The New Years that wasn’t
It was a great Christmas. So many memories, so much laughter… So much family! So for New Years, we decided to break tradition and seek out the companionship of friends. For the past four years, we’ve spent a quiet New Years Eve at the Kaiser cabin, with another couple or two, and the prospect of a good ski day on the immediate horizon.
This year we spent the days prior to New Years at the cabin, and came home to celebrate with whomever was around. Sadly, I caught Nate’s cold just as he was getting better, so our New Years plans turned to bust. I was in bed by 8 and asleep by 9:45. Nate teased me at 11:20 by coming in to wish me a Happy New Year! He promptly kissed me and went to bed himself, before any New Years bells were rung.
In a vain attempt to keep some of the tradition alive, I opted to hit the slopes early Thursday morning, New Years Day. Nate opted to go crabbing. He turned out to be the wiser one.
At 7:30 a.m. as I sat in the Bellevue Park’n'Ride waiting for my ski buddy, I checked the weather report. Dammit. The powdery pass across I-90 was closed. Thank goodness there are other options. I checked Stevens Pass and could see plenty cars, but it looked like the DOT was planning to close Stevens’ summit as well. Dammit. So Ken and I chose our only viable option: We’d ski Crystal.
After several turns around Enumclaw, we found the progress to Crystal Mountain Ski Resort VERY slow. The Green River Bridge had blown out sometime in November, and the detour route was extremely confusing. Not mention, the crazy amounts of snow had downed numerous trees along the two-lane road. SO FRUSTRATING. After a ways, we lost all cell phone reception–thank God we’d successfully navigated out of Enumclaw by then 
We should have seen the writing on the wall. After nearly three hours of travel time, we snaked our way into Crystal’s parking lot. It was raining. Can I say it again out of shock and disappointment? It was raining. The forecast was for 24 degrees up there. It was possibly going to snow in SEATTLE. What do you mean it’s raining at Crystal?!? It’s snowing EVERYWHERE else. It’s supposed to be a powder day.
Ken and I tried to keep calm and be optimistic. Let’s eat some lunch, watch the weather and wait for half day rates, I suggested. By the time half day starts, everyone else will come in to eat and we’ll have the mountain to ourselves. Maybe the clouds will lift by then.
But the clouds didn’t lift and the rain didn’t stop. Even worse, the winds were blowing so the misty rain felt like freezing rain pellets. Ugh. After eating, Ken and I looked around the restaurant. People were peeling off soaking wet clothes. No one was smiling. Comments varied from “My face hurts so bad,” to “I can’t believe how windy it is,” to “This sucks.”
It really did suck. We decided to ski to the parking lot and drive home. Ken gave me the title of being “the friend he’s traveled the longest with for a lunch.” That’s not a title I treasure. 2009 isn’t off to a very good start.
Maybe tomorrow will be better… We’re headed to the Pass to try and redeem a snow day.
January 2nd, 2009 at 1:55 pm
aw, shucks! I hope it was a good lunch! Makes for a great story anyway! Thanks for the call on New Year’s…will try to call you this weekend.
January 2nd, 2009 at 8:02 pm
If it makes you feel any better, I was supposed to go skiing on one of my dwindling mid-week ski days, but all the lifts were shut down for de-icing. So, I took Hazel to daycare and took a 2 hour nap instead. Not as good as a powder day, but pretty damn close.