Let's talk about flying in the mountains.

The last trip to Red River that my Dad went with us he must have been around 70 and afterwards he said that was the last time for him.

So it doesn't get any better with age folks. :sad:
 
I am back in Denton and I now I can't breathe for all the appropriate reasons:
Mountain Cedar, Pollen, ragweed, possibly a cat somewhere nearby.

Miserable the right way


I will tell you what not that it is pertinent to the thread (But then...)
Skied for the first time in a large number of years. It is totally like riding a bike.
In 10 minutes I was like a duck on water.

Both kids did 6 hours of ski school. My daughter (6 yrs old ) was like all kids, Skis parallel and going straight down with no fear. I could not keep up. She was awesome.

My son (8 years and oh this was so great)...
When I was his age. Dad took me to Angel Fire. He and I did this long run called "heading home" It is miles of green smooth effortless cruising. We did it a handful of times and then we stop and I saw this one called "Bodacious" it was a blue and this was a time when this term was popular with the wannabe cool crowd and heard on TV a lot. I said dad, can we try this?

I am sure he was thrilled to get off that damned green run. We did it over and over and over.

Yesterday My son and I are doing all the greens. We find ourselves on "Heading home" He stops to adjust his boot and says "I am ready to try a blue run"

I knew the perfect one. I got my little go pro knock off out and we skied over to the intersection and he and I did that same run my dad and I did.

Amazing how quickly a child can go from never having even seen a mountain to sking blue slopes. Less than a day.

Anyway, I think this went well enough that it is on the list of yearly vacations now.

Now I am going to go sit my old-feeling broken body in the hot tub and cry a little.
I hurt like I haven't hurt before.
 
You have set your kids up so that skiing later in life will be a zillion times easier.
So many adults try to learn to ski, and fail - but if they had learned as children, sooo much easier to get at it again. (As you note for yourself)
Good job.
 
The kids have no fear. It works to their advantage until they get fairly good, then they're out of control for a bit, and someone reels them in so they don't smash into innocents.

Kinda like primary flight training hahaha.
 
Angel Fire was my first skiing - and my first glimpse of real mountains coming as I do from OK and TX.

I had forgotten the names of the runs but I remember Heading Home. I probably skied Bodacious too. I think I recall a black run called Sluice Box or Sluice Gate or something - we didn't dare touch that one back then. I remember bombing down that giant blue at the front of the mountain at the end of the day in typical douchebag Texan style in my ScotchGuarded jeans and edgeless rental skis and eating complete ****. People laughed. Not a **** was given. I learned things. It was a blast. In those days I jumped everything. Because of that, now I jump nothing. :-D

I remember the feeling of finally seeing the hint of mountains somewhere past Dalhart IIRC. That feeling is one of the reasons I wanted to live here.

Kids are amazingly quick learners at skiing. They just do it and figure it out later. My oldest, 9, is skilled but cautious but his little brother, 7, has been nearly fearless. He is one who will point 'em downhill and not turn until he catches dad. Then I slow down and see my kid go rocket-assing by. I scold. He ignores. It's a blast.
 
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petrolero said:
and whatever that enormous one is right at the front of the mountain.
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That run is called expedition.
I didn't want to do it but my son did.
We did it twice.

It was hard, icy, and like skiing on gravel.
Fun though.
 
There is one like that at Ski Apache called Capitan. At the end of the day it is in shadow, snow scraped away, an absolute ice rink. Now I have a left shoulder that refuses to remain in its socket. Skiing. :thumbsup:
 
petrolero said:
There is one like that at Ski Apache called Capitan. At the end of the day it is in shadow, snow scraped away, an absolute ice rink. Now I have a left shoulder that refuses to remain in its socket. Skiing. :thumbsup:
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Current plan is knee replacement this summer (I hate hot, summer flying anyway) so I can start skiing again next fall. Will have to buy new gear, else I'll be laughed off the slopes on my current stuff.

My top 3? Pallavicini, Outhouse, Ernie's Run. Probably never again, but they were fun when I could ski them.

Many years ago I called my 2 favorite clients in Denver (living in Houston) and said I wanted to move. Both made offers, I took the wrong one (we went bankrupt in 3 years). But I did 50-60 ski days a year until the knees gave out.
 
murphey said:
My top 3? Pallavicini, Outhouse, Ernie's Run. Probably never again, but they were fun when I could ski them.
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Pali and that whole right side of A-Basin is great in good weather and sucketh mightily when the wind comes up. But great runs. Often on a no snow day everything else would be skiied out and crusty at AB but that whole wall would still be skiable because it was tough terrain people wouldn't go into if they felt it was too much for them.

Outhouse, also great, but I was partial to Drunken Frenchman when I wanted to get beat up at MJ, and I'd go race down White Rabbit as a kid and take that far faster than I should have (usually tucked from top to bottom), just to get hoots from the folks on the Olympia lift back when it was a two seater.

Don't recognize the third one.

I miss it a bit but I have too damned many expensive hobbies and the Mrs won't have anything to do with skiing, so it makes the choice not to invest in good gear pretty easy, and without good gear I just won't go.

I assume you've skiied since the skis got short again and shaped? All my skiing as a kid and later was on loooooong non-shaped skis. The shaped stuff lets you get lazier than you should about turns. Then you catch an edge and face plant as a reminder you're supposed to be doing something and not just along for the ride. Hahaha.

But I'm old school. I remember having a pair of 205s that I skiied bumps with when I weighed 50 lbs less than today. Haha. And signs at the top of Mary Jane forbidding anything shorter than 185s on the moguls on a couple of the runs near Outhouse so as to not tear them up. ;)

Tech got better in skiing like everything else. Oh the boots we wore back then. Ouch.
 
denverpilot said:
Pali and that whole right side of A-Basin is great in good weather and sucketh mightily when the wind comes up. But great runs. Often on a no snow day everything else would be skiied out and crusty at AB but that whole wall would still be skiable because it was tough terrain people wouldn't go into if they felt it was too much for them.

Outhouse, also great, but I was partial to Drunken Frenchman when I wanted to get beat up at MJ, and I'd go race down White Rabbit as a kid and take that far faster than I should have (usually tucked from top to bottom), just to get hoots from the folks on the Olympia lift back when it was a two seater.

Don't recognize the third one.

I miss it a bit but I have too damned many expensive hobbies and the Mrs won't have anything to do with skiing, so it makes the choice not to invest in good gear pretty easy, and without good gear I just won't go.

I assume you've skiied since the skis got short again and shaped? All my skiing as a kid and later was on loooooong non-shaped skis. The shaped stuff lets you get lazier than you should about turns. Then you catch an edge and face plant as a reminder you're supposed to be doing something and not just along for the ride. Hahaha.

But I'm old school. I remember having a pair of 205s that I skiied bumps with when I weighed 50 lbs less than today. Haha. And signs at the top of Mary Jane forbidding anything shorter than 185s on the moguls on a couple of the runs near Outhouse so as to not tear them up. ;)

Tech got better in skiing like everything else. Oh the boots we wore back then. Ouch.
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Ernie's Run is Taos. Because of that sign at the top of Outhouse, my skis were 195s. Haven't skied on thr new tech yet. While I was living in Houston, I traveled 6-8 months a year on business. Weekends were mine. Spent 1 week a month at Kirtland (KABQ) and made sure my schedule had me there weekend before and after. Sandia the weekend before, Taos the weekend after as long as I got back to the office by lunchtime on Monday. Or later.
 
You can pull that portable tank out of the plane and suck off of it every hour or two on the ground. That will help with the altitude until you get acclimated.

Also get a pulse O2 monitor. You need to know if you are just a flatlander feeling out of breath or if your O2 carrying capacity is really compromised by the altitude.

Everybody's different with altitude. It doesn't mean you have a medical problem, but you might need more/sooner remedial action than some other people.
 
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I used the app on my phone. No idea how accurate it was.
I checked a few times. It was usually ~93 at my worst point, it read 89.

That's when I bought my little oxygen booster.
All-in all, I think I am just out of shape. Working hard out of the gate at high elevation as expected kicked my butt.

Funny though I only seemed like I was having trouble when I was sitting idle.
 
bullwinkle said:
Also get a pulse O2 monitor. You need to know if you are just a flatlander feeling out of breath or if your O2 carrying capacity is really compromised by the altitude.
QUOTE]

They have some very affordable units now. Aircraft Shaft. Got a couple good ones, to check each other some times, for about $40 each. Cheaper may be suspect, more expensive, like my first one at $130, not necessary. Check what batteries they use and go with something affordable there too. My first one used $20 batteries.
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