This past December I had the pleasure of being able to venture out on a road trip with some great company in the form of my immediate family and close childhood friends. The trip, beginning in Austin Texas, was a strenuous one, travelling North to Breckenridge, Colorado over the span of fourteen hours. Nonetheless, being accompanied by some of my closest companions made every detour and road bump enjoyable. Activities ranged from an embarrassing karaoke performance by my dad, to a competitive array of card games, to some ill positioned naps against car windows resulting in neck cramps, until finally we arrived at our destination. A secluded cabin lit up by yellow illuminating chandeliers that starkly contrasted with the surrounding wintry tapestry on all fronts. Being in a large group of five families, it was only appropriate that the youngest individuals from each group cheered out cries of delight upon our arrival and darted towards the entrance with almost no hesitation.
I, being clumped towards the older end of the large group, was stuck with the responsibility of carrying in luggage to be appropriately placed into the rooms that the little ones had claimed excitedly for their own families. After a hefty process of unpacking, and recollecting in the main living room to discuss the skiing plans for the next morning, everyone drained of energy after the lengthy trip found themselves retreating back to their rooms for the next day of adventure.
The following morning the entire group buzzed with excitement as we made our short drive to the ski resort. The vibrant and friendly workers wasted no time after greeting us and immediately began preparing us to work our way up the slopes with our equipment. There we were introduced to our very extroverted ski instructor "Skippy" who patiently made us do line drills and taught us the functionality of skiing.
Skippy being a former Olympic athlete was very aware in gauging our skill levels, and in small groups progressed the more advanced students into the next groups where the slopes progressively got steeper and curvier. He had taken a liking to my dad and I, who he deemed to be faster learners and allowed us more freedom in our slopes experience. After traversing the training slopes we were allowed up the ski-lift with our trainer Skippy.
Being from Texas, a largely drier and more arid state it was euphoric to be on the ski-lift.
From here there was a clear view of the thick snowy terrain that engulfed the entire mountain range around me. The height at which I was at allowed for a clear view of the entire resort, from which I could specifically point out my little brother attempting to maneuver his way around a crowd in the training slopes which caught my attention as I looked on in a baffled amusement for the duration of the ride.
Once at the top, glaring unrefined ability presented itself in my dad and I as we unsuccessfully dismounted the ride and lightly toppled forward. Looking up I was met by the grinning smile of our instructor who reassured us that this was a common error in beginners as he let out a hearty laugh. As we began to recover we jumped right into traversing down the turns of the mountain, and it was one of the most enjoyable moments I can recall in recent memory as I distinctly remember a cool mountain breeze blowing against my cheeks as I worked my way down. This addictive feeling of wind against my face was what hooked me to these slopes over the course of the next few days. As more and more of my family and friends progressed, I was able to share this feeling of the light breeze blowing by with them as we continued to learn together and create more memories, in sum leading to one of my favorite vacations with some of my favorite people
