2.24.10

REVISED:  I told you this, but just to be consistent, here is my belated birthday post

Happy Birthday Dad!

What an absolutely amazing day today was. Pete and I headed to A-Basin for the opening of the Montezuma Bowl.

Just so you know.....

This is the bumper sticker that I passed in the parking lot and that pretty much summed up today's skiing experience.

We had some breakfast at home and hit the road early to try and get first chair. No matter what, I somehow manage to mess that up. One day we'll make it, maybe.

When we made it to the parking lot at the bottom of Loveland pass it was full of people looking for rides to the top so they could ski down.

Pete, being the good snowboarder that he is and to build up some good karma for when he skis the pass, picked up two boarders and off we went.

When the sky is blue and the sun is out the view from the continental divide is amazing. It was so bright out that the picture looks like crap. I didn't really have a lot of time to set up a shot.

A-Basin is a total locals mountain. It's totally chill and everything is so close to where you park. There are no condos here and that's another thing that makes it great. They have an awesome learning program where you only get a pass for Molly Hogan, aka the Bunny Hill.

And the magic carpet

So we set up and finished getting ready.

Then up the mountain we went....

I have 2 short videos that I took on the way up the lifts.  Links to youtube are below.  For some reason this post will only let 1 video function at a time, and it didn't work as individual posts either. So just click on them at it will take you to the video. 

"A Basin Lift 1"
  
"A Basin Lift 2"
    

Snowboarding is great, don't get me wrong, but boy is it hard. I am proud to say that today I only fell 1 time getting off the lift and that's because some 'gaper' (i.e. tourist, idiot) decided that they should ski right across the unloading ramp. Sure, they could have been avoided by say a snowboarder of Shaun Whites experience, or Pete's for that matter, but not mine. So thanks gapers for ruining my perfect streak of getting off the lift without looking stupid.

At the top we met up with Pete's friend Andy from Breckenridge. He had already taken a run in the bowl and said we should ski the front side. That was fine for me since I've never skied a bowl before.

I was a little intimidated to be skiing with another person as good as Pete. At this point I've only skied with family and they are stuck with me no matter how horrible I am, but today for some reason I did really good.  It was busier than I've ever seen it and you still never felt crowded on the slopes. 

I had Pete take some video of my turns and of course there was a few blooper takes before I could pull it together. It's a bit hard to see but I'm the one coming toward the camera.  You can really start to see me around second 13.

Since more of the mountain is open, and we skied the same trail all day last time I was there, I was finally in an area that sent me past the big terrain park. Boring, no one was doing anything. There is a rail jam in early March that we might go to.  I'll have to get video from Breck's park since the people that do that park are amazing.  The jumps are huge!

I did my first jump at Keystone and haven't tried anything since. Pete really wants me to do rails but the idea of falling over and over again in front of an audience isn't my type of fun on top of the immense pain from falling.  Even with pads it's not gonna be fun.  When I have one in my backyard then I'll do it.

Andy could only take a few runs so we took a quick break. The parking lot is a great place to hang out after a few runs with a beer.

So after a cold one we decided it was time to ski the bowl we came here for......

Before we headed over to the drop in point for the bowl we headed to a warming hut for a quick pit stop.

The picture came out cute and the elevation is nice to point out. The view from up there is amazing but the pictures still don't do it justice.

Like I said, I've never skied a bowl before and I was a little nervous since I suck in powder. Pete eventually calmed me down enough to get me to drop in. There is a groomed section of the trail and when I tried to go off it it was a disaster. I actually heard people laughing from the lift. That's what I get for doing it to people, karma's a bitch.

We headed back to the parking lot and headed toward home. Again we came across some people that needed a lift to the top of the divide. They had the cutest chocolate lab.

Everybody squeezed in and off we went. When we dropped them off I saw the funniest thing. A group of skiers/boarders were getting ready for lunch when they made their cooler....

I mean really, do you ever need more than a snow bank?

I'm trying to take more pictures so this blog is a little more interesting. I've come across some very funny and odd things since moving out here so I'll try my best to pass on the expereinces. So tune in becuase you never know what might show up!