Skiing at Jahorina

February 8th 2010

Yawn, stretch, clock says five am, jump out of bed, wake up Beni, Andy walks in the door, Nicolai is finished packing, put in my contacts, sling my pack on my back, run to the car through the drenching rain, and we're off.

Andy Hemphill (my second year from the US), Benedikt Gottwald (my a fellow firsty from Munich, Germany) Nicolai Svanefjord (a second year from Denmark) and I (Hilary Johnson from the US) all went downhill skiing at the previous Olympic ski area outside of Sarajevo.  It was awesome day, as we cut up the power covered slopes.

Even though I have been skiing since I could practically walk, this was some of the best snow.  We found some virgin slopes on the east side of the mountain - and that drenching rain back in Mostar was a fresh layer of powder snow eleven centimeters thick up here at the mountain.

Andy and Benedikt are boarders (snow-boarders) and Nico and I skied.  We spend the whole day together, crossing over the mountain.  It was a great group because we were all pretty much equally matched skill-wise, nothing was unconquerable ;)

There were a couple of wipe-outs, a couple of yard sales, races, wicked jumps.  At the top of the mountain it was completely enclosed in fog, and from the lift the ground and the sky were indistinguishable - but as soon as we dropped 100 meters the visibility was great.

Taking a day to enjoy life was perfect, and a calm before the storm of this past week!  Spending time with the guys was amazing, I really enjoy the laughs and good times that we have together.  My favorites this trip were the conversations on the lifts, swooshing down the mountain, a delicious lunch (Nico has great taste for food) and cake! and enjoying a relaxing evening afterwards cooking pesto tortellini and watching Dr. House.

I hope that this will be a tradition and that Beni and I can go again next year!