When we left you last, reader, it was snowing. It was lovely to watch from inside our condo and anticipate the impact the flakes would have on the slopes just beyond our vision.

You’ll remember that we’d had a day and a half of not skiing, even though the trails were right there, behind two rows of other condos, looming over us. It was difficult to wait.

Lanie was in the first wave to get to the hill.

Actually, we didn’t all wait. Jen, Chris and I did some cross country skiing yesterday on a neighboring golf course, and after a particularly steep climb and a glide through a sled-dog kennel, we found ourselves on one the the Mt. Ste. Anne downhill trails, and hour after the lifts stopped running. It was cool, but also stressful, because cross country skis and downhill slopes don’t mix well, in my opinion.

Today, though, everything fell into place. We had the right skis on the right hills. The right snow had fallen on the right trails. We finally got to ski.

First gondola trip up

Although some of us were ready well before the 9 am first lift call, we didn’t actually find ourselves on the lovely Mt. Ste. Anne gondolas until 9:10 or so. Much praise for Trisha, who decided to straight to the top and not mess around with the magic carpet and training hill. Our trail map suggested that there are several green pea trails that lead down from the summit, some of them quite long, one of them in the neighborhood of 3 1/2 miles long. (!) Trisha was ready to tackle them.

Trisha and Eliza skied for miles today.

The stars all lined up: we had new snow but no lift lines (not too many New Hampshirites came up here to celebrate school vacation, apparently). We had reasonable temperatures — no one asked for hand or boot warmers. There was a fair amount of sun and good visibiltiy, except for the brief blizzard that caused a little havoc right around lunchtime. We had the crock pot full of Jen’s chicken burrito bowl recipe waiting for us at the end of the day.

Beaupre is steep for a blue square, though it might not look like it here.

We had lots of fun. Most of us made it back out for afternoon runs after lunch and were rewarded with very forgiving snow and very little ice. This was particularly true on the north side of the mountain, the one we didn’t even know existed until we looked closely at the map.

The girls found several glades to explore and displayed enough competence that eventually the adults no longer felt obligated to follow them into the woods.

This crew, and the guy who took the picture, made it until the very end..

Our legs became sore, but we stuck it out to the very end. There couldn’t have been more than a handful of paying customers still on the mountain when we finished up and headed home for burrito bowl.

Tomorrow looks like another good day for skiing.  We’re encouraged by the weather forcast and also the two-for-one ticket deal on Tuesdays here.  Rumor has it the deal extends to drinks at the bar, as well.  This might make for an interesting blog post.  Stay tuned.