Sunrise Park Resort, Arizona - Christmas Eve- Ski Day!

On the slopes of the White Mountains

We arrived at the park and rented the gear that was needed. We waited a small while until the beginner’s lesson began. We had skied twice before in New Zealand (at the Remarkables and at Cardrona where we had had beginners and intermediate lessons). Our instructor for the lesson was Ed, a funny man with dark skin, wiry hair, a dense and wiry beard and a slow but hearty laugh. Both Mum and Dad said they found the morning lesson helpful, a refresher on the basics of skiing. However, Carla and I thought our time would’ve been better spent on the slopes.

Nevertheless, once our lesson finished, we had some lunch and then headed out separate ways to the slopes. Mum decided to stay on the learner’s slope and practice some more, while Dad disappeared onto some other slope, and Carla and I went on one of the lifts and hit our first run, ‘The Fairway’.

The lift rides were quite long (10 to 20 minutes) but we always had fun watching the people ski, snowboard and stack it below. Carla and I stuck together for the day and we hurtled down a number of different runs including the ‘Apache Pass’ and ‘Sugar’ (which had a very steep first hill). Carla stacked it only once and I did not stack it at all that day. We were both quite happy with this result.

Eventually, Carla and I journeyed to a different part of the mountain that was much quieter and had other lifts and runs to ski down. The first slope there was massive, quite abrupt and ran into a path called ‘Apache Drum’. Another run, ‘Sidewinder’, took us back to the main mountain.

During our time on the other part of the mountain, Mum and Dad had been waiting for us to come down the main mountain so we could all have a coffee. They gave up waiting after some time and hit the slopes again. Carla and I did manage to find Mum, so we girls headed up the main lift and skied down.

The morning weather was actually quite warm. We were skiing in tee shirts or long sleeves. Our jackets were much to warm. As a result, some of us ended up slightly sun burnt because it is a high UV area and the sun reflects off the snow! When the afternoon hit, the mountain and the trees began to cast shade over the slopes. This meant that it began to get colder when skiing down.

By the time we had our last couple of runs down the mountain, it was freezing cold. I was still skiing with just a tee shirt and ski pants because of the morning’s warm weather. My jacket was in the car and I thought it too much hassle to go and get it. Those last couple of runs down the mountain had made my face extremely cold and I had trouble trying to feel my face and my fingers! In spite of this, I still had a great time down skiing down the slopes.

The lifts closed at 4pm, our rentals had to be returned 4.30pm and the park closed at 5pm. So, we returned our rentals and headed back to the cabin. On our drive back we shared our adventures with each other. Carla and I told Mum and Dad of the other side of the mountain. Dad told us of one of his ventures. He had tried to veer around a corner and gone straight ahead instead. He crashed into soft and packed snow that was a metre deep. One ski was lost, buried in the snow! Dad had to use one of his poles to stab the snow and to try to search for the ski because he didn’t have his gloves with him. His fingers ended up freezing cold and after a good 15 minutes he finally found the lost ski. Hooray! He hadn’t wanted to have to pay for a lost ski that they would eventually find when the snow melted, and getting down the mountain on one ski would have been very difficult.

Mum spent time on the learner’s slope and then pottered up and down ‘The Fairway’. She had fun and quite enjoyed being able to ski at her own pace.

The people had been friendly, the snow was good and the mountain wasn’t too busy. Most of all, tearing down the slopes was thrilling, exhilarating and a whole lot of fun. All in all, we had an awesome day!

Last, but not least:

Merry Christmas to all!

~Clare