Tag Archives: snowboarding

When my count down to the “Last Day At Vail Resorts!” stumbled to an end I jumped right into my two weeks of…freedom. I was finally down to just one job! I had a sliver of free time and I could spend it however I wanted; not just sleeping! And that’s exactly what I did. It wasn’t until late last night that I realized this — on Monday I’m essentially saying “good-bye” to Colorado for…I have no idea how long. Oh, I’m excited, I’m ready for another bout of change and I have an incredible summer ahead of me.

However, I am going to miss Colorado! From the mountain views to the adventurous people to the winding trails to the local cafes….I’m going to miss Colorado and I am going to miss Summit County! Thankfully I’ve been a lucky duck and I’ve taken some serious advantage of my free time…

Welcome to the new version of my little snippet of the internet. Whatcha think? You best like it…because I kind of do so I won’t be changing much. BUT, if anything isn’t flowing/working for you let me know, I’ll whip it into shape!

I’ve been living in Summit County — the home of 4 big Colorado mountain resorts — since December. My mountain job came with the perk of a season pass. It takes about 15 minutes to get from my bed to the base of a ski run. Yet, somehow, I’ve only been on the mountain 6 times this year. That’s sad. Really sad. Especially when you consider the fact I managed to get nearly 30 days a few years ago when I had to drive up from Denver every stinking day!

I am headed into my fourth winter in Colorado and for the past three years I’ve kicked off the season by strapping on my snowboard before October 31st. This year has been a little different, to say the least, but I never expected for December to roll around before I had an opportunity to frolic around in the snow. But alas, I didn’t even take my snowboard out of its bag until December 5th! What is this world coming to?! What has happened to “love all things mountain-y” priorities?! Why am I letting silly what-grown-ups-are-supposed-to-do excuses get in the way of my fun!?

Honestly, I can’t even make up good lies to answer those questions so I’ll distract you with mountain photos instead! On Saturday I finally got a chance to layer on my winter gear and wait in weekend lines at Keystone. Only a small portion of Keystone was open but it was still worth the trip. We did a few loops on the [busy + rocky] front side of the resort then took the Outback Gondola to the back side in search of solitude and legitimate snow cover.

Spoiler Alert: we found snowy tree runs! Yes! The front side of Keystone was littered with icy patches, toppling children and rocks, but the back side?! As usual, that’s where the magic happens at Keystone. The groomers were rock-free and the trees were tracked up by still hiding pockets of fresh snow! But really, no matter where you went on Keystone it was refreshing just to see snow after knowing how bare the runs were just a few weeks earlier when I hiked near Peak One with a view of Keystone’s back bowls.

In my world you cannot work your way all the way to the far back side lift at Keystone without hiking a bit…so hike we did. We didn’t make it far before the snow started to thin, just a few hundred feet past the North Bowl/South Bowl sign. But that was good enough for us! The true beauty of tree riding is the solitude you get. Even on busy days the trees are not a popular place to be! Plus, when there are almost not back side trails open the lift lines on that half of the mountain are nearly non-existent, a huge weekend riding win!

After a few hours of riding we decided we needed to head home…we had a very important experiment to execute. There was a sparkly new oven just chilling in a newly remodeled kitchen that needed to be tested out and it became clear to us that baking cookies was the only possibly way to ensure the oven was fully functional! Two batches of cookies were baked and many samples were tasted but we eventually came to the conclusion that not was the oven working properly it was VERY good at backing cookies! In true cool kid fashion we topped off our Saturday night with multiple airplane heists + evacuations on Grand Theft Auto, a long drawn out game of Settlers of Catan and few major eye rolls at “A Million Ways to Die in the West”. Yup…I think my Saturday kind of rocked!

Two weeks ago we packed up our gear with big plans for an early Saturday departure followed by a long weekend deep in the Colorado Rockies avoiding reality, cell signal and any adult responsibilities. Paula showed up at 5:30am, we loaded up the car, stopped for donuts and headed into the mountains. By 9:30am we were parked and unloaded at the Spraddle Creek Trailhead, ready to head up, up, up to the Eiseman Hut.

The backcountry is an interesting place. If you take a second to think about it you realize that a lot of the things about the backcountry are really quite miserable. What part of skinning uphill for miles with a 40lb pack sounds fun? None of it! It doesn’t matter how beautiful the scenery is…that kind of hiking hurts, a lot.

And somehow I am still always jumping at the opportunity to spend hours trudging through the snow. Why?!

Plans are great. They give you a purpose in life and expectations for your future. We all makes plans and usually have high hopes for things to go as planned. Some times they do. Other times…not so much. Reality happens, life gets in the way, roads ice over…

When plans to awry things get interesting. More often than not you can react one of two ways – work yourself into a quivering mass of anger or readjust your expectations and enjoy. This past weekend I watched a lot of people lose their cool over things they had no control over, all while I did what I could to take a step back and find some fun in the chaos.

Welp, all that “hey, look at me because I might be a runner” blabber clearly did not work as a long-term motivator. All that running I was supposed to do this weekend? Yea, I decided to take up cross-training instead. I’d blame all the snow that finally arrived in Denver but the trails/sidewalks got cleared quickly, I own traction + gaiters and there were no arctic winds. All that kind of shot my Friday/Saturday excuses right in the foot. But my Sunday excuse? Oh, it’s a good one…

Rather than go on a snowy long run like a responsible runner-in-training would do I jumped at the opportunity to head west and play in the feet of fresh powder that got dumped on Summit County. It was Superbowl Sunday and I had high hopes for an empty mountain…Keystone did not disappoint! Traffic did not exist, the lift lines disappeared at 11:30 and the powder was glorious!

I made the early morning drive up alone with the intent to spend the day riding hard, alone. I was actually really excited for a long day on the mountain looping along tree runs just to see what I was capable of. As I made my way up the mountain it became apparent I wouldn’t have to ride alone. Heather and Will were already in Summit County, Piper was on the road somewhere ahead of me and Lynne came up for afternoon skiing! I had all sorts of friends to frolic in the snow with!

Lynne, rocking at life after just 1 year on skis! She hit the black diamonds and even the deep tree runs! So proud!

At some point throughout the day I met up with pretty much everyone I knew on the mountain and even made a few new random friends. That did not stop me from riding hard and pushing my limits. I immediately headed to the back of the mountain, did some hiking up to the North/South Bowls and spent as much quality time in the trees as the lifts would allow.

The first thing I noticed while riding alone? I’m much more aggressive when I’m by myself! I was hitting lips while sucking it in and crouching to fit through the trees – I’ve never done that before! At least not on purpose!

Sure, I beat the crap out of my helmet and may have made direct contact with a tree more than once but it felt so good! Well, except for the part where I try to hug a tree only to have 2 pounds of fresh snow fall onto my head…and melt down my back. Yup, that happened more times than I care to admit. And yes, my jacket had a hood, I was just being stupid!

Somehow I managed to dig up just enough responsibility to go to work today…and probably tomorrow, and the day after that. But this weekend? Definitely have plans for more hard tree riding – counts as cross training, right? Trust me, my body says it does! Riding powder is a lot of work!

In today’s world nearly every company has a motto, a tagline…and a hashtag. It’s great for communicating with customers, especially when done with consistency and sincerity. Some companies fail miserably, other are a shining success. I’m pretty sure Columbia falls into the shining success category…and I’m not just saying that because I’m lucky enough to part of a hashtagged group brought together by Columbia. I’m not saying that because I spent a week watching the company live up to its #TryingStuff motto.

Columbia box on my door back in October, becoming part of the #OmniTen crew was kind of a big deal for me! As our January trip date approached another invite went out – to all past and present #OmniTen members - asking everyone to take on the #OmniGames. Columbia kept the details under wraps but we all jumped at the chance to participate in whatever the #OmniGames happened to be.

So, what exactly are the #OmniGames?

I am the kind of person who writes up packing lists like my life depends upon it. I may end up rewriting the list about eight times because I tend to “misplace” things but there is always a list. And it is usually color coordinated by day and activity. I’m weird like that.

This explains why last Sunday night was pure chaos in my apartment! I was packing for a trip I knew nothing about. Well, I knew there would be snow to play in…but that was all. How do you pack for that? You count out clean socks, convince yourself Columbia baselayers count as pants and throw together one outfit that might qualify as “mountain town cute” then hope for the best. That is precisely how I packed for the #OmniTen trip to Park City…and somehow I survived the full week without running out of clothes to wear! Although that may have had more to do with the amazing Columbia swag bag than my ability to plan for the unknown!