Fun & Fitness over 50

School vacation week is a bit difficult for me to find someplace to ski because everybody is ramped up with holiday pricing and no deals.
Last year I was able to night ski at Bosquets for $25 on President's day so I was grateful for that.
This year, I was even more fortunate in that because school vacations varied amongst the different northeasterly states, Belleayre decided to only charge holiday rates for the 1st weekend and the Monday of President's Day itself. So the rest of the week reverted to normal non-holiday pricing. Still too rich for my wallet but, hooray, they have a "Coke Wednesday" wherein you present a Coke product at the ticket window and get a lift ticket for only $30 which qualifies for our self-imposed $30 lift ticket limit.
Thanks, Belleayre!
They advertised 34 out of 53 trails open which is plenty for me.
Conditions were pretty good although there was some hard pack, I didn't run into any ice or thin cover.
This was the day I discovered a comfortable way for me to ski the black diamonds ... garlands.
A garland is where you traverse a wide slope at a shallow angle and do as many turns as you can while traversing in one direction before you turn and do it the other way.
I am also able to bleed speed in or out by tipping down hill or edging up the skis respectively without actually making turns. So I am able to control my speed pretty well without just doing straight traverses which I find very tiring and does not maintain a good rhythm ... prone to falling as i get going either too fast across rough snow or too slow at the end of a turn and lose my balance.
The black diamond "Dot Nebel" over on the West side was my sweet spot after lunch and I just rode that until it was time to leave.
Thanks to Belleayre for an affordable daytime ski during a holiday week!