Ski a Black Diamond Trail

“Once we got to the top of the mountain and I made my way to the black diamond, I can’t lie. I started having second thoughts. With the green and blue runs, when you get to the top, you can see the way ahead of you. At the top of the black diamond, I only saw air. Where was the slope? Would I essentially be jumping off of a cliff? That’s what it was starting to feel like. Eek! What had I agreed to! I wondered if I could sneak away somehow. My mind told me to run away. But I was trapped in my skis. My instructor made his way to the top of the black diamond run and directed me to make my way over too. He explained that we would go down verrrrrry slowly. All I had to do was what we’d already done many times. Make one long pass across the slope, angling back towards the top so as to come to a stop. He went across to demonstrate and directed me to follow. *gulp* This was it! I turned my skis and it was happening. I was skiing a black diamond! I made my way safely across to meet my instructor and easily came to a stop. That wasn’t so bad. The initial movement was considerably faster than it had been on the greens and blues. But nothing impossible.”

“The first time I started skiing at Crystal Mountain (December 2020), I met two snowboarders with avalanche beacons, they invited me to follow them and have some crazy off route adventures. We all decided to warm up with a black diamond. This was the first time I was going to experience a real black diamond in U.S. All the previous ones that I did was with my dad in European mountains when I was 14-16. I can’t really say I aced them. I was amazed by the difficulty of the black diamonds, realized that my muscles were burning a lot, and decided to part my ways with the friends that I acquired 35 minutes ago.”