day 20. skiing. sunday river. 12/30.

day 20 already. not bad considering day one was 12/6. i had south ridge, spruce, tempest, barker, locke mountain, and white cap again. it was icy in places but they were also blowing snow like crazy so it was real nice in others. have i mentioned i love my job? this is just so much fun. i got 6 hours in. kasmira was going to come snowboarding but read the bus schedule wrong and got discouraged. after i got home i got a surprise phone call: i get to be a bouncer at the foggy goggle for new years eve. i get some more hours and get to enjoy new years eve at the bar, see the fireworks, etc. good times. maybe if it goes well i can do it more often.

day 19. skiing. sunday river. 12/29.

the first wind hold day. the winds were howling but at the beginning of the day only the white cap chair was on hold. i knew that wouldn't last. it was also bitter cold. i headed straight to the top of spruce figuring i should get the tops done first. sammy and the lift mechanic were watching the winds and seemed to be thinking a wind hold was imminent. barker went on wind hold when i was up there. locke mountain was still running so i headed there next but it was on hold by the time i got to the bottom. i headed straight to the tempest chair and even that was quite hairy. the chairs were blowing around like crazy and the top guy hadn't even requested a wind check which i did immediately. todd came right away and said to hit the slow button when the big gusts hit and to tell the bottom guys to load people in the middle. i also told them to try to get three on any chair they load. while todd was still there a family showed up and was pretty stressed out. the wind was blowing the surface snow away making it very icy and they seemed completely unprepared. i don't think they even had a map. their approximately 12 year-old daughter came into the shack freezing because she wasn't properly dressed for the cold: i think she had a shell on with a shirt underneath it. no layers. wind chills were probably 10-20 below. i gave her my coat and her shivering slowly subsided. todd sent the rest of the family down on the chair and gave her a snowmobile ride down. i coached the operator on watching the lift in those conditions and headed back to do south ridge. since just about everything else was down the lines were fierce. i didn't really care since i was getting paid and jon told me never to jump the line. when i finally got to the top it was a regular party in the shack with russell, zane and jon himself up there. i was going to man the controls but jon took them himself for russell's break. even on south ridge it was very hairy, especially since that's the lift all the little ones ride. the wind blew any snow whatsoever off the ramp and it was sheer ice. fun fun. as i headed in people were giving up and the line was dying down. you gotta love wind hold days. another short day for me. good thing i am working six.

day 18. skiing. sunday river. 12/28.

the groomers are miracle workers. after all that rain the skiing was still great. it was hard and fast but there was a thin layer of granular everywhere and you could really hit it. i did the outback again and really enjoyed it. i'm also really enjoying the camaraderie from my trips around the shacks with the lifties, the ski patrol, and the lift mechanics. everyone is getting to know me and seems to enjoy my little tour. it was very hectic at the top of the chondola but i guess that's just the way it is. todd sent me back out to jordan to cover the drive at thirteen. it was a bit of a pain because i had to bring my winter boots over in a backpack. bottom breaks are an hour but thirteen is an easy chair. i took the long ride across kansas to lights out around to escapade down broadway and in. my legs are getting whipped into shape fast.

day 17. skiing. sunday river. 12/27.

pouring rain. i did the outback and got completely drenched. the north peak chair was running today so i did five lifts today. i was so wet i was more than ready to head home.

day 16. skiing. sunday river. 12/26.

christmas eve and christmas were a long couple of days. i had the outback today, which is certainly a lot easier now that sensations is always open and aludra from sirius to get you to northern lights. i did aurora and jordan and then headed up to do three. the north peak chair had crapped out on its first day of operation so i headed up to do the top of the chondola for the first time. its kind of crazy up there because you've got chairs and cabins unloading simultaneosly, there's blindspots, and the controls and the phone aren't in the same place or the best place to sit. at least i had someone to help me on my first day. as vacation week was truly underway, it was quite busy. however, after that, i was done for the day. short day. kasmira came up to ski with me, but really, we would normally never ski on a busy saturday. i wanted to head to jordan but she wanted to stick around south ridge and barker and try the rails in whoville. there were a lot of people, it was getting scraped off, and the light was flat. after skiing the chondola and the south ridge chair, we took a couple of runs down the lazy river and called it a day.

day 15. skiing. sunday river. 12/24.

christmas eve. an incrediby mild and beautiful day. the snow was just about perfect. they told me i was tsbr right off the bat today. pretty much the same route today except i took south ridge to get to barker and headed straight to white cap after barker because i could take one less lift ride that way. i was done at noon. it was almost a little frustrating because the skiing was so good and i have to stop after taking one run every time. i'm sure as the season wears on i'll feel more comfortable sneaking in a few fun runs. anyway, i called kasmira and told her to jump on the explorer and come down. she did and we had a wonderful but brief time skiing in the soft snow and the sun. she is simply such an incredible skier. her form is so perfect. we were taking the chondola first but then we switched to just riding south ridge because she was trying the rails in whoville. its obvious the mountain is covered with kids from her school who are just always there. i think she might have better luck learning to do tricks on her snowboard than on her skis. anyway, we had a long drive to the butler christmas eve party so we headed out around two. it was a great day and obviously a clear indicator of what a great season it is going to be.

day 14. skiing. sunday river. 12/23.

i was scheduled all week as a spare and jeremy was doing the whole mountain by himself. there are less lifts on weekdays but he was still having some trouble getting it all done. i started the day checking tickets on the chondola. at around ten kyle came and told me they needed me to do tsbr. jeremy had been helping on south ridge and was just getting started, too, so there was no way he could do it himself. i got barker, spruce and white cap today. south ridge went down for a while so i took the chondola up and skied down to barker. i headed up the lift and kenny was up there and i gave him his break. i really like the barker shack: comfortable, nice view and easy lift (hardly any stops). then i headed down ecstacy and cascades to the top of the tempest lift. i realized that after that break i wouldn't be able to get straight to the white heat lift from there so i headed up the locke mountain chair and gave benny his break. from there it was back down ecstacy and cascades to snowbound and lower obsession to the lift. on the ride up it was cool to watch the groomers ripping up the mountains of snow they had made on white heat. the cat at the headwall actuyally gets tethered to a pulley because it is so steep. and they had made a lot of snow. wayne gurney was at the top and he is kind of an odd bird. not mush going on up there. i had never worked that shack before but obviously its all experts up there and there were no stops. i was alittle nervous because i was going to have to take obsession which is a black diamond down and wasn't sure if my legs and confidence were up for it but it was actually fantastic. for my 4th day on skis i felt really good. then heat's off to cascades down to barker and easy street and back to the hub in south ridge. the guy loading cabins on the chondola said his back was bothering him so i did that for the rest of the day. i have never done that before and it is a very fast-paced and active position.

day 13. sunday river. skiing. 12/22.

kasmira had ski team. she had skipped a day to stay after school and catch up on her homework. she said they did gate practice and it was incredibly icy.

day 12. skiing. sunday river. 12/20.

second day of tsbr (top shack break relief). sensations was still closed (even though the map said it would be open) so i again had to double back and head over from spruce. i got sammy's break at the top of spruce while i was there. this time i wisely just took my skis off and walked for the two uphill parts on the way over to jordan. down northern lights and across firestar to jordan. i was still tired when i got there but not quite as tired as yesterday. covered kenny's break at the top of jordan then took my first run on lollapallooza of the season. very nice. took the lateral chair across to aurora and got benny. then back down nothern lights and up lift 3 to cover mike's break. then right down escapade to visit russell at the top of south ridge. russell's first day back and as usual he was all worked up about everything. after spending my half hour with russell i headed down to see what was going on and got there just as kasmira and shelby were getting on the lift. i took one south ridge run with them and headed in. they seemed pretty self-sufficient. i wound up covering a break on the magic carpet and doing some other stuff till the end of the day so i was all done skiing. kasmira and shelby apparently had a great afternoon skiing.

day 11. skiing. sunday river. 12/19.

sunday river's 50th anniversary. my first day as top shack break relief. part of me still can't believe its true. jon gave me my list of shacks and told me to head up the chondola and ski over to lift 13, the lateral lift, and take that to the jordan bowl lift. sensation was closed for snowmaking, however, so i had to keep going down dreammaker and back to south ridge. then up south ridge and spruce to catch sirius over to jordan. that was a challenge, too, as where aludra cuts under the aurora lift the cross-over to northern lights and cyclone was closed so you had to hike up a little. i was getting tired already. its amazing that they have skiing on all 8 peaks because only two weeks ago they had 3 trails open but basically most of the peaks have one maybe two trails open on them. grand rapids was closed too so i headed down northern lights and took a trail i had actually never taken before called firestar to the base of jordan. 9:15 and i was at the top of jordan. who wants their break before then anyway? then across kansas back to northern lights to the aurora lift to do that shack. then after that break back down northern lights to the quantum leap chair where i did that top shack. normally, i would do the north peak shack then, too, but its not open yet. so, down to the top of the south ridge express for that break and up spruce again. did that break and i was done for the day. risky business down to outa here back to south ridge, but it took me a while because my legs were really starting to burn. i'll ski myself into shape in no time at this rate. i was done at 1:15. kind of a short "work day" but i will be "working" six days a week (and friday nights at pizza hut). with one more shack to do i'll be done just under the six hour threshold for breaks. jon says some days they'll have me take a break and stay later but for the most part it sounds like i'll be getting a 34-36 hour "work week" over six days. also, i can obviously free ski from 2-4 on weekdays. i'm a pretty lucky guy.

day 10. skiing. sunday river. 12/18.

my first day on the slopes. just wanted to take a few runs to get my legs under me before my first day as the skiing lift attendant. took a couple of south ridge runs first. conditions were great and i felt good. headed up the chondola to escapade and that went fine, too. one more south ridge run and i called it a day. had to work at night and wanted to take it easy.

day 9. skiing. sunday river. 12/16.

another day of ski practice. i got some real exciting news today: i am going to get to be one of the "skiing lift attendants". i'll get paid to ski from top shack to top shack covering breaks. i should get mega-days in this winter skiing from peak to peak all day long. sweet. i might have to keep this job forever.

day 8. skiing. sunday river. 12/15.

ski practice. kasmira is up to 8 ski days in the last 10 days. a good start to the season for her.

day 7. skiing. sunday river. 12/14.

kasmira has ski practice while i worked at the mountain. it was a mild day and i would have thought the snow would be nice but i guess by the afternoon on barker it was somewhat icy. thing is, kasmira kind of likes skiing on hard and icy snow.

day 6. skiing. sunday river. 12/13.

i was impressed that kasmira managed to bring her ski gear home on her own after school so she could ski this weekend. well, almost. she has two pairs of skis so she didn't need to bring them and she didn't bring her poles (i'd love to get a second pair of those). anyway, i had to work both days this weekend and she spent saturday at her friend cassie's house (at the farm we used to live at actually) but today she wanted to go. i have started taking the explorer to work and today she christened a new era by taking it there herself. this will be one of the big bennies of living where we live. as an employee, i had no trouble picking up her poles and realized an even easier option might be to just get free rental snowboard boots and she can just ride on the weekends and ski during the week. that way she won't even have to bring her boots back and forth. i'd still really like to get her a locker at barker. anyway, it was free skiing day for bethel residents so a bunch of her friends were out. she gets a little frustrated because she is so much better than them but sometime i wish she could just relax and enjoy the time with her friends. she skied alone toward the end of the day. we all wound up riding home on the explorer together which i thought was a lot of fun. she doesn't realize it yet, but over the next six years that shuttle bus is going to be an incredible asset for her. and today was the first day...

day 5. cross country skiing. home. skiing. sunday river. 12/11.

i went out cross country at home. it isn't quite as accessible as it was at the farm but damn close. i just have to break a trail through the field, cross rt. 26 and then i can go right on the walking trails along the androsgoggin river and across various covered bridges along the way. i made it a lot further the second day but still have a ways to go to reach rt. 26. my shoes didn't bother me too much and my legs felt a lot better. the problem with my shoes is that when we moved to bridgton and as usual were chronically broke i just had to get some cross country skis. i bought some old three prong binding skis and boots off of tom gyger at 5 field's farm for $20 because no one uses them anymore. they are really actually shoes and a size or two too big for me. so, the heal doesn't come down on the teeth that are supposed to hold the heal in place when you come down on it and being shoes rather than boots they offer little support. the skis are actually fine but i have tried to find better boots that fit and three prong boots are just hard to find. anyway, it makes it harder to ski well, but when i do ski well, it isn't as big of a deal.

kasmira had ski practice at sunday river and i didn't really hear anything positive or negative. i know conditions were good. that's 5 out of 6 days for her to start the season.

day 4. skiing. sunday river. 12/10.

first day of ski team practice. while coach kav attended to the new kids in south ridge he let kasmira and the veterans free ski. they opened a ton of new trails yesterday and kasmira sounded like she had fun. firday is free skiing day anyway for the team so she'll get another day of crusing around before they start structured race training. even then, i imagine the focus will still be on getting the younger kids up and running for at least a week or so.

day 3. skiing. sunday river. cross country skiing. home. 12/9.

first major snowstorm. school snow day. i drove up to sunday river so kasmira could take some runs. the "new" car seems decent in the snow but i definitely need some new wipers and the heater doesn't do very good job of heating the windshield so the visibility was terrible and the drive pretty much sucked. at least its a relatively short drive. we had also after arriving home from my class in windham late in the evening last night made the rookie mistake of leaving kasmira's gear in the car overnight so it was wet and frozen. so, we had to dry it out by some heaters and kasmira was fairly grouchy and impatient. i basically know by now anyway she really doesn't like skiing in the snow anyway but i didn't want to discourage her. sure enough, she came back after the first run covered with snow. i zipped her up a little better and she went back out but she only lasted one more run. she really needs a friend her age to ski with when i don't go. when we got back i broke out my cross country skis. i have had a big toenail that has been bothering me for a while although the bruised part has been growing out but as soon as i started i realized that maybe that toenail had been bothering me since last winter. my boots really do suck. after making one lap around the building i came in and clipped the toenail short and kind of tried to soften up the shoe, which of course i had just taken out of unheated storage. i went back out and it wasn't as bad. my conditioning, on the other hand, is also pretty miserable. i don't know why i can never motivate to be in shape for ski season. it really makes me pay the price at the beginning of the season. i'll try to stay on the cross country fairly aggressively, but definitely need to keep an "eye" on my toenail. anyway, at least we got snow!

day 2. skiing. sunday river. 12/8.

kasmira's first ski practice was canceled because south ridge isn't open yet so i picked her up at school and took her over for a couple of runs. she had fun but i think she needs me or someone to ski with. south ridge should open thursday so hopefully ski practice will start then. i probably won't actually make it to orientation to get my pass for at least a week. the snow is coming down so i should be able to start cross country skiing shortly.

day 1. skiing. sunday river. 12/6.

let me start out by pointing out that while i have been keeping these blogs on myspace for many years i decided this year to blog here instead because i rarely use myspace anymore. all the previous years entries are still on www.myspace.com/jasonweinberg if you want to go back and check them out. part of the fun for me in keeping them is to compare seasons. i also do hope someday to compile all the seasons and if kasmira ever does make it to superstar skier status it'll be awesome to have a record of it all, although the blogs don't make it back to age 3 or anything.

a late start to the season for sure but its been completely out of our control, and even this one was "illicit". the weather has been way mild and sunday river has been behind schedule with their snowmaking and trail opening so i am a late rehire hence no passes. kasmira's ski team finally fires up this week and after much pressure by her we got her bindings adjusted for her new boots, picked up some poles at the rental shop, and picked up her temporary team pass at guest services. its a midweek pass for her to use with the ski team until i get her her dependent pass which i can't do until i attend orientation which hopefully won't be too long after i start on wednesday. that's the "illicit" part as me, a lift attendant, and her a ski team member skiing on a free pass provided by the mountain conspired to have her sneak her midweek pass past the lift attendant on a sunday so she could take a couple of runs. this was only after she had hiked up to take a run and basically begged me to let her do it. admiring her gumption i had to let her do it, which she did with no problem and took a couple of top to bottom runs while i waited in the lodge. she looked great and clearly enjoyed herself although she's gotta break in her racing boots. tomorrow, south ridge will be opening for the season and for me during early season skiing short easy runs are where its at. in fact, we are supposed to get some natural snow this week and i'd love to get some x-country in before i even hit a lift. x-country gets you into shape fast.

now: this winter has a ton of potential. we have continued our "migration" to sunday river and short of a trailside condo this is as close as we are going to get. we are on the explorer free shuttle line and with me working there and kasmira being on the local ski team we should, weather permitting, be able to spend boatloads of time on the slopes and save a ton of money we have spent on gas over the years by simply hopping on the explorer. it'll be awesome!