From the CEO
Vermont Ski Trip 2010 (Part 2)
Snow. Snow. More snow. We awake on Wednesday, the second day of our Vermont ski trip, to discover a world of white. Overnight we have had several feet of new snow. In fact it is still snowing. Mike, our trusty staff member, has quietly risen before dawn and is busy trying to shovel out one of our now plowed-in vans. I head down the mountain to help. Soon we are joined by the rest of our group and everyone lends a hand. With much pushing and pulling, back and forthing, and all of us on the back wheels we succeeded in "freeing" the van.
Off we set, at an appropriate snail's pace for our first day of skiing and snowboarding. Truth be told I am the only skier in the group. Everyone else, residents and staff, are snowboarders. Or snowboarders to be. But first the equipment. Again with much pushing and pulling, prodding feet into boots, and legs into snow pants, we are pronounced ready to "hit the slopes!" It continues to snow. Everyone in the group rejoices in the perfect winter weather for snowboarding. I worry about the roads. Our instructor walks us to the beginners' slope. We sit. We listen. We try. We make our first trip up the gentle slope. Everyone falls. Everyone gets back up. No one complains. No one wants to quit. Several of our guys are all ready to go to the top. Not yet!
We make several more runs before lunch. We walk up the slope. The "magic carpet" conveyor-type ski lift is not working. Too much snow! By lunch time we are all ready for a break, traveling with six teenagers food arrives and disappears in moments. George offers to help me finish my lunch. How thoughtful of him. After lunch we head back to the slope. It continues to snow. I continue to worry. As the afternoon goes on the boys begin to make real progress. Top to bottom without falling is equivalent to making a three point shot. At the end of the day a staff and I go to retrieve the van while the other staff help the boys get out of their equipment. The van is completely covered in snow. There are cars and trucks stuck in the snow on either side of us. Luckily a native entrepreneurial Vermonter with a tow rope pulls us out of the snow drift that has miraculously developed since we arrived only five hours ago. We retrieve the rest of the staff and boys and slowly make our way back to our house. The roads are treacherous. We drive very slowly. Once again we fail to reach the house and walk the last half-mile. We are surely getting our exercise!
Much to my delight and the boys' collective amazement the house has no cable television. The boys settle into playing cards and burying each other outside in the snow. I prepare an enormous feast which is gone in minutes. Everyone helps with preparation. Everyone helps with clean up. Before long the boys drift off, one by one, to bed. Soon the staff also head off to bed. The house is very quiet. Only the sounds of the wind and the still falling snow can be heard. End of day one: general exhaustion.
Day two is a repeat of day one. More snow. More learning. By the end of the day everyone heads to the top of the mountain to try a longer, more difficult run. Everyone survives. That evening we are all treated to a Japanese hibachi dinner by the Bonnie Brae Board member who made the arrangements for our trip. The boys have never been to such a place before and they really appreciate the new experience. The Japanese chef dazzles them with some skilled knife work and the flaming onion tower is a big hit. When we return to the house it is only a matter of minutes before everyone is in bed. Success!
On day three we are up early, pack our bags, shovel the walk, enjoy a big breakfast, and then head for home. For the first time since we arrived it has stopped snowing. We can see Killington Mountain where we have had great fun for the past four days. The shared adventures have made us all closer. For the following month or so I notice that we all brighten up when we pass each other on our campus. We are snowboarders now! We collectively survived the Vermont blizzard of '10!
More next month . . . .