I forgot to write about my ski trip! The trip itself wasn't too exciting, except to say that I did a lot better than on previous trips so I feel like my skills are improving. What I wanted to write about, however, was a little comparison between a "mountain" and what I personally consider a mountain.
It all started with me noting how long it took to get to the ski resort. See, the length of time in the car to get to the ski resort on Mt. Wachusett from Boston and the length of time to get to Timberline on Mt. Hood from Portland is about the same. I believe Mt. Hood itself may be closer to Portland, but you spend a lot more time getting up the mountain. I'll get to that.
The first thing I noticed was that even though the drive was the same, you certainly can't see any mountains from the streets of Boston, even when you're on a rather large hill. You can see Mt. Hood from any street in Portland with a clear view to the east. So I immediately knew we must be going to a smaller mountain. Especially since I didn't know there was a mountain in Massachusetts to begin with.
Well...smaller doesn't begin to describe it. I think my exact words when we pulled up were "Aw, it's a little mountain!" with exactly the kind of cutesy intonation you're probably attaching to those words. When I got home, I looked up statistics on both mountains, and here's what I found in regards to elevation:
Mt. Wachusett - 2006 ft.
Mt. Hood - 11,249 ft.
Need I say more?
Back to the length of time in the car - Timberline Lodge is up the highest on Mt. Hood and is also the only ski resort in North America that offers year-round skiing (yes, that means summer) - which means it's pretty damn high. Thus the reason it takes so long to get up the mountain.
So. There's my comparison. And this is why, whenever I visit home, there must be at least one clear day so I can get a good look at "my" mountain. The mountains here just aren't the same.
1 comment:
For "real" skiing in the northeast you have to go up to NH, VT or ME. You think Wachusett is bad, check out Nashoba or Blue Hill sometime (lol). Blue Hill doesn't get its name from nothing but it is basically in downtown Boston for all intents & purposes. In fact I think its even on the T. Hope you had fun anyway :)
Our friends go to Pats Peak (think its in MA but not sure) and I decided to let them talk me out of my "I'll NEVER ski" thing a couple years ago. They all said I looked like I had been skiing forever but I just cackled hysterically & went back to my original vow. 2k feet was quite enough for me lol!
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