I'm sitting at breakfast at the B&B I stayed at all week hoping that my flight goes out today. We had more snow here last night-on top of the rest we've had each day/night I've been here! It's absolutely beautiful when it snows here...the scenery makes it that way. I'll post some pictures when I get home.
Yesterday my flight was supposed to be out at 9:50 am Mtn time...After driving all the way to the airport my flight (45 minutes) my flight was delayed and was 'hopefully' going out at 11:30 am. But, the lady informed me that the flight that was headed to Denver and then here was rerouted to Colorado Springs because of fog & that they would have to get the plane to Denver to drop of their passengers then head to Durango. Through my decision making process I decided to just reschedule for this morning. Two reasons why: 1. The flight was 'hopefully' going out at 11:30 in which case I would miss my connecting flight in Denver, but eventually get to Indy around 8 pm. and 2. It was snowing cats and dogs and I knew it wasn't going to stop just by the way it was coming down.
Instead of flying home last night we went skiiing at Pergatory Mountain! It was my first skiiing experience EVER! I was a little nervous and scared and excited at the same time, but we didnt have any gear. We gathered all our suitcases together and mixed and matched layers upon layers to be fit for cold weather for a while. We fell short a pair of gloves, ski goggles, and hats. The people at the front desk of our hotel were kind enough to loan us their gear since they were working! So it all worked out!
Up the mountain we went-arrived around 12 which by then the locals had been skiiing since 9 am. Kari (from Michigan and a ski-goer up there) gave me some pointers then we headed up the lift. This particular lift everyone was telling us was the easy trails happened to go to the top of the mountain!! I was thinking in the back of my head how long it took us to get up there and how long it was going to take us to get back down!! 1 hour and 45 minutes later we reached the bottom of this snow packed mountain. Did I mention lots of steep hills that we had to side step down-Kari had never seen anything like it and later determined that skiiing in MI was a lot easier than in CO. The part that was more difficult was the 'powder' everyone talked about or loose snow! It was supposed to be so cool, but to a first-timer it was evil! We would fall in the powder waist deep and have to dig our skis and ourselves out of the mess!
She said I was a natural and that I caught on pretty quick (dont know if she was stroking my ego or not!?). But I only fell maybe 7 times the whole way down and some were because I wanted to steer away from other beginners who were having the same troubles! We ate lunch and went back out where we actually found the 'bunny hills'!! After several runs down them I decided I was a pro at the bunny hill based on my experience at the huge mtn.
As I sit here at breakfast I was talking to two of the girls who work here (who went out skiing yesterday) and they couldnt believe I was out on the big mtn with all the powder-they said that it was a 'difficult' day for them too! I feel proud like I accomplished something, even though at times I felt like a morbidly obese person trapped in the snow who couldnt get up to save their life! Its challenging to get up once you fall, but luckily that didnt happen to much!
Its a great place to ski if you're looking for an adventure and only cost me $59 for the day for rentals and lift tickets! Pergatory Mountain or Durango Mountain Resort is what its called. After all that I think Jake wants to take a chance on the mountain too! Maybe our next vacation spot? Who knows!
