I woke up at 8 am - with one thought "skiing!" Others were sleeping, so I quietly moved around, packing things for the day. So people wake up asking what's going on. "Mountains are waiting!" Varya is still asleep, though as if knowing that we won't leave without her.
Getting up and going to eat breakfast, it's included with stay and quite surprisingly a real breakfast with plenty of juice, coffee, and pastries. We buy lift tickets in the office and realize that we can go not only to Keystone, but also to Arapahoe Basin if we want... Weighing our chances and skill we decide to return to Keystone - mountain is big and has most of the runs open. Moreover, Keystone is open till 9 pm, and it's getting late, whereas we aren't packed at all.
By 11 am we are show up at the lift thinking to ski till ~5 pm and then eat something and start our way back home. It's cloudy and snows a little, there is powder and snowstorm in the forecast, but we aren't waiting for that powder. Princess and Sanya are left to conquer green runs on the main hill, but Natasha is leading us to the back mountains for some steep runs: "Couple years ago we found a cool run here with a friend of mine, don't remember the name, but there was plenty of snow and tress...." Sounds promising.
On the last mountain we find Natasha's run, it's called Porcupine. Not to much snow, but plenty of moguls, no so easy, we have to stop every 100 meters of so to give knees a break. However we make it to the lift just fine and are going up again. On the next run Masha and Natasha got lost somewhere behind, and later Masha loses Natasha. However, we agreed to meet at the lodge at 2 pm, so will find each other then.
Varya and I are skiing blue runs, conquering moguls and even finding some powder. At one point we meet some very angry ski patrol, turns out that we went under the rope somewhere and didn't notice. The danger to lose lift tickets turns into an unpleasant lecture, but that's OK, as long as we keep the tickets.
By 2 pm we are tired and hungry. Varya almost break into tears on the last run, not that the slope is too difficult here, she is simply out of steam. At 2 pm we are at the cafe, where we meet Sanya and Princess. They are in one piece, hungry and happy to see us.
After lunch Natasha talks Princess into trying out some blue runs, she promises to pick the easiest. Varya in meanwhile is testing Natasha's skis, they are the same length - 150 cm. Princess is complaining that her skis are sliding apart not together and I let her to try mine, since bindings are easily adjustable. So by 3 pm I am skiing on her 160 cm skis and she is on mine 180 cm! And she is doing great, as if she took advanced lessons somewhere. Naturally it takes me some convincing to get my skis back.
Sometime later Varya takes a break and stays at the fire place in the cafe, while we explore blue runs. Most of them have moguls, but small ones and we don't care. Not until Frenchman, it is marked blue and we take it, but moguls are huge here, so Masha and Princess are hardly moving. Sanya put his skis into a "V" and plowed forward as on flat run, I stay with the girls. It's getting dark. A ski patrol turns up and wondering what are we doing. We say, well, skiing ... slowly, even though the trail is supposed to be blue. He waits for us. In about 20 minutes we finally make it to the bottom. Patrol is whistling and howling: "You guys made it, good job!" - So, is it really blue run, - we ask. - Technically yes, during the season, but there is not enough snow yet, so we don't groom it. - So, it makes this run ...? - Yeah, black! Hey, we aren't that bad then!
At 5 pm we think - 3 more runs and that's it. But Varya emerges from the cafe, where she took a nap, and want to ski more. So by 7 pm we finally quit all tired, but ecstatic. Natasha and Masha are long at the bottom and even moved the van closer to the ski lift. At 7:30 we are all at the van, rearranging stuff for the road and leaving the resort.
It starts snowing again, there is some snow on the ground to, maybe an inch. Natasha is bravely steering towards I-70. It's moving at about 45 mph, but them at the tunnel I fall asleep assuming things are under control.