Sledless Sledding

A week or so ago, I had just gotten up out of bed to find sunshine streaming through our windows. The day was already lovely, and we had a morning of practicing out in the sun to look forward to. Quinn and I were just sitting down to eat some cereal, when he got a phone call. Paul and Abigail had went for an early hike up Eaglecrest not long before, and they had run into a friend of theirs...

The whole ski area (normally very quiet during the summer months) seemed a buzz with people! Upon asking, Paul and Abby learned that Lands End, the clothing line, was doing it's winter photo shoot up on top of the mountain! 

Long story short, someone was not feeling well. No one from the Lands End party could be spared to go all the way into town to get medicine, and so Paul called Quinn asking if he could run up some cold medicine from the house to help someone out for a free ride up the mountain on the chair lift!

Well of course Quinn and I both jumped at the chance to ride up the chair lift during the summer (something that is very unheard of!), so we quickly got the medicine and up the mountain we drove!

After a short wait (and a very thankful man who was NOT feeling well) we were on the chair lift and whisked away! Not being a skier, I had never rode the chair lift - in summer or winter - but Quinn and Abigail had never heard of anyone ever being able to go up it during the summer. It was a real treat!

Quinn had a lot of fun pointing out all his favorite ski spots to me. He couldn't believe how different the mountain looked with hardly any snow on it!

Once up at the top, the view was beautiful, and the lodge was packed full of models, makeup and hair stylists, and racks and rows of clothes and shoes for the photo shoot. We had a lot of fun hanging around and watching the photographers take photos. We didn't want to be in their way though, and since Paul and Abby had wanted to HIKE the mountain (and hadn't yet) we hiked a bit farther from the chair lift to the very tip top - where two summers ago we filmed parts of our Alaska Odyssey DVD. 

Abigail wasn't satisfied with the hike though. 

The snow was soft from the warm sunshine, and the slopes were steep. 

She wanted to go sledding!

Well. We hadn't exactly planned ahead. 

No sleds were to be found, but we made do:

As you can see, we had lots of fun.

Our pants and shorts were totally soaked through and freezing cold, but thankfully the warm sun on our backs helped warm us up on the hike back down the mountain.

It was certainly a day and an experience we wont be forgetting anytime soon. And we look forward to seeing our beloved Eaglecrest in the winter catalog of Lands End!