Hope on the Slopes: The Exhausted Edition

This weekend was Hope on the Slopes at Stevens Pass. I volunteered to work hospitality for my co-worker's team "Hosts for HotS". I was really excited to try something new and have a new way to support my Mom in her battle.

Friday night Eric dropped me off at Mindy & Phil's house so I could spend the night. Saturday Morning we woke at 5am and with a fruit smoothie in our tummy we left the house by 6:10am to make our way to Stevens Pass. We arrived at the pass around 7:50am. Above is a look at the walk up to Stevens Pass lodging. It was a bit of a hike to and from the car but thankfully we did not have to go back and forth much.

Here's the gates walking up to the Lodging area. I was pretty excited to see all that SNOW! I haven't seen a single flake all year, and I got my fill this weekend.
These are what I would call the stairs to heaven or the stairs of Hell. After being up all night, and snow shoeing, snowboarding or skiing I can't imagine how you can get up and down these without pain.

Once we got up those stairs we checked in at the Pacific Crest Lodge. We claimed stake on a table near the men's restroom and set up camp. Hope on the Slopes or HotS as most people around the lodge called it, was under weigh after a short opening ceremony from the American Cancer Society (ACS).

The team that I ran hospitality for was the Hosts that are employed by Stevens Pass who do it as a weekend gig or as a full time job. They are a bunch of really outgoing, helpful people who know their way around the place. Beth (Head of Hosts) got me all set up to make coffee for the participants and then after a couple of hours learning the ropes and getting our teammates checked in and loaded with snacks Phil and I settled in for a long day of sitting and helping where we could.

Mindy came in and handed me a brochure for this...
Yep, those are snow shoes. I decided to go for a couple hours but the details of that adventure can be found on my Blog - let's get back to HotS.
Mindy skied like a champion. She ended up with a grand total of over 50,000 vertical feet and raised $1,200 for ACS Research. We were both there to Honor our mothers.

Hey Mindy show me your poles! Yah I'm sure she loves this picture but it kind of makes me giggle, and I know her husband Phil will be posting a less flattering one of me waking up from my 2 hours of sleep I got last night...

Sorry, that was kind of NonSequitor; Here's the mountains they were running on all evening.

And... here they are in the evening... wish I would have had my other camera with me; but this is the best you get.

About 10pm the runs were shut down for grooming and everyone came in for a spaghetti supper provided by the 59'er Diner. After a delicious meal and some music the runs were limited for the participants and they kept going all night long. I took the first shift of watching the table and Phil took the second. I was more than ready for a nap come 4am; so ready that I dozed off sitting up.

Team Hosts for HotS 2010.

L to R: Mac, James, Julian, Mindy, Phil, Wade, Debbie, Ginevive, Mark, Joan, Cindy and Me in the front. There's a couple people not pictured but we hadn't seen much of the rest of the team this morning. Oh and we lost three guys early in the day. One of our Guys' sons' wiped out and dislocated his shoulder, so the three of them had to take him to the hospital.

It was a long night of keeping people full of protein and snacks, energy drinks and a short nap on the lodge floor which is harder than it sounds actually.

The team worked hard, and sleep deprived we were all really happy to see these three put on the CLOSING Ceremony which was actually an hour later than planned so a lot of people had left.

The ACS Banners The Three guys that were putting on the closing ceremony's where we learned that as an event $167,000 and skied countless vertical feet (the top three teams were in the MILLIONS). There were top prizes given, but out of the 860 participants the prizes were pretty much spread out over three or four teams which were top fundraisers and top vertical feet! And a very tired Abigail ready to go home.

So glad I could be there to support my friends and make new friends and try something new, even more glad that I could support my Mom who continually told me that she was proud of me; as I explained to Eric, it's about feeling like I can do something to help, and if being there makes my Mom feel even 1% better, being sleep deprived and cold for the past 24 hours was worth it 100x's over again.

I'm going to go take a nap now... or hold out and go to bed at 6:00. Happy Trails!

Love, Abby