I took a little vacation last week with Chris to waaaaay up north Vermont. He’s an avid skier and I’m always up for an adventure, so off we went! The scenery was breathtaking on the way up. Snow covered every tree and branch–it was a beautiful winter wonderland. And the views! The views…
I don’t know why I was surprised, but there were animals everywhere outside! I felt so sorry for them because the average temperature at mid-day was about 14 degrees (F) but I guess they were used to it. This was a particularly rugged pony but most of them had their own coats to keep them cozy.
We found this little loft on airbnb, which had a full kitchen so Chris whipped us up some amazing meals during our stay. It was nestled in the woods not too far from the mountain we were going to ski at, Jay Peak.
Jay Peak is known for the jay cloud which is what the locals call the wind that blows into the mountain ridge, and lifts the air to create snow. It happens regularly, even when there’s no storm system around (pretty cool, right?)
It’s a unique set of circumstances because of the way the mountains are set up–it also means 400 inches of snow per season, which is a crap load of snow! Needless to say, it’s the coldest place in the East to ski. Not exactly music to this warm-weather-lover girl’s ears.
Here is our first day at Jay. On the left you can see the gondola that takes you to the tippy top of the mountain if you want to skip the other lower, shorter lifts. We didn’t waste any time and jumped on it right away while there were no lines.
Check out this peek from the top–and again, those views! Chris was in his nature loving heaven. I loved it too, but I was somewhat distracted about staying warm. The gear that is needed for this type of trip is amazing: I’m talking every single spot of your body needs to be covered multiple times in order to avoid frostbite. Whoa.
This was one of my favorite trails:
And at the end of the day, this is usually what I felt like–celebrating still being in one piece and psyched for a hot fire.
Eventually it all caught up to me. I like to think I’m pretty tough, but the third day in a row of skiing kicked my butt! So instead of fighting my way through the shakey and tired feeling, I chose happiness and retired by the fire in the lodge early. Sometimes giving up is winning too.
And it gave me a little time to doodle with my traveling art kit.
