A Wkend in the snow!
BY admin
Tuesday January 16, 2018 0 Comments Travel
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Photos edited by Don Hansen (IG: @_donhansen)

A friend of mine recently invited me to celebrate his birthday at a cabin in Maggie Valley, NC. The Wkend was positioned as “full of fun, fellowship, and skiing/snowboarding”. The reality is that we took a party from Atlanta and carried it to North Carolina. This, of course, came with its fair share of risks, but hey, for a birthday…. Risk it All!!!

We had people from across the east coast come to celebrate with us locations include: New York, D.C., Dayton, Fayetteville, Atlanta, and Orlando.

For a grand total of 20 people and a true hodge-podge of personalities. In a 6bdr, 4bth cabin, this could have been a weekend from hell, but it’s always love with this group.

Before I left for my first ski/snowboarding adventure, I sought the council of friends and co-workers to generate a proverbial “Base layer” of knowledge. I was immediately inundated with information which was very “spend your money” oriented and that simply is not my style. If I could synthesize my experience I would say, most of what you need as a newbie, you probably have in your closet. My recommendation is simple, get a solid base layer, try to stay away from cotton, go for Polyester/Spandex blends. My base included:

The remaining items you need, you can rent! I will caveat by saying that if you plan in doing this more than once, you may want to go ahead and invest in a quality ski-jacket (which I did).

Now to the Wkend!

We started with a very clear itinerary:

10am: Leave Atlanta

3pm: Arrive in Maggie Ville (It’s a 4hr drive and you lose an hour)

7pm: Start grilling/drinking and wait on others to arrive

This plan was very idealistic and I love these guys but we are almost always late getting started.

What actually happened:

We got on the road from Atlanta at 10:45 am, late and caught in the thick of sleeting rain. Why were we late?…We had to stop at Chik-fil-A (lol)

We drove north (Nawf Side – Migos voice) and the temperature dropped, we didn’t make it out of Georgia before transitioning from inches to feet of snow.

The drive was frostbitten, but we were able to heat things up with the ultimate 90’s baby playlist which included tracks like:

We arrived around 4 pm and quickly found out that we didn’t have 4wheel drive. We made it 500ft from the destination and were forced to brave the rest of the way. We got into the cabin to get a lay of the land and to stage the alcohol as it was the decoration for the weekend. We then went to the local grocery store and bought food. I started grilling around 6 pm and people trickled in until 11 pm. We ate and drank until our hearts were content and stayed up well past a reasonable hour.

The next morning we hit the slopes at Cataloochee Ski-lodge and everyone was kicking around the phrase “Gonna be a Breeze!”. I am here to tell you that it, in fact, was not a “BREEZE”.The temperature was about 30ºF and I’m a Georgia boy to my core. The ski lodge was also creating snow, which is icy and makes for a hard fall. There was one point where I fell face forward and hit the ground so hard a literally could not breathe. After that fall, I immediately went back to the top to do it again.

I must say, the gloves came in handy because I would have been miserable if I did not have them. The jacket was warm and provided a cushion for my falls and the additional layers were the most cost-efficient decision I made. It was great saving a few dollars using things that I already had.

Overall it was a great experience, definitely, recommend hitting the slopes. Whether you’re strapped to a board or your feet are on two separate sticks, if you do it with the right people you’ll have at least 15 mins of fun and photos to last a lifetime!

To a Life Worth Living,

The Wkender.

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