Get into a tuck and point it down Olympic?
The title came from a Twitter friend’s post and I think she was quoting from another source. But boy oh boy did it bring back memories. Er, ski memories, the ones that happened at the Boyne Highlands ski ranch, for those of you who are wondering, “WTH?” But no. I never did quite “get into a tuck and point it down Olympic”. More like… “Hey you guys, we didn’t do Olympic yet today.” And we’d goad each other into heading over to Olympic and struggling down amongst the moguls. Daydreams? Those are a whole ‘nother story. I could daydream forever about schussing back and forth amongst the moguls with speed, grace, style, and aplomb. And down at the bottom would be the cutest guy in my high school watching me. And of course we lived happily ever after, at least until the screaming started.
But. Sigh. Not today, thank you very much. I am just a x-c skier these days and I am cautious about hills on the best of days. I was much braver as a young downhill skier but I was never any better than a decent amateur. I knew my way around and I also knew when I needed to slow down and be careful. No broken bones here.
That tweet got me wondering what Boyne Highlands looks like these days. The last time I went there, it was summer and the beach urchins and I were returning to Fin Family Moominbeach from a little jaunt to Petoskey. We were driving back via Harbor Springs and the shore route with Sarah Maclachlan blasting on the CD and I decided to try to revisit my roots. Well. It was golf season at Boyne and we passed some fancy chalets with valet parking signs out in front and my little Planet Ann Arbor Commie High hippy-type kids were totally disgusted. Moom, *you* used to come *here*? I couldn’t explain what it was like to drive down from the Yoop in a snow (or ice) storm and park in the day parking lot at the Highlands and eat our own bag lunches in the big noisy lunchroom. And ski with our cobbled-together equipment. Actually, I didn’t even recognize the place myself.
But I found this cool trail map. All my old favorite runs are on there! Heather and Little John and the Challengers and how could I forget Rob Roy and, er, Olympic. And Amy’s Run, which used to be way over in the wilderness with one of those old T-bar lifts but now it looks like there’s a quad chairlift over there and a whole ‘nother set of runs beyond that. I can almost but not quite wrap my brain around that and I wonder how much of the hill is taken over by snowboarders. Not that I hate snowboarders at all. I think snowboarding is fascinating to watch. I’m just a baggy old timer in the ski world. But I still get out there on my slow old skinny x-c boards. And occasionally, if I know the hill well enough and there isn’t some kind of hairpin turn at the bottom, I actually get into a sort of semi-tuck and point it down!
Love,
KW
March 26th, 2009 at 7:57 pm
OOOH I remember Heather! I think that one had been probably my favorite of the runs. Amy’s Run – I think that was rated “easy” – nice long, slow, no-stress run – it had quad lifts the last time(s) I was there (aeons ago). Little John – vague memories, I know I’ve run that one. I avoided some of the “black diamond” runs (suspect The Engineer tricked me into one or two of them, until I realized what he was doing to me) – I was just never good enough to have the confidence to do “just any black diamond”. Plus, too many hot-dogging teens the last couple of visits there – last straw was getting my skiis run over in the lift line by some a-hole (who’s lift ticket got revoked by the Ski Patrol – or at least “clipped” as his Only Warning [too long ago to recall which] – for that little stunt… LOL).
March 26th, 2009 at 9:13 pm
I love this! I think my memory is confusing the Challengers and Olympic. was Olympic the one with the perfectly formed moguls and the chairlife would sort of skirt it so you could watch the really good skiers?
I went there probably 15 years ago and skied downhill one day and XC the next. the XC trails were actually pretty good as I recall. however, I did have a temp over 100 so I might be mistaken. 😉
March 27th, 2009 at 9:47 am
I was teaching at the elementary this winter and it started snowing big fat flakes. Looking out the window, I had a flashback to standing at the top of a ski run at Boyne, with the snow blowing around. I haven’t thought about downhilling for years, and it’s been years since I X-C’ed. I’m half afraid that my boots would fall apart the way Mom’s did.