A CHAMPION MIRAMAR SKI WEEK

By Evelyn Konrad
The two-day Miramar ski trip which started on Friday, 26 December, was both an unusual one, for being relatively early considering Vermont conditions, and more than worthwhile writing about. Right from the start, this bus trip was a noteworthy event: we were fully complete, without stragglers, and ready to roll at 5:45 p.m. It was the beginning of a weekend noteworthy for its incredibly cooperative, joyful and enthusiastic guests, of whom there were more than there were members.

It was the Friday of the Big Snowstorm, and all of us old-timers were thrilled that wonderful Al from the Hampton Jitney was our driver. There’s absolutely no safer, nor more helpful and “team-spirited” driver in the world. And boy, was his skill needed: We left before 6 pm and we got to our lodge at Waitsfield at 2:30 a.m.!!! Usual cookies and cider and usual merciless 7:30 am wake-up.

But it was worth it: I thought the conditions at Sugarbush were as good as they get, with fast snow, and oddly enough, morning moguls on the generally smooth side of Hotshot trail.

That’s the end of the good news: I skied so badly, despite the good conditions, that I began considering “an early retirement” at about to be 97 years old. On Sunday the lucky bus people went to Killington, which I usually do not like as much as I love Sugarbush, although I have free lift tickets in both (and that’s an incentive). I took the public bus from Bridge Street up to Sugarbush, was warmly welcomed by the shuttle drivers who have long known “the Old Lady on the Mountain,” or “The Old Lady from that crazy Miramar Club,” and he was visibly relieved that I was still alive and well. Not so for my skiing. Conditions were again optimal, which for me means no wind, but my skiing was appalling, shameful, characterized by desperate snowplows, irregular and unpredictable turns in panic, and snowplow stops. Sorry, but truth must out.

On Monday, as predicted by my friends at the Ski School, was awful weather, I mean plain, pouring rain. Irena, Sergey and I did not even bother to go to the lodge, but went straight to the Sugarbush Rec. Building, with the pool, gym, hot tub and other consolations for the usual one day of bad weather around Christmas. Had such a good time with Irena and her boyfriend, and she and I discovered a ping-pong table, a game she loves and I adored but had not played for some 55 or 60 years: our longest exercise in the beginning was crouching down to pick up balls we had failed to return. But, let me modestly admit that I felt I could get my game back, and if there’s another lousy day during my upcoming ski weeks, I hope to hell that Irene is there and we can get some ping-pong games going, learning to stand far away from the table to return smashing low shots from the opponent.

This report would simply not be complete if I failed to tell about the absolutely wonderful BIRTHDAY PARTY which the terrific gang who stayed at the lodge threw for me, complete with delicious birthday pie, and tactfully, SEVEN CANDLES, not 97!!! No cake big enough for my birthday. Unfortunately, these friends also plastered the pictures and news of my birthday, so that strangers coming to the lodge or meeting me on the lift immediately greeted me with “Happy Birthday, Evelyn,” showing that the publicity-rabid crowd at the lodge had forever ruined my chances of yet another romance. Oh well!

Now for my good news: After four days of such deplorably bad skiing that I was weighing two alternatives: throwing away my ski equipment in perpetuity, or becoming a “Western skier.” Then it happened. Mirabile dictu: On Sunday, our last day and on the Killington day before heading back, I suddenly did it: an all-in-one run down a trail, no stop, no showplow, not yet my inimitably good form, but FULLY IN CONTROL! And so happy that, upon return to the Big City, I immediately signed up for the 23 January 2-dayer, through the 1 February 2-dayer!

Sorry, guys, you’re not rid of me yet!!!