Sun Valley

Sun Valley was one of the most enjoyable places we visited. Our host was amazing, and she had two puppies and an older dog, along with three cats. The puppies had so much energy and a keen instinct to jump on anything

that moved. On walks they would chase me constantly and jump whenever I stopped.  Aside from the jumping they were adorable. Over the week we were there my mom really developed a connection with them. The skiing was pretty good as well. The first day we went the snow was soft but not too much so, and there weren’t that many people. All the lifts were open, and they were high speed detachable chairs, so we didn’t lose blood flow to the legs once. The lodge was also great. It was one of the most beautiful lodges we had been in. It was all timber framed vaulted ceilings with huge rock walls rising up.  There was also a cafeteria serving some amazing nachos. These nachos were unlike any nacho I had eaten before. They were a pile of waffle cut fries coated in beef chili with a glob of sour cream and scallions. I had never had nachos on fries, but it turned out to be really good. It was a good unwind at the end of the day to eat something like that. The type of thing you know is probably bringing you one step closer to heart disease, but you don’t really care. On the mountain there wasn’t a lot to note. It felt a lot like some of the other mountains we had been to. The snow was soft but not powder. One of the main differences is that their easiest trails were significantly harder than the easiest trails on the other mountains. One run that was

notable was Fire Trail. Fire Trail was a double black diamond that was probably 30 degrees steep and covered with moguls. That was one of my favorite trails. About half way down I fell. Luckily I didn’t hurt myself, but other bad things happened. My helmet is made up of two parts: the inner part with the styrofoam and padding, then the outer part which consists of a plastic shell that controls the vents and makes the helmet look cooler. During my fall the outer part popped off, and I ended up chasing it down forty feet of hill. For the rest of that run I had to carry my poles in one hand and my helmet top in the other like it was a football. Currently it is serving a new purpose in my room holding a bag of sesame seeds and a dirty sock. After skiing that day we went back to the house, and I enjoyed one of my favorite aspects of the house - the candy. Yes our host Kimmie had a huge bowl of candy consisting of Hershey products, tootsie pops, and tootsie rolls. Over the next couple days we did some school work and took the dogs on a few walks.

When we went skiing again and our experience was very different. The main difference was the snow. The stuff was pouring down all around and pelting us in the face. Also near the top a layer of fog set in, along with a strong wind.  Between the two it was impossible to see more than 40 feet past your ski tips. This became a real hazard skiing. There were a few steep hills that were up in the fog. Since the snow was almost unmarked and the fog was white, it was impossible to judge distance. When we were skiing down one hill I thought that I could only see about five feet before a orange sign appeared 100 feet in front of me. Another time I was skiing on a run-out, and I thought I was going three to four miles per hour. Eventually I looked down, and I saw that the snow at my feet was not moving at all; at that point I realized that I had been standing still for the last ten seconds. In addition to depriving us of spatial relations, the fog presented other challenges. The white out gave us vertigo. Sometimes I would drop off tiny ledges that had been completely hidden. Skiing like this is a really weird feeling. It gives you a sense of what it would be like to be a blind skier. Strangely it is a slightly euphoric feeling. It may sound weird, but having no idea where you are is a lot of fun. I would have liked to do it again, but the entire concept freaked out my mom. The snow was a little soft and heavy, but luckily my skis were very wide and floaty. After a few runs my feet were in so much pain from all the pressure that I had to take a break. We had to take two such breaks. After the second break we took one run and were done. At the end we were soaked to the bone, so we did the natural thing. We went home, took a shower, and then went to get burgers.

That was our Sun Valley experience. The next day we packed up and left. It wasn’t easy to say goodbye to Kimmie and the puppies, but we had to in order to get to Jackson Hole.