Saturday was for skiing. We got up at 6 to meet the bus at York Mills subway station at 7:15. Today we were joined by Bec, Alastair, Umberto, Michael, Allanah and Donna for a day’s skiing at Devil’s Glen.

We arrived at 9:30, hired our gear and hit the slopes for a couple of warm up runs. Devil’s Glen is steeper than most of the other ski areas in Ontario. Last night, it also received about 20cm of snow, so conditions were a lot different to what we’re used to.

Rather than powder, the snow was sticky, thick and clumpy. The slopes weren’t groomed so there were lots of bumps. In some untouched areas, our skis disappeared beneath the snow as we skied along. As a result, we had to use our legs even more than usual.

Rebecca and I shared an instructor, and were joined at the last minute by another skier. We had the same instructor as last week so that helped. We had a shorter lesson because there was a lunch on at noon.

Despite the choppy surface, I had a great time trying to learn the new conditions. It wasn’t really a “normal technique” kind of day but nevertheless it was fun.

After lunch, the eight of us went skiing together. The sun had come out and the slopes looked beautiful. It even got warm. It felt like spring, or maybe summer if summer had snow.

We went down some hard blues and greens. Glen and I stacked it a few times (me more than Glen). One time I even ate snow. We stopped in the middle of one of the little used runs and built a very small snowman. Glen had brought baby carrots and some Nespresso pods. It looked very cute.

Most of the group stopped soon after three but Glen, Umberto and I skied up until 4:30ish. The sun was gone by then and visibility on the slopes was crappy. I couldn’t tell what was bump and what was flat. Still made it down without major injury though.

Afterwards we sat around in the clubhouse, drinking and telling stories (I told the one about how I proposed to Glen). We left the club at 6, all thoroughly wiped out from such a strenuous – but wonderful – day.

(I took a lot of video and hopefully I’ll get the chance to work on it but it’ll be some time away.)