The up’s and down’s of skiing

How many of you have gone skiing before? (wow not that many of you) trust me, those of you who have not I am going to show you why you need to. Let me tell you how nice it feels to basically be gliding through the snow, wind blowing in your face, all you can see is white, trees and maybe a little cabin where you can eat. I really hope you try skiing out if you have not.

 

What you will need to go skiing

Skis

 

Ski boots

Poles

 While you are getting poles also get a helmet, but you don’t have to have a helmet,  It’s just a really good idea“hey better safe than sorry”. Goggles are a very important, because they protect you from the sun the wind and the snow. After you get all your equipment ready to go you will need to be dressed properly, starting with warm socks.  Your feet will get very cold if you don’t wear the right socks-and that is just miserable. Next you need a base layer on your legs and arms. A base layer is a thin type of under armour and tights. Over that –you will need comfortable ski pants and a warm jacket–if you have a waterproof that is even better. Now the last thing but one of the most important, your gloves, you need your gloves so you do not get frostbite in your hands.  

The colors and symbols of ski runs and what they mean

When you are going down the mountain you will see signs that say the name of the run and  by it will be a colored shape. Now I am going to teach you the colored shapes and what they mean, I will go over them easiest to hardest.

 

Green is the easiest and would be the best if you are just starting out. Next is blue–blue is just getting a little bit harder than green. After you do green a couple times you could try to do a blue but I would stick with green for your first day. When you are going down one of the green runs you may see a black diamond and a black diamond is the hardest run that is on a trail, it is likely ungroomed,and has lots of moguls. Moguls are little 1 foot  hills but they are only spaced out by a couple inches, making it a very hard run-because of your speed and the timing needed to navigate the run.  Black diamonds cousin is double black diamond who has rocks in the trail and drop off cliffs and trees in the trail too. The orange rectangle is not a run it is a terrain park, terrain park is a place with rails and jumps. It is usually a little separate from the main runs. Some terrain parks have half pipes and some do not–Does anyone know what a half pipe is ?

 

Symbols

On the trail map it will show dashed lines and that resembles the ski lift, the red cross is obviously the ambulance, the fork and the spoon shows where you can eat.

Top 5 places to go skiing in Oregon

Here is a list of the top 5 ski resorts in Oregon-We are lucky to live in a state with so many options when it comes to outdoor activities…

 

1: Mt. Bachelor

 

2: Timberline on Mt. Hood

 

3:Mt. Hood meadows

 

4: Ski bowl on Mt.Hood

 

5:Hoodoo

 

What is fun about skiing??

How much time do I have to tell you about it ??  I could go on all day, but I will give you a condensed version.  First of all my favorite is the terrain park. I love the jumps that you can go off in the terrain park–there are rails and other cool features too. Something that is also fun is going off the trail , where you can find jumps and little trails that not many people use.

Just going down the runs as fast as you can is great!! It makes you feel like you can almost fly!!  

Stopping for lunch and treats is one of my favorites also–

Many ski resorts have cool little restaurants up on the mountain where you can get snacks and food —Timberline has amazing hot chocolates with lots of whip cream.  Most of the time you are skiing with your friends or your family and those are special memories to make.

 

In conclusion–I hope I have convinced you to try skiing if you get the chance! In my opinion there are only “ups” to skiing and not many “downs”