First Black Diamond!

We woke up at 7:30am, again trying to arrive at Kirkwood for powder before the wet stuff forms:)

With stops for gas and breakfast, we arrived at 9:05am. H and I warmed up on Mokelumme off chair #5 again. Sensing my comfort level, she suggested trying chair #11. There are 2 runs off that chair: Short Spoke and Comestoga. They share a common trail at the beginning. Then the trail splits. On the left is Short spoke, blue slope slightly steeper and longer than Mokelumme. To the right is Comestoga, an easy black. In fact, according to H, Comestoga was classified as a blue slope until this season, when it was upgraded to black.

We did Short spoke on our first run and since the snow was decent, H asked if I wanted to try the black slope when snow condition was still good. I agreed.

As usual, H led the way and I followed. I was focusing on my turns and made a series of wider curve down a particular steep portion of the slope when H stopped me.

"I don't understand why, but you skied better on black than on blue." she commented.

"What black slope?" I asked, thinking we were still on the common portion of the trail.

"We just took the trail to the right," she replied, "You mean you didn't know you are on a black slope?"

"Actually, no...I was just following you...I was wondering to myself why the same slope felt steeper than on the previous run." I answered.

I had unconsciously skied on a black slope and apparently did quite well. But, having known I was on a black slope, however, made me overly cautious and started skiing slower. Without speed, I was not getting the same carving I had achieved before.

H was clearly disappointed. "I shouldn't have told you!" she exclaimed. "You were doing so well!"

We tried Comestoga again, and again I was very cautious coming down the black portion of the slope. H gave up. "Congrats on your first black," she said. "Now, if only you can stop being conscious about this being a black slope..."

The snow condition got worse quickly and I began to feel tired, so we stopped for lunch. We shared an Asian Bowl and soup in Monte Wolfe bistro. Probably due to the excitement that I had just skied my first black diamond slope, I ate a lot.

I went up Comestoga 2 more times. However, snow condition had deteriorated much fast on Sunday compare to Saturday and by 3pm, I felt like I was skiing on a sticky mash. The heavy lunch also made me felt bloated. I was totally spent and decided to call it a day. H did another run and not wanting to risk injury, call it quits too.

We left Kirkwood at 3:15pm and reached Bay area about 6:45pm, ending our 2 day tiring but fun spring ski trip.