So, here's an attempt at some honesty. I went on the most epic trip of my life, for spring break, and I really just wanted to go home. I was in five states and three ski resorts, in an 8 day period. I spent around $100 on the entire trip. $10 total on four days of skiing at Jackson Hole, Grand Targhee and Schweitzer. My amazing Subaru made it the entire way, despite the thoughts of other people. We stayed in two amazing houses and ate extremely well. But, I barely skied two of the four days, due to snowblindness. I went 2.4 miles to the top of the Jackson Hole tram that accesses expert only terrain, and couldn't even enjoy the descent. I made it into the top of the first bowl, and was hit with sunlight so bright that I couldn't even handle it with my darkest mirrored lens. I've never experienced pain like that in my life. I couldn't open my eyes without my hands covering most of my vision. I skied almost 4000 vertical with my poles under my arm and my hands shielding my eyes from peripheral sunlight. I skied straight down to the village and spent the next hour in the village clinic, crying from the bright light the doctor had to shine in my eyes to check them. Long story short, I spent my day in Jackson Hole crying, sitting in a doctors office, and skiing the baby park with sunglasses underneath my goggles. Wonderful.
My burned retinas took three days to heal, completely. I couldn't even open my eyes do drive through Montana to Northern Idaho. I took several naps in the car, just wishing we were back in Bend, so that I wasn't missing out on anything. We hit Coeur 'd Alene, and my eyes had adjusted enough that I was able to drive to Sandpoint, probably largely due to the fact that the sun was going down. I was tired of not being able to see, and I was tired of the people I was with. The first day we skied Schweitzer, I had sunglasses under my goggles again, and I skied the entire day by myself. I almost drove off the sketchy access road several times when my eyes got hit with too much light, but having an entire day to myself was wonderful, and I'm glad I did it. I'm not going to go into detail about the other things that annoyed me on this trip, there's too many little things, and they don't really matter by themselves, but when they all piled up.... blah.
I don't know why I was in such a bad mood the entire trip. My last post was started while I was sitting alone in the cabin we stayed in to ski Jackson, because I was tired of being made fun of by the 12 guys that were on the trip. I know, I'm very easy to make fun of, but there's a point where it starts to wear on me, and I think the constant poking got to me deeply, and stayed with me all week. I definitely put on a tough exterior. I'm often more comfortable around boys than girls, and I probably act like one too. But when it comes down to it, I'm pretty fragile about certain things. My spring break trip was an eye opener, as to the way I want to live, the people I want to surround myself with, and the image I want to project. I think I learned quite a bit about myself. I'm definitely pretty introverted sometimes. Yes, I love being around people, but damn, I need my space in order to be happy. I enjoy time spent skiing or biking by myself. I love sitting at a coffeeshop surrounded by people, but with music in my ears. I'm loud and boisterous when around certain people, but if you catch me alone? I'm quiet and thoughtful quite a bit of the time. I used to solo boat the Wenatchee in the summer, just to catch some alone time in nature.
And, you know.... there were quite a few amazing things about this trip, that made it worthwhile, despite everything that went wrong. Our day at Grand Targhee was ended with quite a bit of fresh, and the place was empty. Jackson Hole was bluebird sunny, and the views were spectacular, despite how much I got to look. I got see how stunningly beautiful the Tetons are, and the town of Jackson is amazing. I got to see Sandpoint, Idaho, where the mountain has views of a huge lake. I got to ski pow at Schweitzer with one of my best friends, and it was free. I got to hang out in a hot tub at 6,000 feet, while it snowed and snowed and snowed, and I think snow and mountains are the two best things in nature.
So there's your spring break honesty. I'm glad I went on the trip, but there's a lot that I would change. And if you ask me about it, I'm gonna try to tell you the truth.
Peace, love, and the Grand Teton,
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