Day 3 and 4

Rode up at Copper Yesterday, got a good 5"-6" during the day so made my first powder turns of the year. Got 9" of snow over night and lucky me gets to work, fortunately I was able to take a super early lunch ride break and got 4 runs in before everything was tracked out. All around a good day. Looks like we are in a good cycle for snowfall and new terrain is being opened up this weekend along with some new lifts, can't wait to get the whole mountain up and running.

Day 3, and first day at work.

Headed over to A-basin with my buddy Jeff yesterday. Rode all day long, got about 4" of new snow while we were their. Looks like the season is starting off better than last year as far as snow fall goes. I hope that it keeps snowing. Today I had my first day of work. They didn't let me run the lift, I just scanned tickets all day. Learned alot about my job and had a good day. Heading to the folks this weekend to help with the cabin.

Year 2, Back in Summit County, Day 1 and 2

So, after failing to secure a job in my choosen field of work in Atlanta this summer I'm back for Year 2. This year will be a bit different than last. I won't be living off of savings and suckling on the tit of federal unemployment. I will have a job this year. I will be running the snow carnival ride at Copper Mountain ski area. Yep, i'm a Carny. Well Ive been up here for a couple of weeks now going thru training and getting used to living in employee housing, It's a bit like dorm life in college. I got out on the mountain to make my first turns yeasterday, good to get back on the

snow. I got out early today and rode for a couple of hours, It started to get tracked out a bit, so I called it a day. Im heading over to A-basin tomorrow with some friends from last year, should be a good time. I will be exploring new mountains this year. I didn't buy the Epic pass, so I won't be riding the Vail resorts ( Keystone, Breck, BC, and Vail), I will be relying on my Copper pass which gets me on at Loveland, A-basin, Winterpark, Steamboat, Aspen, Monarch, Wolf Creek, Telluride, and Park City. I will hopefully be making a trip out to Jackson Hole later in the season, so I have alot of new mountains to ride. I tend to read a bit while not working or skiing, so with the encouragement of a friend back in Atlanta I will be offering up some reading suggestions that I liked. Thanks for the suggestion Dave. Well thats it for now, I hope everyone sitting behind a desk is having fun, If not come out and join me living the dream. As always if your are heading this way for a little skiing or riding give me a call and we can get together.

The Snow Carnival Ride

Daves Book Suggestion: "Breakfast at Sally's" Its about a homeless man in Seattle that is trying to get his life back togather after falling off of the coorporate ladder.

Day 115 Done and Done

Vail, last day on the mountain. Headed up with Jeff, Tizzle, Berto, Cody, and Taylor. Cruised the mountain and made laps in the park. Went up to the top at around 3:00, had a few beverages with alot of folks in crazy costumes. Headed over to Jeff and Tizzles after riding for a little end of the year cookout. Kind of a weird fealling knowing that the season is over, but hopefully I'll be back next year. Now time to back up and head back to Atlanta.

Day 114

A-basin,

Went up for 1 run today. Im offically over it. no more till Sunday. That will be my last day of the season. Heading up with a bunch of friends for a little adult beverages and some slushy riding.

Day 113

Breckenridge,

Just cruised the mountain for a couple of hours. Nice and sunny, got a bit of a sunburn. hit the jump iline again a few times, I think next year I will work on trying to do some spins, but I'll have to see.

Day 112

Breckenridge,

Just rode a couple of hours today with Berto. Hit the small jump lines at breck over and over. Bertos helping me to get my form down on jumps and in the park. Slushy conditions definatelt slowed things down.

Day 111 Winding down

Beaver Creek,

Headed over for the last day at Beaver Creek. Rode with Berto, Tiz, Jeff, and Jeff. Just cruised the mountain on 55 degree day stopping frequently for some adult beverages. Nice and slushy snow, made a few laps thru the park and just free riding. Pretty good day. Beaver Creek was the first resort on my Epic pass to close. It was kinda sad at 4:30 when they closed the lifts i realized that it is all comming to an end.

Day 110

Beaver Creek,

Headed over and just cruised the mountain for awhile this morning. Heading to the folks cabin this afternoon to see the progress. With the season winding down I think I am over it for this year. Being on the mountain was foun today, but it is getting harder and harder to get motivated to get to the mountain every morning if there is no new snow. Looking forward to just hanging out with the folks this weekend, and we will see how I feel about riding on Monday.

Day 109 Powder

Vail,

Got 19" overnight, Made the 1st cabin on the gondola. Went straight to the back bowls and almost choked to death from snow on my first run into the Sun up bowl. Heard alot of the locals talking about spending the day in the "White Room". took me about 4 turns to figure out that I was right in the middle of that room as well. Hit up Bluesky and the trees, as well as the Champanige Glades. Spent some time in the North Woods and just killing the powder in the front trees. Starting to feel alot more comfortable going off of jumps and catching some nice air. Wish I had some pics, but that takes away from my riding time. Found my buddy Jeff late in the day and made some laps off of the gondola. Best snow of the year by far, I hesitate to say best day, but it was so far.

Day 108

Vail,

Got 13" overnight, made 2nd cabin up on the gondola. Snowed all day long, fresh trackes all day. It was really windy on the ridges, so I just stayed on the front side. Lots and lots of snow. We are suppost to get another 3-5" tonight, so tomorrow should be good as well.

Day 107

Vail,

just cruised around the mountain all day. Not that great of snow, but its better that hanging around the house. Suppost to get 4-8" tonight and 4-8" tommorrow. Hope the weather man is right.

Day 106

Vail, headed for the back bowls and blue sky from the start. Captain and I caught the first cabin on the gondola this morning. Pretty good day, just cruising and hitting tree runs. Got off of the mountain around 1 and headed to the Arrabelle hotel at Vail, sitting in front of a warm fire, waiting for cookies at 3.

Day 105 Powder

Vail,

Got 11" overnight. Powder shots all day long. Rode from 8:30 til 4:00 with a little break in the midle to catch my breath. In fact I road so hard that I broke one of my bindings. I cracked a metal piece in half that was about 1/8th of an inch x 1/2 of an inch. Yeah it was a great day. Was suppost to meet up with my cousin, but we kept missing each other on the mountain, so we didnt get to ride togather, oh well some other time.Leftovers tomorrow.

Day 104

Keystone,

Made 2 runs then headed home, some days you are just not feeling it. Today was one of those days. I think being on the mountain for 100+ days is taking its toll on me a little bit. Suppost to get some snow tonight, so hopefully that will stoke the fire and get me going for the remainder of the season.

Day 103

Breckenridge,

Slush, Slush and more Slush. Temp got to around 50 degrees today. Had a good time just cruising and hitting the jumps in the park. Pretty good day, Looking forward to the snow the weatherman has promised the next couple of days.

Day 102

Keystone,

Headed up this morning with Jeff and Tizzle. Just cruising around the mountain again. It was pretty warm, snow is getting slushy, looks like i will have to break out the warm weather way for the rest of the season. Great day of riding with the friends.

Day 101

Keystone,

Just cruised the mountain with Taylor. Nothing to great, bluebird day. Just a nice laid back day.

The Rundown

Ok, here is the stats for the season thru 100 days

A-Basin = 5 Days

Keystone = 37 Days

Breckenridge = 11 Days

Vail = 34 Days

Steamboat = 2 Days

Beaver Creek = 10 Days

Wolf Creek = 1 Day

So looking at these numbers it appears that I really Like Keystone and Vail, there is some truth to this. I really love Vail. Its such a big mountain and so much different terrain. Keystone is great for just cruising around and it is the closest resort to my house. I would ride Beaver Creek more, but it is the furthest away from my house and Vail is on the way.

DAY 100!!!!!!

Vail,

So i actually made my goal of 100 days this season. Ive had a blast and I think I should get 10-15 more days depending on the weather. Today was a great powder day at Vail. They got 10" over night so I got there early and was about the 20th person on the mountain. I did a few warm up laps in the North Woods then headed over to my favorite spot, Blue Sky Basin. I made laps back there for 2-3 hours mostly in the trees and under the chair lift. Ive become a little pit of an attention whore on powder days, rocking jumps and powder turns under the lift. The trees were great, parts were knee deep powder. My Mp3 played got to cold on one run and decided to shut down, so I rode thru the trees with no music, It was so cool, just me and nature, not another sole in the trees. After the lift line got unbearably long, I headed over to the front side and made a few laps in the trees above North Woods, then headed for the bus. It snowed all day, so tomorrow shold be a great day as well.

Day 99

Keystone,

Just cruised aroung the mountain all day waiting for the snow. It started snowing around 1 and we got about 2 inches on the mountain, Its suppost to continue most of the night with a total of 4-6 inches. We will see in the morning if the weatherman is correct.

Day 98

Keystone,

Rode all morning, headed for the outback, searching for the leftover powder from the last storm. Got 3-4 good runs in before I went to the front. Just made laps around the mountain, some cruisers, some in the park, hitting the jumps and boxes. Very cold this morning, but It warmed up a bit and softened the snow. Another round of storms is suppost to hit tomorrow afternoon and night, so if my luck holds I will be at Vail on Saturday with some powder for Day 100. Almost there.

Day 97

Vail,

Got 5" overnight. I headed up and got on the mountain at 8:30. Rode the frontside until it got pretty tracked out. Then meet Jeff and rode the back bowls a little and some trees on the front side. My new boots are so great, they actually give me the proper support. All in all a great day on the mountain. Got home and shoveled 6" of heavy snow off of the drive, bit of a workout. Im a bit tired right now.

Day 96

Keystone,

Just went up for half of a day. I got new boots yesterday, so I went up to break them in. Took about 8 runs and started to back them out pretty good. Suppost to get a decent storm this afternoon and tonight, so hoping for a powder day tomorrow.

Day 95

Vail,

Headed straight to Bluesky again. Just pounded the trees all day. Alot of left over powder. Got some pretty cool pics.

Looking North off of the saddle at Blue Sky

Now Entering the EuroStash the greatest snow at Vail. In the Trees off of Heavy Metal in BlueSky.

Day 94

Vail,

Caught the 3rd chair to the back bowls, headed over to Bluesky Basin. Rode till about noon, another great powder day, had a great day. Just a bit tired, looks like I will be taking tomorrow of to recoup from the powder riding, the legs are pretty worker right now.

Day 93 POWDER!!!!!

Vail,

Got up and checked the snow report at 6, and it said Vail got 1" overnight. That kinda bummed us out, but we decided to go anyway. So we pull into the parking lot and there is 4"-5"on the ground and its dumping. Apparently it snowed 3"-4" from 6 to 7:30. We (Taylor and myself) got 3rd chair and rode till our legs fell off. It snowed til about 10 and overall there was about 7"-8"on the day. We spent all day on the front side, because the back was closed due to high winds, which is great, cause there will be some nice snow back in the bowls and in bluesky basin tomorrow. Really fun day and im pretty worked right now.

Day 92

Vail/Beaver Creek,

Rode with Taylor and Jeff. Started just cruising the mountain. Headed over th BC to hit the park, learned to slide the boxes today. Slushy snow, weatherman is calling for snow the next 2 days. Yeah!!!!!!!!

Day 91

Keystone, Rode with Taylor all day, slushy "oh we did the damn thing" Taylor M. Good day bright and sunny. Looking for some snow, but not finding it.

Day 90

Beaver Creek,

Just killed it with the roomates, hiked pipe and 1/4 pipe all day. Yeah I said I HIKED. So Im real tired, but it looks like thats the way the rest of the season might go, unless we get some more snow.

Day 89

Breckenridge,

Rode with Katie, Berto and Taylor all day. Spring break is here, I'm learning to not like folks from Texas, they think they own the mountain, and the lift lines are so long. Looks like this is going to be the norm for a couple of weeks. We hiked the pipe for a couple of hours then just cruised the mountain. Pretty good day. Looks like the same thing tomorrow.

Day 87 and 88

Vail, both days. Rode alone on the first day, got 3" just stayed to the front side and exsplored a litle bit. Pretty good day. Meet up with Michael and Heather from Steamboat the next day and rode with them and some of their friends. Nothing to great, but it was sweet to ride with some folks for a change, It gets kind of boring riding alone, but thats the sacrafice that must be made. Going to do some snowshoeing today so I hope to have some good pics up tomorrow.

Day 86

Vail,

Bluesky all day long, just killed the trees, spent the day searching for left over powder with The Captain. Yeah we found it. Looks like that its my favorite area at vail, the trees in blue sky. Heading back over their tomorrow, should be pretty good.

Day 85

Vail,

Got 3" on the mountain. Spent the morning in blue sky, and just cruised in the afternoon. So tired. Im done .

Day 84

Sunday Funday, Keystone.

Yeah rode with the whole crew today. Taylor,Cody, Tizzle, Me, Berto, and some random folks that we met on the hill, and in the bar. Rode from 10 to 6 such a fun day. I'll let the pics tell the story.

Tizzle, Cody, Taylor, at breakfast.

Lunch

The Crew

I got nothin'

Storm rollin' in.

Day 83

Vail/Keystone, Vail got 4" so I headed over in the morning, spent about 3 hours just cruising and hitting the trees in blue sky basin. Went over to do some night riding at Keystone with Berto, Taylor and Cody. Good to get up on the mountain with some friends.

Day 82

Keystone, just cruising the mountain again. Waiting on more snow. Suppost to get 5-7" tonight at Vail, so I will be over there tomorrow. Looks like the El'nino thing has yet to show up, so we are just getting hit and miss storms unlike the great dumps that the weather man said was comming. I still don't like him. Booooooo

Day 81

Keystone, just cruised around on the mountain for half a day. Nothing to big, weather was bluebird, and warm. Made for some soft slushy springtime snow. Good day.

Day 80 paying the price for adventure.

Keystone, 6" of powder. So far this year I have been improving steadily. Went out today and decide to put the skills to the test. Time to go all out, no brains, bombing the hill, crushing the trees checking up as little as possible. Well it was awesome. Went straight to the outback at Keystone and bombed a couple of runs to start the day. Then I headed for the trees, So much fun with 6" and some small moguls to hit jumps in the trees. Just crushed it for about 3 hours, Then I paid the price. So I'm in the trees just cruising ducking in and out, when I notice that the tracks i have been following are gone, and its just me in the trees and the powder is getting deeper and deeper. Well lets just say I got a bit in over my head. Powder up to the middle of my belly, no momentum, dead stuck CRAP!!!!! I decide to unstrap and walk out. Yeah good luck with that, so after 1 hour of postholing up to my belly I find a cat track, then head to the parking lot, done for the day. Yeah on top of the powder nightmare, I think I might have sprained my left wrist, hurts like hell to rotate it, so it looks like I'll be sporting the wrist brace the rest of the season. Well, lesson learned. If your going to be adventurous you will get in over your head on occasions.

Day 79

Keystone, Riding with Taylor again. Got a late start and just headed up for a couple of hours. Just cruised the mountain a bit, nothing to great, just hanging on the mountain. Suppost to get some snow at Vail tonight, so Im heading over their tomorrow.

Day 78

Vail, went over with Taylor. Just killed it from the word Go. Its so fun to board with someone that is better than you. Taylor pushed me all day long and I'm a better boarder for it. No new snow, but plenty of leftovers, and the sun came out and made the snow oh so soft. Did all of Vail, the front, back bowls and blue sky. Finally broke down and bought a belles bar, best $3.75 I've spent in quite a while. Heading over to keystone tomorrow, hopefully the snow will remain good.

Day 77

A-basin, They opened Montazumas Bowl at A-basin this Wed., so I had to go check it out. They got 3" of snow ovenight. I was one of the first 10 folks into the Bowl, but it was a bit sketchy, still need a couple of big storms to make it real nice. After a couple of runs in the back I headed for the front and just cruised the mountain for a couple of hours. Headed hope to watch the Olympic Hockey.

Day 76 Chad the Mountain Guide

Vail, got 3" over night. On my first lift up the mountain, I meet 2 Doctors from New York. They were asking about good runs and where they should go, so I took pity on them and acted as their guide for the day. They were intermediate skiiers, so I stuck to black and blue groomers. They were pretty cool, they hooked me up with lunch and a few beers after the day was done. It was really cool to be able to have the knowledge of Vail to be able to tailor the day to others abilities. So yeah I worked today, first time in 4 months.

Day 75

Breckenridge, 3/4ths of the way to my goal. Headed over to Breck this moning, only ode for a couple of hours, all groomers. I don't know why I continue to go to Breck, I dont particularly like it. I don't know what it is. They opened Montazumas Bowl at A-Basin yesterday, so I will have to hit that up in the next week or so. Vail is suppost to get snow the next 4 days, so I will be heading ove there for that. Hopefully my roomates will be getting back into town the next few days, Im getting tired of riding alone, that is unless there is powder then I dont mind.

Day 74

Vail, stayed on the frontside all day long. Started off making laps on the North woods. 8" of new powder on the mountain made the day perfect. Moved over to lift 3 mid morning , and eventually down to Lions head for lunch. After lunch made a couple of laps straight down the Gondola lift line, found some great trees to duck in and out of. Ended the day heading back over to the North woods, and Lift 10. One of the best days of the year, despite cruising alone.

Day 73

Vail, went to blue sky basin in the morning, hit up the trees, then spent the rest of the day cruising the groomers on the front side. Got 4" of snow. Snow every day this week, made for a great week on the mountain. Hopefully this will keep u and the end of the season will be great.

Day 72

Beaver Creek, Just half a day on the mountain. Made some turns in the trees all morning.Still learning the mountain, so Its fun to exsplore and find new powder stashes. Headed up to the folks cabin. Helped move some stair rails around, and played with the dogs. More snow is in the forcast for tonight and tomorrow, should make for a couple more great days on the mountain.

Day 71

Vail, went up with Boles today. Spent most of the days in the back bowls and blue sky basin. Attempted some small cliff drops today. Didn't land any, but It was fun anyway. I continue to get better, especially when I am pushed by my friends. Great day, suppost to get quite a bit of snow in the next 2-3 days. Can't wait, more Powder.

Day 70

Vail, just half a day. headed to the back bowls and blue sky basin, then just cruised the front side for awhile. Heading out with the roomates tomorrow, so I called it a day and went home to rest a bit.

Day 69, Swimming

Vail, got 5" overnight. Headed for the back bowls and blue sky basin again. Got some video of a few runs today, but I have to edit it before I post it. Starting to get alot of confidence hitting jumps and cruising down mogul runs, as long as there is powder. Exsplored some more runs on the back bowl and ended up a little bit over my head. I found some really deep powder and made the mistake of falling where the trail started to go uphill a bit, ended up having to swim out. Took about 30-45 minutes of crawling on my hands and knees, So i'm a bit tired this evening. Hope everyones Fat Tuesday was as good as mine.

Day 68

Vail, went for about 5 hours this morning. I just caught the leftovers from the powder dump this weekend. Still, some pretty good snow especially in the back bowls and Blue Sky Basin. Hit alot of jumps today. Had some pretty good crashes, but if you ain't crashing you ain't riding hard enough.

Looking at Blue Sky Basin from Tea Cup Bowl.

Looking off of Tea Cup Bowl.

Looking at Tea Cup Bowl from Blue Sky Basin.

Leftovers in Blue Sky Basin.

Windmill at the top of Blue Sky Basin.

Day 67 POWDER!!!!!!

Vail, was only suppost to get 2-4 inches, but the weathermen got it wrong. 9 clorious inches of Powder dumped on Vail last night. I headed up to try and get first chair, but I guess I was about 25 people back in line. Headed straight for the back bowls and blue sky basin. It continued to snow hard until about noon. I would guess another 3-4" came down once I got on the hill. Quite possible the best day of the season. After lunch I headsed back to blue sky, it had cleared up a little, but no blue skys until I got off the hill at 3:00. Here are some pics. As Lance would say it was magical.

Dumping

Plenty of untracked Powder.

The Sun trying to peek thru.

Heading for the trees.

Heading home with blue skys.

Day 66

Breckenridge, Headed up this morning, got up there and made about 5-6 runs then called it. Wind was whipping pretty good. Breck lies about their snow totals as well. They said they had a 2" and, yeah not so much. Headed home to take care of some stuff around the house, now watching the Olympic opening ceremonies.

Day 65

Vail, Caught one of the first chairs again today. Vail got 2" overnight, so I cruised the front side all morning. It was a really a good time, but it got tracked out pretty quick. I broke a cardnial rule by eating lunch on the mountain, but It was very good. Ended the day after lunch with a few more groomers, then headed to the house. I stopped by the Colorado Ski Museum on the way to my car. It was totally cool. I learned so much about the history of Colorado Skiing. It seems that the large majority of the skiing relates directely to the 10th mountain division mountain troops in WWII. So the next time you are just crushing it on the slopes in Colorado remember to thank your local service men for their contrubutions. Also, how many of you folks know that Denver is the only town to ever not accept the winter olympics after they were asked to hold it. Yep happened in 1976. Way to go Denver.

Day 64

Beaver Creek, spent the morning riding groomers. gGot there for first chair. Good to get back on the mountain after resting for three days. Rode until about 12:30, then headed over to the Park Hyatt at Beaver Creek to hang out by the fire, have some Irish Coffee and read a book. Spent a couple of hours lounging, then to the house. A good day on by all accounts.

Day 62 and 63

Vail, then Beaver Creek.

Rode with lots of folks: Jeff, Lance, Dave, Jerrod, Tommy, Jonathan, Michael, Misty, Heather, Shana, and Joy. Had a great time hanging out with old friends, and new. Seems like everyone had a great time. Got a little snow, so it was pretty good on the slopes. Had some folks over for the Super Bowl today. Thats all for now.

Day 61

Vail, rode with Lance, Dave, Jerrod, and Misty today. Spend the morning on green groomers as Misty is a beginner. Then after lunch Dave and I took off to exspore the rest of the mountain hiting up alot of blues. Had a great time and got my legs back under me. Heading back to Vail tomorrow to ride. Can't wait should ba a blast.

Day 60

Beaver Creek, with Lance, Jeff and Dave. In and out of the tree runs all day. The snow is getting pretty sketchy, lots of ice spots and the left over powder in the trees is getting crusty. Suppost to get some new snow tomorrow and Friday. We all had fun and no major injuries. Im pretty beat up right now. Lots of sore muscles and I think i'm hitting some sort of a wall right now. Think I am going to tuff it out the best I can until next Tuesday when all of my friends head back to Georgia then take 2-3 days off just to rest and get away from the mountains. Riding is starting to feel a little to much like a job right now.

Day 59

Breck with Jeff and Lance. Just stayed on the groomers most of the day. Lance got some great pics of the locals crushing the jumps in the terrain park. Got Dave from the airport tonight.

Lance on Monday at Blue Sky Basin.

A Local hitting a jump.

Another Local.

Day 58

Cruised half a day with Jeff and Lance, went to Blue Sky Basin for the majority of the day. Pretty fun day, good to get on the mountain with the Georgia boys. Hitting Breck tomorrow then off to get Dave tomorrow night.

Vail pics.

14 for Lance

Jeff, Killin it.

Me just landing a small jump.

Day 57

Beaver Creek with Lance and Jeff. cruised the mountain all day, Tweeked my back a bit. Had fun till the back thing. Taking tomorrow off. Off to Vail on Monday Pray for Snow.

Day 56 Ouch

A-basin this morning with Lance. decided it would be fun to tomahawk on my snowboard in an open powder field while bombing a run. Not so much a good idea. Kinda hurts a bit, but Im still god to go. Went and picked up Jeff from the airport. Heading to Beaver Creek tomorrow with Jeff and Lance. Can't wait.

Day 55

Beaver Creek, Went up with Lance for a half day. In and out of the trees, catching the last of the powder from the last storm. Took some pretty big falls, but nothing serious. Stuck around for s'mores at the base, and they were giving away free rum as well. I'm a big fan of Beaver Creek, all of the other ski resorts could learn alot from them. Heading to A-basin tomorrow then down to Denver to get Jeff.

Day 54

Vail, made laps in Blue Sky Basin with Lance, some of the best runs of the season. Had such a great day. Hit up the trees and the open bowls. Vail got about 3" of snow, but they had alot of powder remains from the last storm. Heading up to Beaver Creek tomorrow. Should be another banner day on the mountain.

Day 53

Breckenridge, headed over with Lance in the afternoon for about four hours. Powder was all tracked out, so we just cruised the mountain and worked on hitting 360's in the flats and riding switch. All in all a good day until I tweeked my knee a bit and strained it. Not enough to take me out of the game, but it is definately noticable when Im on my toes. Well nothing some icey hot can't fix I hope.

Day 52 POWDER

Vail with Lance, they got 10" overnight. Rode with Tiz and Jeff in the morning. So much fun. Hit up the back bowls in the afternoon and just cruised the mountain all day. My legs finally gave out after 7 days on the mountain and 2 in the powder. We are just going to take it easy over at Breck tomorrow. We got some cool pics, and video

Just a little snow.

Lance in the Sun Up Bowl.

Looking down the Sun Up Bowl.

Lance and Chad.

The car at 9:30 after the day at Vail

Stuck in the snow.

Vail Sun Up Bowl.

Day 51 POWDER

Vail with Lance today. They reported 9" of snow on the mountain, but when we got in the back bowls it was knee to waist deep. So much fun. You had to keep your speed up at all times or you would sink and get stuck. I found that out the hard way. Met up with Tizzle and her friends halfway thru the day and just killed it till about 3:15. It snowed all day as well, so back to Vail tomorrow for more powder and less people. I hope my legs dont give out on me.

Day 50

Keystone at night. Got back in town this afternoon from Steamboat, and headed up to Keystone for some night riding with Lance. Yeah that won't happen again. We made about 4 runs and decided that it was to cold and the runs were way to icy. We decided to call it a day and save our legs for Vail tomorrow.

Days 47,48, and 49 Roadtrip

Headed up to Steamboat on Tuesday, got up there and rode with Lance and Michael for a couple of days. Then Lance and I headed down to Beaver Creek for a half day on Friday. Such a good trip. I learned to hit jumps and Lance mastered the 180 off the jumps. Learning jumps has opened up so much more on the mountains. Some pics.

The cowboys have learned to snowboard.

Being one with nature.

Don't fall asleep first.

Lance on day 3 "Sunday Funday"

I think we will all agree.

First you toast the mallo.

Day 46

Keystone in the morning, as I was leaving the slopes it started to snow, about par for the course so far. Came home and packed, off to Steamboat this afternoon until Friday. Pray for snow.

Day 45

Keystone this morning with Taylor. Started working on trying to ollie. Made laps for a couple of hours the headed to the house. Keystone again tomorrow, the heading to Steamboat to ride Wed. and Thursday. Can't wait to see friends from Atlanta and hang out and cruise the mountain with them.

Day 44

Keystone, just cruised on the mountain today. Lost a couple of screws on my back binding. pretty interesting ride down the mountain to finish the day without any support from my rear high back, but i made it down and consider myself a better boarder because of it. Staying off of the mountains tomorrow, but I think Im going out on Sunday to ride with friends. Hope everyone has a good holiday weekend.

Day 43, Oh the green circles.

Keystone, trying to keep it fun I decided to do all of the green runs at Keystone today. Pretty fun time. I managed to accomplish my goal in about 3 hours, as there are not that many greens at Keystone. Lots of traversing and some cat tracks, but it was nice having a goal. Still no new snow, but there should be some next week. One more day on the mountain, then I'm letting the vacationers take over for the MLK weekend.

Day 42

Beaver Creek, No new snow. Rode all day at Batchelor Gulch and Arrowhead. Didnt head over to the main part of the mountain. Just cruising and exsploring the mountain, pretty fun day. Suppost to get some new snow tomorrow. I'll keep my fingers crossed. Starting to get excited about my Georgia friends that are comming up, the first on gets here in about a week, can't wait to show them my new found skills on the board.

Day 41

Keystone, made laps and stuck to the groomers today. With the lack of snow its like riding on concrete, so I am being careful to not hurt myself when I fall. Its tough to ride for more that 3 hours without getting bored, only a few runs have decent snow, so I try and stick on them and it gets old after awhile. I guess I have turned into one of those guys that is going to constantly whine about the snow quality.

Day 40

Breckenridge, Got back on the snow after the weekend. Headed to Breck, the snow was crusty and icy, about the opposite of what I rode on all last week at Vail. Just cruised on the groomers all day. I heard a mountain employee talking about how they are at about 40% of the snow that they usually have right now. Not sure how accurate that is, but I know we need some snow bad.

Day 39, kinda'

Vail, went up with intentions of riding all day. Yeah, that didn't happen so much. I guess after 6 straight days of riding your body just says no, your done. So I only got in a couple of hours on the mountain before I gave in to my body screaming at me to stop. I'm off the mountain by 11:30. I get to thinking that I could use a nice soak in a hot tub. Well there are plenty of those in the hotels at Vail, so I store my board and head to a the nearest hotel and change in the restroom and find a nice empty hot tub to soak in. Pretty easy to do, just need to act like you belong. I soaked for an hour, then headed over to Garfinkels for lunch and a few beers. Hope your friday was as good.

Day 38

Vail, got 6 inches overnight. Spend the day lapping the back bowls. Such a good day. Starting to get addicted to the powder. Top 3 of the year so far. Headed home to watch some football. Got some pics, hope you enjoy.

Looking off the back side of Vail.

Middle of WOW.

Looking off of Vail Bowls.

Day 37

Vail, headed to Blue sky off the bat today, spent about 3-4 hrs just floating in the powder before my legs gave. spent the later half of the day reading in the local bar. Pretty good day, looking for snow tonight. Back at Vail again tomorrow.

Day 36

Vail, rode the back bowls again today. Spent some time over in Blue Sky basin, such great snow. Learned a few things today.

1. I can do Moguls, in the powder

2. It hurts your neck when you land on your head.

3. You can indeed inhale snow.

Fun times all around.

Day 35

Keystone, went up this morning and made some runs. Its amazing how tired your legs can get from just one day of boarding in powder. I was only on the mountain a couple of hours before I got the jello legs today. I called it an early day. I came home and did some house works and decided to just rest for the day. Looking forward to getting back to Vail tomorrow or Wed. Hopefully we can get some more snow.

Day 34

Vail, just crushed it today! Got 8-10 inches on the mountain and headed up to ride with Taylor, Tizzle and Jeff. Learned that I ride like a stick figure, so they got me to bend my knees alot more than I was. Best advice that I could have gotten. Rode the back bowls after lunch, and its suprizing how much better and more aggressive you can be when you bend your knees. From the praise from my friends it looks like my progression as a boarder is coming along. Might head up to Keystone tomorrow and hike some of the back bowls, depending on the snow report. Today was one of those days that I envisioned when I decided to come up here. Can't wait to do it all again tomorrow.

Day 33

Keystone in the morning, got a few inches of snow, rode some blacks and did some moguls. Feeling well rested and confident after the break. The Denver crowds are starting to show up in droves on the weekends. Watching the worst football game ever. Looks like the old Alma Mater will loose yet another bowl game, but it could be worse. Hope everyone had a good New Years.