Sunday, February 21, 2010

Toasty Toes - 12,070 Vertical Feet

One of the most uncomfortable things that can happen to a skier is getting cold feet. No, I don't mean getting nervous about going down a difficult run (although I'm sure that could happen). I mean physically cold feet. Mom and I had the unfortanate experience of cold feet today.

It was cold today, brrrr. We dried out boots out last night and this morning and put them on before dashing out the door to catch the bus to Deer Valley. While we were on the bus, not yet half-way to Deer Valley, Mom mentions that her feet are cold. My feet were feeling cold as well, but I know better than to bring up cold extremities around my mom. For some reason she gets colder hearing me talk about being cold. When I said that my feet were cold too, we knew something wasn't right.

We headed to our super secret bench at Snow Park Lodge to take off our cat-tracks, tighten up our boots, and put on all our gear before heading up the lift. I took my foot out of my boot, felt around inside with my hand, and determined that my boot was still wet from the day before! Cue the "ew, Tamara, your feet are sweaty" comments. Mom's boot, unfortunately, was wet as well. There is a Cole Sport in Deer Valley at the Silver Lake Lodge, up a lift ride from Snow Park Lodge, so we decided to head up there and have the boot technicians heat our boots up for us.

At Cole Sport, Mike took our boots and placed them on his handy dandy boot heater for 5 minutes each. While we were talking to him, we discovered that his wife's good friend lives in our town! We don't know her, but it was fun to talk about the places he had been and agree that Beacon is the best restaurant in the world.

When Mike gave us back our boots, putting them back on was like heaven, and that is hard to say about ski boots. They were so warm and toasty! We thanked him and headed back outside, where it was now snowing!

The snow was falling fast and in huge fluffy flakes. Perfect snow. Luckily, it continued to snow all throughout the day. Even though our noses, thumbs, and toes got cold, we relished in the falling flakes. The snow conditions were getting better and better by the minute. The lift operators even had to start sweeping snow off of the chairs becuase it was accumulating so fast!

After our delicious lunch at Silver Lake Lodge where we also warmed up our toes by the fire, Mom and I practiced what we learned from our lesson yesterday; "little toe to the snow" and "slither". We did a couple of a bump runs and let our little toes guide us through the new fallen powder. All 12,070 vertical feet we skied today were in glorious conditions. I hope that the conditions tomorrow are even better! After the glorious grooming at Deer Valley and the powder on top of it... I almost can't contain myself. Until then...

Mom and I on Northside Express in the snow!

4 comments:

  1. Brrr! I can't stand when my boots don't dry out overnight. You guys have all the "ins" though with the handy dandy boot dryer dude!

    I just made a quick Costco run and you can tell your mom that your "dealer" has come through. There's more product headed your way Tuesday (do I sound like a drug dealer or just a big dork? don't answer that!). More PC lift tix enroute to you; Russ will bring them by while I'm getting squished into my dress for a final fitting (please God, don't let the seamstress make it so tight as to create the dreaded "back fat" effect!

    Tamara, I was also thinking if you guys could stay two extra days...you could come to our wedding! Wow, what fun would that be! Russ was planning on staying at the condo Friday (so he would be apart from me) but I bet we can find an extra bed up at Stein (no Doug, his best man, won't pull a Brokeback Mountain scene; let's hope not anyway). But I digress. Seriously, we won't be there Saturday night so maybe you guys could push back your flights to Sunday (and catch a ride with one of our friends who will be driving down to the airport anyway) and enjoy Friday night and Saturday's event with us. (Heck, for that matter, sell your place out East and call PC your new home!)

    Run that by Judy...and keep up the great updates. Signed, living vicariously through Tamara's Travels "Elise"

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  2. I used to use my blow dryer to dry out the inside of my boots... sounds gross/weird but it helps to get the moisture out. Placing them upside down on a heating vent or radiator when you're not using them helps too. I am also a big fan of the little toe and hand warmers that every mountain/ski shop sells.

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  3. I have really bad circulation...cold toes are always a problem for me when I'm skiing, unless it's really warm--above freezing at least. I always use those little footwarmer things and stick them to my socks both on the underside and tops of my toes :)

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  4. Trina - Blow dryers are bad for your boots. If your renting it's OK becuase you're not damaging *your* boots, but if you own your boots it is best to invest in a boot dryer that you can plug into the wall and leave in overnight. That's what I'm using. Unfortunately, I didn't leave it in long enough this day...

    Tara - As for toe warmers, those are great when renting boots, but if you own your boots and have them custom fitted there really is no "room" for toe warmers. Also, in general, boots that fit your foot perfectly don't get as cold as rental boots. There are, however, boot heater systems that you can install in your boots so you always have warm feet! Great for people with bad circulation like you.

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