At 5:15 AM Saturday morning my phone alarm went off, but I was already awake by 4:00 AM waiting for that sound. You all know how the East Coast has barely had a share of snow this season, which is why my friend Ryan and I needed to get to Jay Peak by 8 AM from the Champlain Valley. It was still dark when he picked me up, but I was already wide awake.

By the time we got to “The Dip” (as I learned this weekend it’s called) on 242 it was already pounding. I had already had that feeling like I have to pee for a few hours from the excitement. On the way up the hill, we must have passed 3 or 4 cars that were fish tailing or turning around or just stuck. I already felt grateful that Ryan was driving.

When we got into the lodge, there was a wind hold already. I heard that the lifts would open at 10 AM, in two hours. Ryan was disappointed because he really very badly wanted to go on patrol tram. I was prepared to scavenge something to read and get a coffee. However, the Metro quad was spinning so first run we hopped on and went down Moonwalk before Ryan had to go to work. It was deep already and the trail wasn’t steep enough for me to push my way through.

I kept skiing for a little while, and the met up with my other friend Andrew, who I went to college with and did my senior seminar with. I was in the single line on the Bonnie quad when I saw him getting on the lift. He yelled something that he was hiking, and I was like, “Cool!” Not really expecting him to wait for me since he had a group. However, once I got to the top of Bonnie, there he was, standing high up on a snow bank in his green jacket waving his arms at me.

He was going to go shoot a short video for the web to highlight the snowfall. Excited to see him for the first time in two months, I asked to tag along and he said yes. With the Flyer still on wind hold, we climbed over to Beaver Pond to get some shots. There was another girl, Paige, with them. (Just for note: I really love it when I can ski with girls that love to rip and ski hard, so I wanted to seem very enthusiastic about meeting her.)

When we were at Beaver Pond, I learned that Paige was going to be featured in the web video. I can’t remember who suggested that, since there were two girls there, we would both be in the video and it could be a lady edit. Andrew rolled with it, and like the professional he is, set up some shots for us…

……To Be Continued.