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I had smacked my left big toe on a car door on the drive up to ultimate on Tuesday night. The ingrown toenail was aching for the next couple days and i was worried that it was getting infected again. I rode over to Jackson Gore in the morning and it hurt a little in the bindings. I got called back over to the Clock Tower side to teach a 1-hour private lesson with a blue-level kid, and my toe was really achy everytime i tried a toe-side turn. I finished the private, then called down to the Ludlow Health Center and got an appointment at 12:45. The doctor took a look at my toe, said "yep, it's an infected ingrown toenail." He had time due to a cancellation, so he numbed up my toe (super painful needles) and cut half of my toenail off (not as painful).
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Took the day off to rest my toe.
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I went in to work and took a few runs in the morning to test out my toe in a snowboard boot. It felt pretty OK so i showed up to group line-up and said that i could teach a morning lesson. There was one black-level kid taking a half-day group, so he and i rode around all morning. When i dropped him off at noon, though, the parents decided to let him go the whole day, so the upgraded the lesson and we went up for lunch in the Sugar House. Toe was a little sore by the end of the day, but not in pain.
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Picked up Megan and Anna in the morning and rode over to Jackson Gore while Amy and Scott (their parents) rode over with James (their brother). Anna, Megan, and i rode trees, trees, and more trees all morning, then went over to South Face in the afternoon and climbed up the fire tower (with james and his instructor, Heather), then rode more trees. Anna and Megan were a bit overboard today and i had to reprimand them a couple of times.
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Day two with Megan and Anna. I rode over to JG with the three kids and James went with another instructor. The girls and i rode trees, then Megan tweaked her knee, so we rode down to Ski Patrol and Megan took a break while Anna and i took a couple runs through the halfpipe. Megan rode with us over to lunch and for another run after lunch, then stopped for the day and Anna and i rode more halfpipe. I finally got her to roll into the pipe a little tighter.
Late game at winter league ultimate that night. My play was up and down. Didn't contribute a lot on offense, but i did throw a push-pass to Robbie and i got THREE blocks. Two poaches in the lane and one high hand block right in front of the end zone. That felt good, but we lost (to the Blue team) 40-29.
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I backlined a little at Jackson Gore morning line-up and didn't get a lesson, but then joined in with an AASI examiner, a few other Okemo instructors, and three instructors from Stowe for a halfpipe clinic. I led the group through a few tree runs as well. No afternoon lesson for me, so stayed with the clinic, but bailed out at about 2:45.
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I was hoping for a short day, so opted for an adult level-2 group lesson in the morning. One student who was going slow and careful. I didn't get to take the afternoon off though, as we barely had enough instructors for the lessons. I had one first-timer kid who did pretty well, but his mom didn't show up to pick him up until almost 4:00. Ugh!
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I wound up getting an 8:30 2-hour private, since i was standing there at 8:30. It was snowing/sleeting all morning and the top of the mountain was closed due to fierce winds, but there was a few inches of fresh snow on the slopes. After that i had nothing and hung around until 1:30 line-up. george stepped up and took the only afternoon group lesson and i got to go home.
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Packed up my gear. In the early afternoon i drove over to Lebanon, NH and parked at the Dartmouth Coach facility, then rode down to Logan Airport. I watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Johnny Depp version) on the bus. Nina and Isaiah arrived from Providence shortly after i did and we waited around in the terminal for our 7:30 PM flight on WOW Air to Iceland. We were all in middle seats in different rows. I sorta lucked out in that i was in the exit row, so there was no window seat next to me (but also no window). The guy sitting next to me was from Iceland and had been visiting breweries in Vermont. He knew my friend Robby.
Four-hour flight. We arrived in Keflavik airport, picked up a wi-fi hotspot, got our rental car, and i drove us to our guest house (hostel) in the center of Reykjavik, where we went to bed before the sunrise.
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Iceland, day 1. The rental car we got had made a few really loud squealing noises as we drove from the airport, so the first thing we did was trade it in for a different car at the Reykjavik location. Both of these cars were standard transmission, which made me happy. After that we had a light meal at a small cafe (i had the first of many hot chocolates), then we walked around the city for a while, visiting a couple museums. Near sunset, Isaiah and i drove out to a point and walked along a narrow strip of beach along a jetty to a lighthouse. We had to walk along the rocks of the jetty for about half of the way back because the tide was coming in. After that we all went out for dinner.
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Iceland, day 2. We visited the big cement church at the top of the hill and took the elevator up to the top, then headed out of Reykjavik. We drove along the coast for a bit, then turned inland to Þingvellir National Park. There were a lot of tourists there (and pretty much at every place we went to for the whole trip). After that we went to Geysir (hot springs and geysers), Gullfoss (big waterfall), and finally to our guest house in Fluðir. Nina and Isaiah went to the local public hot spring-fed pool while i walked around in a light rain. I couldn't go in the pool because i'd had my toe operated on and the doctor said no pools or hot tubs for two weeks. Oh well.
We had dinner at the Fluðir guest house.
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Iceland, day 3. We awoke to an inch or so of sleet/freezing rain and the parking lot of the guest house was a sheet of ice. We drove along icy roads to Kerid Crater (old volcano) to Seljalandsfoss (big waterfall) to Dyrhólaey lighthouse, which was up on a bluff overlooking an arch over the raging sea. From there we visited Kirkjufjara beach, then on to the Dalshöfdi Guest House, which was an old farm house a couple miles down a dirt road in an old lava flow.
After settling in, we drove to the nearest town and had dinner.
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Iceland, day 4. We had breakfast (waffles!) at the guest house, then walked out to a nearby river that tumbled through the lava beds with crystal blue glacial waters. This was one of the coolest places in Iceland for me because it was beautiful and it was just on someone's property, so there was no one else there.
From there we went to Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon, which is the only time on the trip that i used the crampons that i'd bought, since we had to walk along frozen snow along the edge of the lagoon and out to the beach. From there we went to Skaftafell / Vatnajökull National Park where we hiked to the base of a glacier (and saw a lot of guided tour groups) then hiked to Svartifoss (another waterfall) and eventually up to the top of a large hill that overlooked the valley and out to the ocean.
We drove back to the guest house, then went back to the same restaurant that we'd eaten at the night before (small towns, not a lot of options).
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Iceland, day 5. We drove to Vik and walked along the beach for a bit, then went to the Skogar Museum, which was three museums—a folk art museum, a museom of technology (lots of communication equipment) and an outdoor museum of traditional Icelandic houses. After that we went to Skögafoss (yet another waterfall) and hiked up the 418 steps to the top viewing platform, then continued up the river for a bit. From there it was a long drive down to Hotel Fljótshlíð. Isaiah and i took a walk down along a stream by the farm fields, then we had a delicious dinner at the hotel. It was forecast to be clearish that night (the only night of the trip) and i was hoping to see the northern lights, but it was kinda cloudy and when i checked in the middle of the night, no aurora.
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Iceland, day 6. There was a dog outside the hotel in the morning. We drove along the southern coast on back roads, eventually ending up at Keflavik Airport. I bought 20 US dollars worth of Icelandic money at the currency exchange. I was randomly selected for additional security inspection and had to go into a little room and have my clothes and socks (?) swabbed for chemical residue, as well as a thorough inspection of my carry-on bag. When we got on the plane, Isaiah and i found that we were in the window seats in rows one and two, the only two rows of first-class seats. Cool. I'd never been in a first-class seat before. Nina was stuck in a middle seat way back in row 27. The westbound flight was longer (headwind) and i used an airplane bathroom for the first time in my life.
We arrived at Logan, waited for Nina's checked suitcase, then i saw them off with Mark and Naima, who were there to pick them up, and i waited for about an hour for the Dartmouth Coach bus, which took me back to Lebanon. The movie this time was The Incredibles 2, but the screen kept going blank for a minute at a time every ten minutes or so. I stopped a a supermarket in Lebanon, then drove home, getting in just before midnight.
Here's the whole route we took.
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Back to work. All-day lesson with Anna and a kid who rides with the Amplitude program on weekends. It was nice to see Anna pushed a little by riding with someone slightly above her level.
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Didn't get a morning lesson, but got a couple of kids from a school group at 12:30, then a beginner adult at 1:30. Anna wasn't there today because her mother broke her wrist the day before so didn't come in to work at the Ski Patrol office.
Late winter league game. We lost to the Quilt team 37-31. Tough game, but i managed to get a block in the endzone (on Kyle!).
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Woke up with a full-on sore throat after having felt a little tickley the night before.
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Sore throat had eased, but i still felt kinda wiped out. There were plenty of instructors, so i bailed out after 10 o'clock line-up.
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Still felt kinda tired, but took an all-day group of two kids (brother and sister) who were excellent skiers but first-time snowboarders. We took the lift by the afternoon. Also i took some powder runs down Sel's Choice (Sunburst Six wasn't running due to wind) in the morning. But there was lotsa snow.
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Same two kids again all day. I think they were more wiped out than i was by the end. Warm day with clumpy heavy snow from the day before.
(Judd Winick replied to this tweet!)
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No lessons. I ran a one-hour clinic with Wayne, Isa, Austin, and Molly. We all stuck around until 1:30 line-up, Austin got a lesson, and the rest of us went home.
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Had a morning lesson of a little kid who claimed he was a level 4 but was actually a level 2. No afternoon lessons.
Early game at winter league. We got shellacked by the Green team 37-22. I got scored on at least three times.
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I met Wayne at the Springfield theater and we saw Captain Marvel.
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Went and visited the farm. WOW Air went out of business today.
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Eight snowboard instructors at Jackson Gore, one adult lesson. I raised my hand first. Turned out to be a very good rider and we spent the morning honing short dynamic turns on steep pitches. The snow was soft and diggy and it rained a little bit. I was released after that lesson.
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Eight snowboard instructors at Clock Tower, one adult lesson (George took it, as it was someone he'd taught before). Warm, wet, foggy day. I ended up with a two-hour private at 10:30—one of the ski race kids, so he picked it up fast. Stayed until 1:30 line-up, no lessons, went home.
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Warm, sloppy. Seven instructors, zero lessons. Six of us went out to ride as it started to rain. We all left by 11:00.
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