Grand Targhee
Mrs. Phund made a delicious egg casserole for breakfast. My dad had a few work calls to do, so we stayed back while the Phunds went up to the mountain early. We followed a little while later.
When we pulled onto the main road we saw a stream of cars driving away from the mountain. We called the Phunds to see what was up. They were stuck in traffic and had only moved 4 car lengths in the past hour! We turned around and waited for the shuttle at the bottom of the mountain. When we found out it was stuck in the same traffic, we went back to the house. The Phunds turned around and came back to the house too. Mr. Phund and my dad made plans to skin up the mountain. That means that they put skins on the bottom of their skis and ski up the mountain. My mom dropped them off part of the way up the mountain before coming back to get us.
While she was gone, the boys came in from playing outside to tell me that one of Cyrus's poles got stuck on the roof of our 2-story building! Clarke was trying to get icicles down from the roof and, being his smart self, threw Cyrus's pole to knock the ice off. However, he overshot and it got stuck on the roof. We told Mom when she got back, and she said to go skiing without it. We piled into the car and headed up the mountain again. Along the way, we picked up the two dads about 4 miles into their trek. They were exhausted! We made it the rest of the way to the mountain with minimal traffic. The parking spot we secured required a long walk, but at least we were up the mountain!
The mountain was packed. People milling around the ski village and lift lines at the chair lift seemed to stretch forever. After waiting in line, we got on the chairlift. On the way up, we realized there was very thick fog and wind. We could barely see 100ft in front of us! This made skiing extra hard. The snow blended into the fog, making it impossible to see the terrain of the mountain. I felt like I was skiing blind. My parents told us to bend our knees and have an extra athletic stance so that we were ready for unexpected terrain and snow conditions. Luckily, the fog cleared towards the bottom and we could see a little bit better. After doing a few runs on the Dreamcatcher lift, we went over to Sacajawea, hoping for a smaller lift line. There was still a line, but the runs that the chair serviced didn't have nearly as much fog. The lift closed at 3:30 pm, so we went back to Dreamcatcher. Mr. Phund said goodbye to us and found his family while we took another run. Once at the bottom, we took off our skis and walked to the car.
The drive to the house was beautiful with the lifting fog. Clarke and Dad retrieved Cyrus's pole off the roof when we got back. My dad had to climb a birch tree to spot the pole, go through someone's apartment to their porch, and then climb on the railing to get it off the roof. It was quite an adventure! The man who let Dad in his apartment had been skiing at Targhee for 50 years and said that today was the busiest he'd ever seen the mountain. Targhee got lots of snow this year while other mountains in the area got little to no snow. That, paired with 2ft of fresh powder from last night and a freeskiing competition over the weekend, the resort was extra crowded. It's good to know this traffic isn't normal!
We got our bathing suits on and went to the hot tub. Over dinner, we watched Transformers 3. It's a long movie, so we didn't finish the whole thing. We're planning on getting to Targhee early tomorrow!