Seolnal Vacation: Night Skiing

Date: 2/6/2011

On Friday, after a full day of Ice Festival-ness, You would think I would be frozen and tired.  (Especially since the night before I had imbibed probably a little too much)...but I knew that this was my last night to do Night Skiing.  When I heard that you could ski at night, I thought, 'That would be neat."  And then I saw the place light up for evening ski.

The night before....

It was REALLY bright!

And thus, I was captivated.  I wanted to night ski.  So, I had a quick dinner with my friends and then I lumbered back up to my room to change into my ski outfit.  I was starting to feel a little nasty in my long johns--I had skiied in them for over 12 hours now without a wash.  Kinda gross...but I was determined to enjoy myself.  I debated about using my ski goggles and decided I should bring them anyway.  Why not?

Then I step outside, or actually, I clunk outside.  The ski shoes are not made for walking!  

I get outside an a huge smile breaks on my face.  Can you see why I wanted to night ski?

This was probably the busiest the ski resort had been.  Seriously, this was so cool.  The gondola was really busy so I go over to the kiwi penguin slope that I had done yesterday and proceed to start another 4 hours of fun.

And it was so much fun.  I was by myself this time so it was literately at my own pace and my own enjoyment.

This is on the lift.  Those are my skis!  hehe!

Trying to take a photo without everyone seeing that I'm taking a photo!

 The gondola was super busy that evening, so I ended up taking a couple different lifts in order to get back to the top.  Since it was my last ski I really wanted to do some more full mountain runs.  And the slopes at the bottom of the mountain were choked with people so once I learned that the more intermediate slopes higher on the mountain were much more empty, I spent most of my time on the top half of the mountain.

Here's a snap of a lift to the top.  I loved how foggy it was!

I get to the top of the mountain and the first time I go down the slope I realize that I'm skiing through a cloud.  It was so foggy you couldn't see 30 feet in front of you (created some interesting defensive-non-collision-moves!).  But I could literally feel the crisp water droplets in the clouds on my face.  That is one sensation that I will always remember.  Skiing through the clouds!

I was very proud of my camera for holding up.  It was bloody cold and I was a little worried about it freezing, but no, it behaved like a trooper!  I think I even fell on it once and it still works wonderfully.

Back on top of the mountain I ask a girl who was in civilian clothes to take a photo of me.  And I'm so glad I did:

I had so much fun skiing.  Seriously, its a good thing that I am going to be gone these next couple weeks because I would do another ski trip in a heart beat.  But, I'm changing courses--and weather!--and going on another vacation.  To Thailand!  Actually, I'm leaving in 3 hours, so I'm glad I was able to finish up Phoenix Park because I know that I'll have lots to talk about when I get back!