WOW! I have lived in Vernon, New Jersey for 6 wonderful years now. One of my many favorite parts of living on Campus as I call it at The Condos of Great Gorge Village, is getting to watch skiers and snowboarders at Mountain Creek from my deck. My deck has great views of Granite Peak at Mountain Creek. I now make my parents visit me every President's Day Weekend so they can join me and take in the beautiful views. So many friends made fun of me that I had never tried skiing. "Steve Allan, it's like you live on a beach without even going in the water!" I always knew I wanted my first time ever skiing to be with my friends at Mountain Creek.
Last year, I worked with a ski instructor named Maya who was fantastic. I did the Terrain Based Learning, which I'm betting is called that because it sounds much more bad@$$ than a bunny slope. LOL. I told my friends who ski, the first time I ever started practicing skiing, I immediately understood how and why they love it. The energy, the thrills, and excitement. Skiing is also apparently a terrific workout because I'm a little sore this morning. I did The Go Package for beginners. You can learn more about that by clicking here.
Last year, I did levels 1, 2, and 3 of their Terrain Based Learning. I told my bestie at work Shawn, and Wacky Jackie with Evan from Mountain Creek that while last year was amazing, I didn't want to do the same exact Facebook Live video. I wanted to try and grow. We worked it out so I was able to get a Beginner Lesson with David. When Wacky Jackie told him I did a lesson last year, I said "this we will count as Lesson 1A, not Lesson 2 I'm not there yet! We cruised through Levels 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5! David also gave me great insight on what to do. I told them all my goal was to ski down Sugar Slope for my first time ever. They worked with me and gave me terrific advice on how to handle that. Instructors David (who I accidentally called Bill during the video because I was a little stressed,) and Jim McGrath are so amazing. Also shout out to Wacky Jackie for doing an amazing job shooting our video on her snowboard.
I didn't even fall! Okay, as you can see in the video, I got off to a shaky start where I almost flew off the mountain, and another time I almost fell. Overall, we are counting it as an amazing success! I have never considered myself a skier, but I sure felt like one yesterday. That moment of pride when I arrived at the bottom of the mountain was something I'll never forget.
If you're feeling nostalgic and/or want to see my progress from where I was just over a year ago at my first lesson, you can watch that video below.
1 of 8 2 of 8 3 of 8 4 of 8 5 of 8 6 of 8 7 of 8 8 of 8