forth ever more vigorously the higher up the mountain we got. When we exited the gondola we stepped out into a hurricane force gale. I put my skis on at the top of Mike’s Run and prepared to head down the trail. I noticed that in spite of the snowmaking there was very little snow on the trail. As I headed down the hill I found that the trail was pretty icy (a lady hit a patch of glare ice and crashed pretty hard right in front of me) and I quickly learned to keep to the edges of the trail as that is where the snow got blown to. I skied down this trail and I actually felt like I was doing pretty well. Ingmar stopped a couple of times to wait for me but for the most part I kept a slow but steady speed all the way down the trail. It was really a nice run because I was able to feel comfortable enough with my skiing that I could actually look at the vistas as I made my way to the bottom of the hill. When Ingmar and I got back to the base lodge it was a little after noon and I felt like I needed to head for home, so we packed up our gear and loaded the car for the return trip to Bernardston. After leaving Stratton, Ingmar and I ate lunch as we drove down the highway. I shared some of the lunch with him because old people have a hard time concentrating if they do not keep their energy levels topped off and since he was driving I wanted him to be entirely focused on the task at hand. We made it safely back to the Red Rocket. It was a wonderful trip and I thank Ingmar for his generosity and patience.

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Our shop has the latest in ski tuning equipment including the Grindrite 2100, the Wintersteiger Trim 71 ceramic edger, Wintersteiger Skitronic binding calibration machine and a Wintersteiger Waxjet 91. This equipment along with Phil’s 25 years of skiing and tuning will provide the best skiing experience possible.