Thursday, February 27, 2014

Skiing at Blue - Outdoor Crowds!

I went driving east of here to Blue Mountain last week, just seeking pictures on a bright sunny brilliant blue-sky winter's day.  I drove past Blue Mountain Resort, the biggest public downhill ski area around here, perhaps the biggest in Ontario.  It was certainly crowded, but obviously a lot of people were having fun outdoors in the winter sun.

I was really getting these pictures to show this part of the Niagara Escarpment, a section that is quite unique along the entire length of the escarpment in southern Ontario.  The ski slopes are created by the underlying geological formation, the Ordovician Shale, which erodes into the long rolling but fairly gentle slopes.

You can see by the lift line-up how popular the ski hill was on a day like this.  This is just a tiny part of the skiing available; they have 42 runs and 14 ski lifts.  And I had to crop these two pictures to avoid acres of parking lots in the foreground.

If you look closely you'll see that this is a high speed six-person lift, so in spite of the line-up it goes fairly quickly.  I've given up downhill skiing now, finding cross-country skiing more fun and better exercise, with less risk of falling.  But when our boys were teenagers we got them into it for awhile.  I'm a firm believer that teenage boys need some fairly life-threatening activity to grow up normal! 

Further along, one of the other runs was the mogul run.  You have to be very good to bounce down these moguls - perhaps you watched it on the Olympics.  The Canadian Dufour-Lapointe sisters from Montreal won both Gold and Silver in this event.

There certainly weren't the crowds on this hill or this lift compared to the other one above!  I did go back and take lessons in my 40's, trying to keep up with the boys, but they left me behind quickly!  But there were a lot of people having fun outdoors at Blue on this sunny day.

 Linking to:
http://jennymatlock.blogspot.ca/
where the letter this week is 'O', 
in this case for 'Outdoors'!

11 comments:

  1. Those queues are so long, but a 6 man lift, what a way to go up, and the moguls, I watched, what body shaking that is. And yes, even though a true Kiwi ( New Zealander), because of my many blog friends in the North, I was so happy every time someone did really well. Those photos are super. Cheers, Jean.

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  2. I prefer cross country skiing over downhill. For my life threatening exercise, I tend to go for rock climbing.

    Beautiful shots!

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  3. Hi there, greetings from Northern Ontario, home of the famous Searchmont Ski Resort. I'm just stopping by to say how delightful your blog is. Thanks so much for sharing. I have recently found your blog and am now following you, and will visit often. Please stop by my blog and perhaps you would like to follow me also. Have a wonderful day. Hugs, Chris
    http://chelencarter-retiredandlovingit.blogspot.ca/

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  4. Lovely photos! I'm afraid due to self-preservation, I'm not a skier! LOL

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  5. I don't ski but this winter's photos are fabulous.

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  6. Just spent a few days at Mont Tremblant and also do not ski downhill.The snowshoeing trails were great and next winter I think I'll try the X-country skis again. I agree, downhill is for the young and fearless, although I still see many older ones on the slope.

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  7. Agreed on the teenage boy issue! I don't downhill- don't really know how.

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  8. The countryside is beautiful! It's particularly gorgeous under blue skies.

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  9. You are absolutely correct about teen-age boys. From a parent's point of view pseudo-life threatening is preferable, but won't satisfy most young folks.

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  10. Great photos of the activity at Blue Mountain. We joined our son and daughter on the ski slopes when they were in their teens too. Not anymore. In fact our son hasn't been on a hill in years although our daughter has snowboarded until recent years - before kids. :) I agree with your thoughts on teens and their involvement in life threatening activity, especially boys. By the way, it took me a whole season to get off the bunny hill due to my fear of heights on the chairlift. Enjoy the weekend!

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  11. No skiing for me, but I do enjoy Big Bear Lake to see the snow - 2 1/2 hrs. away from where I live:) Great pics!

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