What a brilliant weekend! We did the 6-hour drive on Friday night and arrived at the condo around 10pm. The fire was roaring, the wine and conversation was flowing and there was even a delicious meal waiting for us, lovingly prepared by Billy, Stuart and Christine who had arrived the previous day. It was a very musical weekend too, what with guitars, drums – Stuart loved waking up to the sound of drumming, didn’t you Stu?! – harmonicas (which I also know as a ‘mouth organ’ which everyone seemed to find very amusing. It does sound a bit rude actually, come to think of it…) and much harmonizing. Billy did himself proud by getting this condo – the one we stayed in previously was also great but this one had a really nice feel to it, great fittings and furniture, and the most spectacular views of the mountains which I saw first thing on Saturday morning when I pulled the blinds open (after being woken up by another rendition of theme tune ‘Mammoth Mountain’). Then it was a few yoga stretches followed by a huge brekkie made by Norm (almost as good as the delish one that Stuart whipped up on Sunday morning – my first experience of pancakes & maple syrup for breakfast!) before heading for the slopes.

The queues – sorry, ‘lines’ to you Americans! – were not anywhere as bad as I had expected and within a matter of minutes we were carving it up on our first run (Eagle Lodge is where we started). And I am proud to say that now I can actually say that I was carving and really mean it – everything just came together on this trip and it was B.R.I.L.L.I.A.N.T. I also invested in some wrist guards which really gave me a lot more confidence as, even though I am falling a whole lot less than the last time, when I do hit the deck, I tend to hit it hard (getting cocky and trying to go faster than I probably should) and it was good to know that I’m less likely to snap my wrists. Yuk. I did have one massive fall when an idiot boarder cut right infront of me going at more or less the speed of sound – I ended up describing a beautiful arc through the air before landing in a burbling heap against a tree, feeling very startled and sore. I landed so hard that my goggles were knocked right off my head, which I thought was rather impressive and also explained why I could barely move my next for the next two days. Note to self: buy a helmet for next time. Anyhoo, it was all worthwhile and after a few minutes trying to compose myself, I was off again. The best thing about this trip was that I have now got to the same level as my husband, so there is some healthy competition going on there now! I rented my board and was given one that was bigger than the one I got before, and apparently this would have meant that I could go faster than I was probably used to, or would have chosen to, which meant that I really had to throw caution to the wind and just turn and carve instinctively, rather than concentrating too hard. Love it love it love it! I was eyeing out the half-pipe and the jumps towards the end of the second day but decided to rather end on a high note and leave that for another day. We missed the Night of Lights display as the boys wanted to watch the football game that was on (Green Bay Packers? Seattle? sorry – I plead ignorance as I have still not managed to get my head around all the rules of this game, and as a result ended up paying more attention to the delicious chorizo and cheese than to the game itself. I don’t mean to offend – I know it was a big deal, and if I was in South Africa being so flippant about an important Stormers/Bulls rugby match, I would probably – deservedly – get a kicking). t any rate the general consensus from those we spoke to the next day was that it was truly spectacular and that they really put on a great show. I found some pretty cool pics on http://forums.mammothmountain.com/forum//messageview.cfm?catid=2&threadid=19060 that showed me what I missed. They had red lights on every single lift and then started all the lifts and the lights came on one by one and eventually the whole mountain was lit up – it’s a pity that I missed it but I take solace in the fact that the fire was warm, the red wine was goooood and that chorizo…man, it was good.

Norm and I ended up skipping the hot springs this time (although we had a great soak in the jacuzzi on the Saturday evening – always a highlight!) as we really wanted to see the mountains in the daylight on the way back, and boy was it worth it – they are just stunning. Mount Tom blew my mind – around 13,600 ft – and Mount Whitney (which is even bigger at 14,505 ft) was just crying out to be climbed! Definitely on my list of things-to-do/hike in 2008. Billy and Stuart decided to head for the springs and to take advantage of Stuart’s beautiful new and shiny Range Rover by doing some exploring. This did not go as well as they may have hoped and, despite stopping to put on the snowchains before attempting to traverse a particularly snowy road, our two Mountain Men ended up getting well and truly stuck, and had to be towed out by Roadside Recovery. Not so cool guys! Great photos though – thanks Stuart.

So, this weekend I will be hitting the sales and buying myself a helmet, boots and possibly even a board….Bring it on!

Here is another link with some cool pics: http://mammothmountain.wordpress.com/2008/01/15/night-of-lights-oooooh-aaaaahh/