Coming from the East Coast to a West Coast mountain town, there are so many new things. Fish tacos (sounds gross but they grow on you), mountains outside my backdoor, so many mountain biking trails and climbing routes I don't know where to start, and lots and lots of ski-bums. (Not that it's a bad things to be a ski-bum. I'm actually kind of jealous.)
Some things I have done here that I never did in the 3 1/2 years I lived in DC: Attended both a formal and a few semi-formal events. (I now have 5 dresses. This alone is amazing.) Not felt the desire to get out of town for some fun. Everything here is fun. Got the chance to break out things like cross-country skis and snowshoes and tromp around in the snow. And rode the mountain and sat at the beach (of the lake) in the same day. Truly unbeatable.
The one cool thing about being from the East is they very infrequently get reals snow. You tend to get very good at skiing and riding in icy, crappy, fake-snow conditions. So when you get to a real mountain, with real snow, and they have a not-so-good day, you're like SWEET!! Because a bad day in the mountains is better than the best day on the slopes back East. And you ride like a pro. Woohoo!
There's one thing about snow and ski resorts though that seems to be fairly universal. Courduroy. At night when everyone goes home, all the ski areas bring out the groomers to smooth out the bumps and moguls and make all of the trails even and consistent.
Some people would scoff at riding "groomers", the trails that the ski areas have made all smooth and nice. But your average skier pretty much sticks to the designated areas and doesn't ski in the trees or out of bounds.
I'm not saying it's the best, because powder is the best. But if you can't have powder, and you're at the mountain for first chair, one of the coolest things is riding untouched courduroy. You can pick up some speed knowing the snow is consistent and really lay out your turns. It's pretty awesome.
