Skiing, Pingpong and a Medal at Mt Washington
Skiing, Pingpong and a Medal at Mt Washington
Wednesday, January 5, 2022
We were able to fit in a trip up to Mount Washington this winter break. We drove up the Island on Monday morning. The drive was quite treacherous as there was slippery conditions between Mill Bay and Duncan. We stopped in Courtney at the Blue Toque shop and picked up some new ski goggles for Ava and Alex. We also picked up some food at Tim Hortens and coffee at Starbucks.
After that we drove up the mountain. Before we reached the turn off for the Alpine Lodge traffic stopped and we crawled along. We were worried that there was an accident or that we wouldn’t get up the mountain. All the cars were turning around after talking to a person at the front. When we got to the front, we told him that we were going to the cabin at 77 Jutland and the guys said we could go. It turned out that the parking lot at the top was full and that is why they were turning cars around.
We managed to find a parking spot and get our ski stuff. Eric, Anna and Grace were skiing with Anna’s friend Blanca. Ava connected with Eric and Grace and skied with them for the afternoon. She picked up where she left off almost 2 years ago.
Alex had a lesson with Mo (Maureen) and Marco. We referred to them as M&M. Alex didn’t want to ski with a tether so he didn’t. He was amazing and spent the afternoon on the magic carpet on Easy Acres.
After skiing we met Terry and Karen at the cabin. We had dinner and Ava started playing ping pong with Terry. Ping Pong became a part of this trip as Ava loved playing with Terry and me. She did really well but still needs to improve if she is going to unseat the two reigning ping pong champions.
The following morning Alex had a seizure after breakfast so he rested while we dropped Ava off on the mountain so she could ski. We ended up taking Alex to ski a little later in the morning and he skied with Ted and Laurie. He was understandably tired so he stopped at lunch time and chilled out in the afternoon. Both Kelly and I skied with Ava during the day but one of us was always with Alex.
Back at the cabin there was nachos, more ping pong and even a game of Oh Hell with Ava, Terry, Karen and I.
The last day of skiing was Wednesday. We had to drive down the mountain that afternoon because we needed to go to Vancouver on Thursday and get our pre departure Covid tests on Thursday morning. The weather report called for a lot of snow up and down the island so we decided to leave a bit earlier than we had originally planned.
But we still wanted to get some skiing in for the day. Kelly and Ava started the day on the hawk chair and Alex skied with Sara and Jonathan. We enjoyed the fact that Alex’s ski teachers had the same name as our friend Sara Sauvé and Alex’s teacher friend Jonathan. Alex’s goal was to go on the ski lift and the morning was one of accomplishments! He started on Easy acres and after one run he went on the hawk chair lift. He skied down and fell a couple of times but got back up and did really well. Then he went on the hawk chair lift again and skied back to the lodge for lunch. Ava stayed on the runs for the hawk lift too and loved going through the trees. She had run into a tree the day before but today she steered clear of the obstacles. We all had a slightly early lunch and the head of the VISAS (Vancouver Island Adaptive Snowsports) programs named Sebastien gave Alex a medal for his participation and improvement this week. Alex was SO proud of the medal. It was his first ever medal.
After lunch, Ava and I went and did a few more runs as there weren’t any lines as everyone was eating. Then we went back to the lodge, returned skis and went to the cabin to pack up. Terry and Karen had already gotten everything packed up so we could just take everything to the cars and go. We were happy to leave a little early as the snow had already started. We said farewell to Terry and Karen and drove down the mountain. We stopped in Nanaimo for some food. The rest of the journey was slow as the roads were not good. We were very thankful to have mum’s Subaru Forrester as it did amazingly well in the bad conditions.