Ski Team Race Blog

by Sasha

This is the sundance race blog. to be on the ski  it means that you race, have fun and try your best. ski team usually does races. Ive been on the ski team for three years and wanyings been on  it for two years.

some of the stuff we focus on is early turns, pole planting and edges. we also liked to drills to help us with these skills. like we practice in race courses to help us and we try to go as fast as we can cause at the races the time how fast we go and we do races at different resorts.


this picture is wanying racing
the gates shes putting
pressure on her ankle
 and pole planting and
is turning early and wanyings
time was 45.65

This picture is me on the
race course with me making
early turns pole planting
 switching edges fast and
my time was 40.92

This picture is me andwanying taking are sister
picture after are race
we stood in front of the
Sundance Ski Team 
sign

this picture is me doing my pictureafter the race in my race suit i got
my race suit on my 8th birthday

this picture is me getting my medal i got 6th place and the
girl next to me by the
podium got fifth place

this picture is my mom taking
a picture of me with my medal
after we stood and was getting
are medals

Our White Christmas

We had a simply beautiful white Christmas this year, complete with our traditional Christmas Eve present opening and Christmas Day skiing. I'm thinking that Baby Jesus approves, since this is our second powder day Christmas in a row!

ChenXing wasn't sure what to make of the train, let alone the tree. Many ornaments have fallen victim to her overactive tail.

WanYing dresses Mandy up for the occasion.

Christmas Eve Eve dinner with good friends - it was so fun to have the old gang back together again for amazing food and very good times.

Our Christmas Eve started, as always, with our creative retelling of the Christmas Story. See this video for details.

And then we moved on to presents! WanYing was thrilled to surprise Sasha with Best Friends necklaces.

Sam was way into his graphics card.

And Sasha was beyond exuberant to get a phone!

This year's family tie dyes add a special Morningstar flair to the day.

And then it was off to church for our annual Acoustic Christmas Eve service! I played banjo, as usual.

Christmas Morning we were blessed with 9 inches of powder at Sundance. It was a cold but perfect day for skiing!

Ben shows off his style in the steep and deep.

And we warmed up with nachos and cocoa in Bearclaw Cabin!

We hope your Christmas was equally beautiful and equally blessed!

For in Christ all the fullness of the Diety lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness.

Colossians 2:9-10

Bearclaw Supperclub

Bearclaw Supperclub may be the culinary highlight of our year. It combines all of our favorite things: Sundance, hiking, sunset, down jackets for chilly evening breezes, amazing views, amazing food that we had zero involvement with preparing.

And, of course, we try to keep it classy. You can tell by this well-timed mid-sneeze selfie.

Being keen believers in earning one's moscow mule, we started our evening by hiking from the second stop of Ray's lift to the top of back mountain. It's one of my very favorite hikes... probably because I only do it when I have the Bearclaw Supperclub to look forward to! Plus, I always get to hike to the summit with my very favorite hiking buddy.

We were treated to a fab view of a deer family this year. See them hiding in the shadows, posed perfectly for us all in a line? Yeah, that's how the wildlife behaves at Sundance - always photogenic.

And before we knew it, we had arrived! (this is not actually true, we sweated and gasped up the whole ascent, but we'll pretend that we arrived swiftly, looking glamorous and totally-not-out-of-breath)

Regardless of our state at the summit, climbing a mountain to find a local honeycomb, charcuterie, and extraordinary little finger foods at the top will get you up any slope!

And as if the appetizers alone weren't enough, check out the dinner view! And, yes, the food lived up to the view, as did the wine and dazzling company.

Bearclaw Supperclub never disappoints - add it to your must-attend list of outings next summer and save us a seat!

Ski Racers

Here's Sasha to tell you all about her ski race this weekend:

This weekend I had a race my hole sundance ski team was there and they had bibs that went up to 300 something my number was 250. after the race was a barbucue. i went

guess what time i got? before you read this part my time was 51.14 . i got a medel exept we didnt stay for the awards but someone at school i know stayed for the awards and i can get it next ski practise day

and know you know about sasha's ski day. 

And, not to be outdone, WanYing adds:

At the race I was number 216. And at the end of the race they told me my speed number, how long it took, and it was 59. I felt good about my skiing.

And WanYing wanted to tell you about her big new ski accessory:

These are my new poles. I've been waiting for poles for a little bit a long time because my mom and dad couldn't find the right poles for me. And then they found them. They have like skate grips on them and it latches on the pole. The skate grips are important because my thumb can't fit all the way around my pole and it's hard to grab it.

It felt good using them for the first time.

Snow Days

Utah is having the best December we can remember, and we are trying to enjoy every last flake! In the last week, Sundance got over 50" of snow - boy did the girls freak out when we held up a measuring tape to show them that the snow is taller than they are!

Here are some recent pics of us out and about in our winter wonderland.

Chorney loves our winter romps, although she does get a little frustrated with the snow clumping between her doggie toes. I ordered some snow booties for her today, much to the boys' chagrin. It will be an interesting experiment... I am betting she hates them at first but then once she starts romping she'll forget they're even on. We shall see.

In celebration of all our snow, we knew we had to get some new skis, so the Morningstar ladies are proud owners of four, count 'em four, new pairs of skis.

Steve talked me into trying alpine skiing again, so here's WanYing showing off her new powder twin tips alongside my alpine boards. I have to say that this new generation of alpine carvers is total ski cheating - I have never made turns so easily! It feels a little cheap not to have the quad-burning of telemark, but it sure is a lot faster and I have four very fast little skiers to keep up with now.

But to those of you who are worried I have sold out entirely, I transferred my favorite telemark bindings over to new powder skis. And with all this snow, I've had ample chance to enjoy them! Here's a very happy me and Sasha showing off our new powder skis.

Trust me, we both rip.

Chorney and I are enjoying our winter commute into work. My short 2 1/2 mile commute is just the perfect distance for her and she keeps up a steady 10-12 mph so she arrives at work with most of her wiggles worked out.

I think she looks very fancy with her Safety Dog vest on.

Here's my trusty pooch and trusty steed in front of the Qualtrics field. The Civia is doing awesome and the belt drive, studded tires, and bar mitts keep us rolling all season long.

And I know this isn't winter-related, but the boys, Steve, and I did go to a midnight showing of Star Wars. It was a ton of fun and we all loved the movie, right up to the point where the 3D was too much for me and I tossed my popcorn. Sigh. My poor brain just can't handle 3D movies. Never fear, I made it out of the theater first and watched the remainder of the movie from the wings.

My family didn't actually leave the movie to make sure I was still alive, but Steve did pause to text me, which is an awfully generous division of attention given that it was the opening night of Star Wars.

Ben competed in his first nordic race of the year up at Soldier Hollow last week. He's in the U14 age group this year, which means that he races a 3 km loop. He finished strong and reported that had a good time talking with another kid as they raced. The competitive mom in me wanted to suggest that perhaps chatting during a race implied that he could have been working a little harder, but I wisely bit my tongue and rejoiced that he had a good time.

Hup hup hup!

He might have gotten a little warm with all that skiing

We've enjoyed a marvelous start to the winter and couldn't be more grateful for all of our snow and free time to enjoy it!

Merry Christmas to All!

For Christmas this year, we got a whole lotta snow and a set of powder skiers!

Our joy of hearing our kids whoop and holler all the way down Bishop's Bowl was matched only by their excitement to hand candy out to every Sundance employee we could find. 19" of fresh powder and a whole backpack full of chocolate bars and caramels to give away combined to make the best Christmas in memory.

Merry Christmas to All! Keep thinking snow thoughts for Utah, we had a heck of a white Christmas!

Almost Famous

We in Morningstarland like to say that we're very famous... in very small circles. The children have not yet figured out that this means that we are, in fact, not famous at all, so I shall continue to spout wise sayings like this until they figure it out.

Our new taste of fame comes on the back of this year's Sundance trail map! Yep, there are my 3 favorite boys strutting their stuff right there on the trail map!

It's all from an "instructor with kids" photo shoot from a few years ago that Steve and the boys participated in. They used instructors with their kids, since it's definitely preferable to boss little mountain rats around to get the perfect photos than to attempt it with paying customers. Some of the pictures from this shoot are still in my all-time-favorites category - and clearly Sundance agrees!

Ben has decided this elevation to Sundance royalty entitles him to free cookies at the deli all year. I can't argue with his logic. Hopefully the deli employees agree.

Epic 4th Weekend Part Three - Sundance Zip Rider

Our epic 4th of July weekend culminated with a ride on the new Sundance Zip Rider! 2 miles, 5 spans, and 3 whole hours of fun in the sun with good friends.

It was a heck of a time. And we had confirmed speeds of over 70 miles an hour. Awesome.

Thanks to a power outage, we got to take UTVs up the second half of our ascent. It was a bumpy good time!

Yeah, let's do this thing!

Steve glides down over Bishop's Bowl

Ben coming in for a smooth landing

Here comes Buddy soaring 500 feet above the ground!

We definitely recommend the Sundance Zip Rider. Great views and an excellent adventure were enjoyed by all!