Minnie skied her first black diamond!

Minnie skied her first Black Diamond bump run!

We love everything about June Mountain. Lodging is inexpensive and nice, the mountain is empty, the terrain parks are fun and it takes us four minutes to drive to the resort where we park fifty yards from the lift. Yeah, Mammoth has more variety, etc., but it's nice to spend the day where the ticket agents, lifties and patrollers all know us by name. Heaven.

Like every morning, I asked the girls what they were going to do today. They both said 'Black Diamond Bumps'. Sounds good to me. We did some warm up runs, played around in the trees and the kiddie park, then stopped for a quick break. Well mom and I did; the girls just kept playing on their skis and wouldn't even stop to eat a snack. Cliff Bars on the lift are all they're interested in these days.

After our sandwich break we went to the top and headed toward our goal: Sunset Bowl, a nice, wide, empty black diamond bump run full of still-soft snow you can sink a pole a foot into. When we got to the top, Minnie had a change of heart, so Mina and I 'checked out the snow' for her while she cruised an easier way down. The snow was fantastic. Mina has spent yesterday skiing double blacks, so when she skied the black that had given her trouble only two days earlier, she was amazed at how easy it seemed.

We met up with mom and Minnie at the lift and rode up together again. Minnie told us she was coming with us this time. Standing at the top, Mina gave her some pointers and demoed a few turns. Minnie had a bad experience at Bear Mountain last month, taking a long slide down a snowboard-scraped black diamond, so she had some concerns about not being able to stop. Mina assured her the bumps would stop her should she fall. Still skeptical she followed Mina and me into the abyss. And she did GREAT!

The girls laughed and giggled their way down the entire black diamond run. After the first fall and immediate stop against a fluffy mogul all fear was gone. We skied that run four more times. We were having so much fun even mom, a die hard blue skier, wanted to join in. Mina gave her some pointers and she was making great looking turns in the bumps after a few minutes. Mom said each turn was a leap of faith, but she kept it looking good. The entire family skiing down a black diamond run by their own choice and everyone was smiles and giggles! Success!

We're home checking on things, but will be back in June tomorrow. We're bringing everything this time; I'm bringing the Rossi B2 teles, the K2 Public Enemies, the Volkl 7-24 Pro's, a snowboard, and my Karhu BC touring skis, each with their own boots. Yep, five pairs of boots (most of which I purchased at the used gear sale)! Everyone else has skis, a snowboard and BC skis.

Monday I'm teaching Mina to tele (push the knee over to carve, then to turn the other way, stand up tall, slide the lead foot back and carve it on the outside. Finish by pushing the knee over on the new lead ski. Just like carving alpine except y0ur feet are backward. EZ). I also threw in a tele instructional DVD. Tuesday Aaron is flying into Mammoth (that means Mammoth Brewing Co., again), and the forecast for the week is sunny and beautiful.

A few of you have mentioned you may be coming up, so call and we'll do some runs together.

Enjoy!

-greg