I love skiing

In contrast to Kirk's newfound uncertainty about skiing, I rediscovered this weekend how much I love it. I really haven't skied much in recent years, other than a trip to Breckenridge a few years ago, and I had completely forgotten how much I enjoy it. I realize that everyone (my dear husband included) may laugh at the ski "hills" I grew up with in the midwest, but regardless, they somehow prepared me for skiing in the Alps! I have lots of fond memories of skiing when I was younger. While we were growing up, my sister and I were members of a ski club in Madison called Snowstar. During the winter we went every Saturday to one of the local ski hills including Tyrol Basin, Cascade, Christmas Mountain (using the term "mountain" very loosely), Wintergreen, and Devils Head. We had lessons every week and we were categorized into groups based on our level of skiing. Each group was named by color and in order to get to the next color you had to pass a test. I can still remember the color progression-- complete beginners started in green, then it went to yellow, blue, red, white, black, and silver. By the time Kris and I were in high school, we had both had gotten to the level where we were trained to teach the beginners (I think it was black). In addition, every year my family would spend the week between Christmas and New Years at our cabin in northern Wisconsin and my Dad would take my sister and me on a couple day trips to the bigger ski hills in the UP (the UP means "upper peninsula" for all you non-midwesterners-- it's in Michigan). Our favorite place was always the Porkies (also called the Porcupine Mountains) which is a state park right on Lake Superior. As you can imagine, it got really cold up there... but the skiing was beautiful and my Dad would tell us stories of how he and his buddies used to drive up there in high school on dirt roads and there was only a couple rope tows to pull you up the "mountain", etc. All this being said, I'll take skiing in Switzerland any day over skiing in the midwest!