Our ski season ended this weekend, a week or two early due to the exceptionally warm weather here.  In celebration of the end of the season, Camelback Ski Resort hosts a Pond Skimming Contest.  The Mountain is where we spend our free time in the winter, so we were in attendance.  Yee Haw!

Forget about the aroma of the hot dogs and hamburgers wafting through the clean, crisp mountain air as the tailgaters grill in the parking lot.  Forget about the free give-aways – Liquid Lightning Shots and Coors Light Chapstick(?).  Forget about the sunshine.  Well, don’t forget about the sunshine, because you can never have too much sunshine in your life.  Especially here in the “mountains” of Pennsyltucky.  There’s nothing like the feeling of the warm sunshine on your face after a long, cold, gray, snowless winter.   But forget about the rest of it.

The reason people love to watch pond skimming is for the athletic prowess of the skiers and snowboarders as they attempt to skim across the top of a 100-foot long, cold, green pond.  For the Pennsyltucky sport of it!

These athletes have trained to participate in this event.  These are professionals.  Warning!  Do not try this at home.

This is the pond.  The lifeguard is practicing to be sure she can reach everyone.  And although the air temperature was around 70º, the water was not anywhere near 70º.

My son (who had a friend on his shoulders) had a front row spot but kept complaining that he couldn’t see.

And they began skimming.  There was a cow.

And a chicken.  I think that was it for the barnyard animals.

A woman?

A real woman!

The Flying Nun…

Didn’t fly.

A zombie.  Love the spray pattern from his skis.

Some made it across the pond.  Many did not.

Keep in mind, I could do this too, if I wanted to.  But I don’t.

This is why people who live at the mountain during the winter love the pond skimming event.  The energy of the athletes, the beauty of the mountain and the snow, especially in 70º weather, and the chance to say “See ya next season” to the people we’ve been skiing with all winter.

Until December, ski friends…

À bientôt,

Bebe