Day 4 - March 8, 2016 - Stephanie

SKI DAY!  Wheee!!!  Started out with butterflies in my stomach, it's been about 4 years since I last skiied.  We got our skis and headed out to the slopes.  Said bye to Kevin as he made his way to the bunny slope and I headed to the first chair lift.  All my pics today are from my phone and sorry about all the selfies.  Got to the top and realized I'd already lost my trail map.  Took a chance on one of the trails and ended up safely at the bottom.  Went over to see Kevin and took a ride up the little "escalator" for the bunny slope (I never have been on one of these, started out with the rope that pulls you up the hill).  Was a bit embarrassed as I almost landed on my face when I got on this thing.  Thankfully I didn't fall!  Met Kevin's new friend "Bob", ski instructor extraordinaire.  He was quite the talker but gave Kevin excellent pointers and I learned a few things from him also that helped me out later the afternoon.  Did the bunny slope with Kevin and we ventured over to the Magic Carpet.  I started to video Kevin but due to the language gushing out of him with each fall, I turned it off.  :)   I have to say that I'm very proud of him - his last run on the Magic Carpet was a HUGE improvement from the first one without any falls at all!  He could be a good skier if we did it more than once every 4-5 years. 

After the first run on the Magic Carpet with him we again went our own ways.  I got another trail map, thanks to Bob, and figured out how to make it to the top of the Mountain - Beartooth!  Started to take the Outer Boundary trail.  Noticed the hand made sign a bit too late but I did catch "This is no longer an intermediate trail!  Thin ice and you WILL hit rocks and other things.  Suggest you now go this way".  Too late.  I was committed, thinking "how bad could this be?"  Well, it was BAD!  Ended up being Double Black Diamond, per Bob as I was told later.  It was a bad sign also when I didn't see any other ski marks on the trail, but did see animal tracks.  Yep, hit rocks, ice, roots, and the ultimate no-no for me - moguls!  (OH NO!!!).  It was slow going, but made it with no mishaps.  A few more high altitude runs then, Lunch time with Kevin! 

After lunch I entertained the idea of taking my nice Sony camera up the slopes with me.  Good thing I didn't.  I made a few more successful runs, then as the shadows lengthened started to hit more and more ice.  As I was going down a new run, I kept gaining speed and right before IT happened, I thought to myself  "I should really slow down a bit".  Too late.  Hit huge ice field at mach speed (felt like!), made the mistake of putting my right pole down, which caught in the ice, which then caught the edge of my right ski.  Mid-air tumble initially, with 4 more flipping end over end tumbles ensuing.  The others that witnessed it rushed to my side as I managed to stand up, asking if I was OK.  I was.  One of them brought me my left ski that I'd lost.  They then told me I had been given a rating of 9.5/10 and I would have been given a perfect 10 had I kept both skis on.  Of course I didn't learn anything and had to do that run another 3 times - just to prove I could.  I did.  That was my only fall for the day.  Yay!

Met Kevin for his final Magic Carpet run - which was a perfect run for him!  Then he turned his equipment in while I did more high altitude runs.  Hated for the day to end.  But yet another great day in Montana!