Day 15: Vail

Vail . . .

So we split a condo in Frisco with Ali and John and a few of their friends from Cali. We ended up on the softest air mattress in history and it was kinda annoying to sleep on, but overall it was a good night. I made sauce and everyone else contributed apps, booze, etc.

Early to bed, early to rise, we actually made it to Vail by 8:30 and were on the chair by 9. Heavenly corduroy lol, its all that was left of last week's snow.

Short day, we were outta there by 12:45 and made it back down because Maddie had to work. Good although short morning for some Vail groomers. BEAR TREE!

Day 14: Keystone late afternoon

Day 14 i never want to get here this late again . . .

Headed up late afternoon with Lindsey and Maddie, gave somebody a lift on our way over Loveland pass, and stopped at the spring for a drink. After that the girls dumped me off at Keystone for a few runs while they did some shopping. I managed to get 2 full runs in before the sun set behind the mountains. Good warmup for tomorrow at Vail . . .

Day 13 - Loveland Pass and Keystone

Headed up around 9 with Ryan and decided to join some of the knuckle draggers at the pass. Having finally received my beacon, probe, and shovel, we thought it would be a good opportunity to try a few of these items out. For all of you who had a field day calling me an idiot for not having this equipment beforehand, let me say this - I was the only person we saw at the pass all day that mentioned that they had a beacon. Also, not a single other rider that we saw was carrying a pack, so where they had stashed their shovel and probe is a mystery. The point is, if you wanna get all pissy about backcountry riding, please feel free to stop at the base of the pass on any given day, and give a few of the folks there the rundown.

Ryan and I took just two quick runs on the short side of the pass, keeping to relatively mellow runs around 25 degrees below the treeline, snatching about 6-700ft of vertical each run.

Next we headed up to Keystone and got a few groomer runs under our belt. The snow was decent and it was a nice day, so we took it easy and enjoyed ourselves. We headed back fairly early and made it to Denver by 2pm.

I was stoked to get back on my feet, and being my first day at the pass since the avalanche, it was good to take a few mellow, relatively safe runs to build my confidence again. I'm glad to have my new gear, and I'm hoping to begin a new chapter of my riding career.

Happy 2010! Signing off from Puerto Aventuras, Q. Roo, Mexico . . .

No one cares . . .

Day 12: New Board - First Ride Since Avalanche

Behold, my brand spanking new 09 Burton Custom X Wide 164. Took it out of the bag last night and it came with a beautiful factory tune and edge. Detuned tip 'n tail and mounted up my bindings (it came with plates to put regular bindings in the ICS channel), and I was ready to ride. I've gotten a bunch of new stuff lately and I've been thinking about adding product reviews. This will be my first subject . . .

Nice day up at Keystone, drove up with Lindsey, Dom and Ryan. Partly cloudy with weather moving quickly in and out all day. Not too cold and relatively pleasant. I was a little anxious as we rode up the gondola for the first time, but once I got my board on my feet, I was right at home. My hip and leg held up perfectly, and only gave me trouble near the end of the day after many many rollers. Otherwise, I kept my elbow out of the way and tried not to think about it.

The snow was softer on top, made for some good turns. Underneath there are still some very hard/icy spots at the stone, so make sure you do your edge work.