Monday, March 8, 2010

Ski Day 1: Lutsen, MN

This post is the first day in my epic 2010 Midwest ski trip. To read more about how this ski trip came about, click here; and click here for more information leading up to the trip.

Skier: Greg. Photo: AJ.
My question about whether or not my latent skiing skills would kick in was answered in the space of half a run. Halfway through my first real run in two years, I was throwing down big, fast carves and keeping pace with my little bro. In less than two hours I was catching air, dominating the mogul field, riding the glades, and shredding the groomers at Mach 10. Yeah, I know this may be a bit of an ego trip, but I’m a really good skier. And I’ve still got it.

Lusten was a great resort to break back into this week of skiing with. Everything from groomers to moguls to icily-wicked steeps, it was great to progress back into it slowly (Slowly as in about 2 hours). For some reason, I had remembered it as being a whole lot bigger than what it felt like today. Brent pointed out this odd conflict between my memories and reality may be due to the last season I skied was spent skiing deep powder at Big Mountain, Montana. Anything outside of the Rocky Mountains would probably have felt small.

Skier: Bryce. Gondola user: Brent. Photo: Greg.
Yes, today was an incredible day of shredding! It felt so amazing to be back on skis after a two year absence. We skied hard and long, and took only about a 15 minute break to shove chocolate chip cookies down our throats.

Skier: AJ throwing a 180. Photo: Greg.
The conditions were definitely springtime corn skiing, but the pair of skis I was borrowing were almost brand new, with a fresh coat of professionally applied wax. The 170 length and great sidecut dominated the crud.

Skiers: Bryce and Brent. Photo: Greg.
What really made the day, as with most days of skiing, were the people that I got ski with. I had the opportunity to shred it up with my little brother AJ, who is throwing down on everything so much harder than he ever used to. Brent, one of my best friends from high school and long time ski partner, rode with us today and will be tomorrow as well. Rounding out our crew for Sunday and Monday is Bryce, another longtime friend and ski partner.

It was an excellent crew of skilled skiers to shred with! In addition to the regular gnar found at Lutsen, we spent some time in their new park, which is exponentially better than it has ever been. I spent most of the time there shooting photos of AJ and Bryce as they exhibited their new skills learned during my two year absence from the sport. I threw a few tricks and grabs, but didn’t want to do anything stupid to ruin the next 4 days of epic skiing.

Bottom line: today was great! But we’ve only just begun….

Skier: AJ. Photo: Bryce.
Skier: Bryce. Photo: Greg.
Skier: Greg, Bryce in background. Photo: AJ.
Skier: Bryce. Photo: Greg.
Skier: AJ. Photo: Greg
Skier: AJ throwing a tail grab. Photo: Greg.
Click here to check out our next day of skiing.

2 comments:

Kaitlynn,  March 8, 2010 at 11:11 PM  

This made me laugh more than once. I'm glad it was a good day. Enjoy your week!

Greg Heil March 9, 2010 at 12:58 AM  

Thanks Kaitlynn! I'm glad it was somewhat humorous ;)

I hope your week goes well too!

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Greg Heil is the Editor in Chief for Singletracks.com. He's been writing and publishing online since before blogging existed.

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