Another Skiing Adventure

22 November 2010

With the recent snow here, but a ski hill that is not open quite yet, we decided that we would go backcountry skiing yesterday at an area that used to have a ski operation back in the 1970's. Vancouver Island is the land of defunct ski hill operations, and they provide fun playgrounds if you are willing to put the effort in to getting up on your own steam. There was a group of 8 of us, some would be skiing and others snowshoeing. The plan was to spend about an hour driving to the starting spot, another hour ascending, and then 20 minutes or so blissfully making turns in the fresh snow on the way down before heading home again to a nice warm hot chocolate.

Things didn't exactly go as planned. The group convoyed our vehicles up the road and had one tricky creek crossing that resulted in two of the three vehicles getting stuck and tow ropes and people pushing to get going again. Later it was the snow getting deep and slippery enough to require tire chains. Once we finally reached our starting point, one of the snowshoers who knew the area best thought that we should take the summer trail up. That turned out to be a poor choice for the skiers who ended up having to walk and carry the skis much of the way rather than using skins on the bottom to shuffle up. There is no choice once you commit, you have to keep going.

3 hours later we managed to reach the midpoint of the hill. Exhausted, bruised and battered, we had to forgo getting to the summit, and focus our efforts on just getting back to the vehicles before darkness set in. So we got all of about 5 turns in down what would have been the bunny slope, and got down just as the sun was setting.

The drive out was uneventful, and we all arrived home exhausted but safe, so that really is all that matters in the end. We now know that the winter route, or another defunct ski area, would be the better option next time.

It kind of feels like my IVF cycle revisited. It started out with a good plan, and there was no reason to think it would be that difficult. There were a few little hiccups early on, but we got going anyway. Then as it went along things were not looking good, but I had to continue along no matter how battered and bruised and tired I was, because it would have been dangerous to stop. We had to change plans to an IUI midway through, and the amount of effort in getting there did not match the potential excitement for a hopeful outcome. It really became all about getting to the end and getting out intact. But, I'm still here and am willing to try it again another time with a different approach.