Kirkwood, Skiing #4

My rib still hurts, and the car is still in the shop. There were issues to be resolved and they are yet to start working on the repair. I obviously won't get it back before Christmas, but I wanted to go back up the mountain at least once before. I need a car for groceries and other things before Christmas as well, so I rented a car for a couple of days. I ended up with Honda Civic from Dollar.

On Dec 21, I took it to Kirkwood through winding road. At first, the car felt primitive. Press the pedal, and it would make noise. But it wouldn't go. I haven't been in a gas car for a few years now and I'm no longer used to it. After a while though, it became fun. The light-weight car was infinitely toss-able in the mountain road. I was driving 60 through the winding curves. Much more fun than the interstate cruiser known as Tesla Model S. I was reliving my 20s as such. I used to drive to Kirkwood from the Bay Area in my Integra. I'd be driving like a maniac through the darkening evening, anxious to get back home after a long day of skiing. 

Lunch Break at Sunrise Cafe

Skiing itself was a blast. The snow wasn't as nice as a week ago, naturally. The groomed runs turned icy at places, thanks to snowboarders scraping the hills. But ungroomed off-piste slopes still have plenty of soft moguls. After warming up on Solitude, as I used to 20 years ago, I stayed on Sunrise chair most of the day. When the backside became shady, I came back to the Solitude. The ridge -- I think it was called Eagle -- to the front side off Sunrise was rather bare. So, I skied down to Iron Horse and then came back to the front. It was just like the old days.

The next day, we went to pre-Christmas lunch at Yum Chinese Buffet and stuffed ourselves for 2 hours. In the evening, I drove the car back to the airport and dropped it off at Dollar. In all, I was up and running for 2 days after skiing. Then, the PEM bus arrived, and I crapped out in the afternoon of the 3rd day, for about 10 hours. I was then up and running again. 10 hours of PEM after hard skiing is not bad at all. The hard skiing probably required 3 days for recovery. But I still was flush with dopamine for 2 days, and that probably doused the PEM. And, when dopamine finally ran out, I crapped out.