The Mitchells in America - Andrew and Margaret

Sunday, February 12, 2006

Skiing at Squaw

I've just had my first experience of skiing in America. The photograph was taken after a long day's skiing at Squaw. My employer sends the whole company for a day's skiing, party and overnight accommodation (+ lift ticket and transport) which was great. The day itself (as you can see) was a beautiful sunny day, although rain the previous day had meant that some of the slopes were a rather icy (worse than I had ever seen in Australia in that respect). The grommed slopes were very nice.
When I was trying to figure out which runs to start on, I asked a couple of locals (ski hire and on the lift). I told them that I skied blue and black runs in Australia. They all told me that the slopes in America are much more difficult and that I should stick to the easier blues. On going up the mountain I could see that these runs (the easier blues) were more like some australian green runs (eg duplex at smiggins) and so I went straight for the harder blues and the blacks. The judgement of what is blue and what is black is very similar to Australia... if anything the Australian black runs are on average more difficult than the blacks I have seen over here... the real difference over here is that much more of the resort is blue and black runs, compared to Australia where they are mostly green.
Anyway, had a great day's skiing, and look forward to more soon. Posted by Picasa