Seventeen hours of train-riding, from Illinois to Colorado. To me, it was all worth it for what was

to come. The first thing I saw when the train emerged from the 6.2 mile long Moffat Tunnel was a wall

of white and green, mountains everywhere just ready to be skied. It was too late in the day to ski when

we arrived but the next day we would tackle the hills of Winter park.

This was something different. Minnesota ski resorts rarely had powder, but here, it was not

unusual to see storms pile feet of snow at a time. I had to re-learn everything, turning, stopping, even

trying to move in the snow was different. I have some very thin skis that are good for carving but not

good for floating on the top layer of snow like wider skis.

I decided that if I wanted to enjoy what Colorado had to offer, I would need to rent some wider

skis. The day I rented the skis, it snowed over a foot, perfect conditions for trying them out. Skiing on a

foot of powder is a lot like jumping on a trampoline, each turn put me deeper then I jumped back out of

the snow. I learned I was much better at it with wider skis. Now I could get down the runs a lot easier,

but the one thing I never learned to do in Minnesota was ski on Moguls.

When people ski in Minnesota, the snow is hard packed so not much snow moves when they

turn, but in Colorado, the powder is looser and eventually gets piled into moguls. Mogul skiing requires

timing and skill to master. If a skier gets off their timing, they could very well crash when they try to

turn. Also, the skier needs to be able to plan three turns ahead of where they are. This was the most

difficult skill to learn when skiing in Colorado.

I learned a lot about skiing in Colorado, mostly skiing in powder and through moguls. The most

important thing I learned is no matter how experienced a skier you are, there are always situations you

haven’t come across and there is always something to learn.