Pair Skiing on the Trails of Wolf Creek

The ski trails were covered with powder snow, the sky was blue, the Sun was shining. It was nearly a perfect condition to ski during our stay at Wolf Creek.

The whole group splits due to skill levels, preference or ages, to enjoy the snow. The kids were happy to enjoy the skiing in group and companionship at the same time - they had a blast. Lily and I were happy to ski at our own pace and by ourselves - we had a blast as well.

Wolf Creek Trail Map

There are 4 main lifts at the ski area  - Raven, Bonanza, Treasure and Alberta. Raven has shorter but wider trails, Treasure lift is the tallest lift and has longer trails.  Bonanza lift is some where in between. Alberta lift is remote from the base, and the trails there are mostly at expert levels.

Due to the crowd at Raven and Bonanza, Lily and I stayed at the treasure lift area most of the time.

On the top

Continuous improvement over the years, Lily's skiing skill improved a lot. The powder snow really helped to build her confidence. She is a solid advanced skier now  - at level Blue to Black as she told others.Once she got used to skiing, we enjoyed the treasure lift area- less crowd, shorter line at the lift, challenging but not too difficult trails. We explored many trails, including relatively easy Bonanza trail, Novajo trail, what we really liked this time was the blue trails,  Tranquility, Alberta trail, and a few more challenging trails such as silver street, wind hammer, and etc.

We also loved the times we had sitting side by side on the lift talking now and then, sharing a laugh when we fell or tripped the few times, lying/sitting  on the snow together for a short break.... She loved it that she did not have to take care of kids but being taken care of.

Skiing together was joyful: I could show off a little now and then, she helped to modulate my pace, I got the thrills and she had the peace of mind.  Most satisfying to me was that she was willing to follow me to any trails I wanted to explore, anythings I wanted to do. 

Seeing the grace skiers had on the surface lift, I was itching to try surface lift. She agreed. Locating the start of the surface lift got us into a few troubles - we had to hike to an easier trail once. We got onto a black trail twice unintentionally! But we managed to ski down. Once got there, the operator gave us a short instruction on how to ride the surface lift. I was lifted uphill on the first try, but I fell a couple hundred feet into the ride and had to tumble down from a double black trail - fortunately no harm was done; she tried 3 times on the surface lift without success. But we were really happy that we tried - reading the trail map carefully she told me that the surface lift is for expert skiers - no wonder the lift station was so hard to locate

We also went to Alberta lift area, a first for her. To and back from Alberta lift area, we had to do a bit cross country ski - not downhill. She is actually faster than me cross country. 

The most thrilling and satisfying adventure we had was to explore the Knife Ridge above the top of Alberta lift. That will  be a story for next time.

Skiing Couple