Saturday February 18, 2012

Sometimes big surprises come in small packages. I went out to Wolf Creek Mountain today. I honestly wasn’t expecting a lot after some of the massive mountains I have been to this winter. I had a blast! They really do have the most snow in Colorado. I saw the most soft, fresh, untouched snow today than anywhere else, except after days that had big snow dumps. There hasn’t been any snowfall here for a while, but there were still untouched and really deep areas all over the mountain, especially in the trees. That is astonishing considering that the mountain is not all that big.

It was a different kind of snow here, much heavier it seems. I had gotten arrogant recently. After the first few weeks I was saying how I wasn’t getting soar legs or tired by the end of the day anymore. Working through all the heavy powder today made my legs burn a bit. Still not as bad as the first few weeks. I’m glad all my preparations are paying off in dividends.

The whole mountain had such a different ‘feel’ to it than other bigger resort type mountains. The closest accommodations are 25 miles away. The people were super nice. They had the old school style lift tickets. Still just a sticker on a metal hanger that a human being had to look at each time. All mountains I have been to lately have bar scanners or RF credit card style cards. This place even had what appeared to be a pavilion at the base where they held birthday parties! I felt like I was at the local ice rink and they were herding groups of birthday parties through. You’ll never see that type of hometown, intimate features at the giant mountains.

I walked into breakfast this morning and the first thing I see is a bright orange Flyers tee shirt staring me right in the face. It was a couple of brothers from Bucks County. Really nice fellas. They let me sit with them for breakfast and have nice conversation. The one had a Flyers tee shirt on and the other had a scuba tee shirt on. Can’t be anything wrong with these two guys.

Apparently even the mountain was expecting The Carnival and set up a special WIFI connection for me. It would stand for Wolf Creek, but I highly doubt it. I also saw a sticker for the Darkside Snowboard Shop in Killington today. Seemed like an odd place, middle of nowhere Colorado and I see a sticker from back home. I got confused for a minute.

I forgot to mention that the stellar Hillside Inn is pet friendly. That is great, I could have brought my entire family. All 3 of them don’t shower, like a bunch of animals ;-).

Thursday February 16, 2012

Well, today is my last day in Telluride, for now. I’ll be back in a few weeks. For a last day here it was really an embarrassing day for The Carnival, a blemish on our record. I hit the mountain just after first thing this morning. It was another beautiful blue skies day. There is a trail here called See Forever, you really can see forever from the top. I came back to my place at noon to finish off last night’s leftover delicious pasta. After consumption I fell asleep on the couch until 4pm. Yikes. It was both a complete waste of time and the absolute best way to spend some days.

I am leaving here tomorrow. I’ve been staying in this same place for 2 weeks so I am pretty spread out and moved in. Not looking forward to packing. When I leave I’ll be driving to Pagosa Springs, Colorado. It should be about a half-day drive from here. Since there are still really no snowstorms to chase I picked this semi out of the way place that I have never heard of. There is a mountain nearby called Wolf Creek. I have never heard of it, but locals rave about it. The mountain claims to get the most snow in Colorado every year. They aren’t getting any right now, but hopefully it’s a nice place to visit and a new sticker to buy. I’ll be there until Monday when I leave for Denver to pick up JO.

Speaking of running away to join The Carnival, I received a weird email today. It was from Orbitz. I was so excited that I might have been chosen to be a part of some new experimental flavors gun focus group. Not the case. It was apparently a flight itinerary for Bradford. It claimed that he was flying into Salt Lake City in a couple weeks. I sure hope that is the case. I also hope he spent the money to buy the insurance…wink, wink.

Starting on Monday I’ll have company for the next 3 weeks straight. JO, Bradford, and Wifey. Without a question three of my favorite people on the planet. Actually, now that I think about it, they probably compose the majority of people I can even stand.

I got an email today from Father-in-Law. I had no idea he was keeping track, hopefully I have been writing on my best behavior. He informed me of an enormous snowstorm blowing through Texas. The photos he sent were fairly impressive, for Texas.

I saw something rare today that made me laugh and enjoy other human beings for a change. It can only be described as Sharks on a Mountain. Someone built a scene from Jaws right below your feet at the top of a lift where you get off. I tried to get some pics and vid, hopefully they translate the scene and the creativity.[imagebrowser id=3]

I also put together another tree riding video. It’s as boring as the others, unless you are me. This one does contain some pretty nice crashes.

Wednesday February 15, 2012

Today was one of those amazing, nothing but blue skies atop Telluride Mountain. Weather was beautiful and the wind was calm at its strongest. They got the same snowstorm here that I was in Crested Butte for. So there was still a lot of soft snow to be found. The very end of the day it started snowing, but I don’t think it is going to accumulate to anything.

I spent my entire day either in the trees, on a lift, or eating chili. I set out today to do something different, try to get to areas that I either have not been to, or not spent a lot of time. It worked out great. I found a couple great tree spots that I hadn’t found before. BT would have loved it! I got onto a trail today that he and I rode the other day. It was a narrow one leading to the very bottom and ending in the town. There was a turn off that I missed the other day and I remember saying to BT, “I wish we had stayed on this trail.” Well, I stayed on it today. I got completely lost within the mountain. I ended up getting dumped at the base of the mountain almost outside of the town. I had to walk about a half a mile back to the town and the main gondola. It was quite an experience.

I rode a lift today with a nice old man from Switzerland. He lives in Arizona now and also has a house here. He said a few very important things to me today. One was that the school systems here are great. Gathering this type of information is part of my reconnaissance mission during The Carnival. The other fun fact was that the European Alps have incredible skiing and he was all in favor of the Chevy Chase formula, which would equate to European Winter Carnival 2013.

Since I’m talking about the school system here, I also road a lift today with the local high school lacrosse coach. When I told him I was from Maryland he immediately brought up lacrosse. I told him I played in high school and filled him in on my unbreakable LAX record (first ever goal for the Caravel LAX team). He was telling me how the team was new, I think this was going to be their second year. Now that I have gotten in front of a computer and looked the team up, checked out their stats, and seen that they went 0-14 and got shut out several times, I now understand why this coach was trying to recruit my unborn child.

I also met this cute guy today.

Monday February 13, 2012

What a unique day today was. It was both a mountain and a travel day. I intended for my reconnaissance mission to Crested Butte to be a simple overnight adventure. My plan was to wake up this morning and drive back to Telluride after having made a successful assessment of the trip to Crested Butte. There was no way I could get up and leave this morning after the POW CAM showed 8 to 10 inches of fresh snow overnight. I kept waking up last night and looking out the window. It was snowing hard every time. I knew that my plans to leave early in the morning were in jeopardy. I bought a half-day pass this morning at Crested Butte so I was able to enjoy the freshest of fresh powder before I left. It was some of the best powder riding to date. I wish I took my camera out today. There were a couple times that I was absolutely the first human on some runs. The 10 inches of powder was untouched, just waiting for me to come barreling down through and ruin it. These are just terrible phone pictures:

So I spent the morning enjoying the earthly delights and got on the road around noon. This morning was a success even though I was sure something bad would happen. I was up in the air about staying or leaving so I flipped a coin. The coin said to leave, I chose to stay. I don’t usually go against what the fate of the coin tells me to do. I did take a pretty bad tumble through the trees. I went head over heals and the only thing that stopped me was the back of my head and neck hitting a tree trunk. It hit right where my helmet ends, so most of the thump was taken on the helmet, but I did get a nice big brush burn on the back of my head. If that is the worst that happens for ignoring the fate coin, then I say bring it!

On my drive back into town today I saw a rare site. I saw a guy riding a giant unicycle while walking his dog. The tire to the unicycle had to be as big as a man. It was amazing! I was not in a position to get any video or pictures, unfortunately. However a quick search of the googlenet turned up plenty of pics and videos, including this one, which is not quite what I saw, but a great video nonetheless.

Sunday February 12, 2012

I had quite the enjoyable day on MT Crested Butte. It started snowing here last night and continued all through today. The mountain in Crested Butte is much smaller than many of the other mountains out here. Luckily size doesn’t matter when you’re having fun, that’s what she said.  I didn’t see anywhere on the mountain website that for $90 you were able to rent out the entire mountain to yourself on a Sunday. The only lift line I waited in was the one I chose to wait in, the first one up in the morning after opening time. I probably didn’t see 100 people by lunchtime.

I tried everything I could today short of believing in god and praying, but I was unable to get it to stop snowing. Something miraculous did happen today though. There was a point in time where the snow was coming down as plentiful as I have ever seen snow fall. At the same time the sun came out and shone with a ferocity that could only be described as sun-like in brightness. This lasted for probably about a half an hour. It was quite a climate marvel to witness, the perfect storm of goodness. It was a vicious battle that the snow ultimately won in the end. I assume that is only the kind of phenomenon that could happen here, in this square shaped piece of paradise known as Colorado.

I continued my constant polling of the locals, mind out of the gutter please. Everyone I speak to that lives in these towns is not originally from them. Almost all came west, or moved because of their love of the winters, snow, skiing, and mountains. 4 out of 5 that moved here for the snow say that summer is now their favorite time of the year. I guess I know where we are going this summer.

I saw this sign today. Chairlift speed dating…that is completely new to me. I never heard of anything quite like this. What a town this is. No, I was nowhere near the Twister lift at noon.

Saturday February 11, 2012

Not really. I have the greatest life I know. Made the drive today from Telluride to Crested Butte, Colorado. It was a very nice leisurely 4-hour drive, almost nothing in comparison. I say leisurely because I stopped for a visit to a post office, take a bunch of pictures, and was stuck behind a big truck going 20 for a long time. It was another lovely white Colorado drive. BT called to let me know he made it home alive. Apparently the snow followed him home. That’s not all that followed him. He told me a story about almost getting mugged by 5 guys today trying to sell him music. It’s the kind of story I have heard about, but not in North East or Rising Sun. Rising Sun used to have “organizations” to handle those type of situations. Poor BT.

I already went down to visit the town and have some lunch. What a picturesque little mountain town! So mountainy and colorful. Definitely feels like someplace I could settle down and raise dogs and miniature humans. It is now really easy for me to understand why and how half of my teenage friends dropped out of life and moved here. Wife told me that this town was great, I had no reason not to believe her, but it is different to see it with my own eyes. I was only planning to stay here 1 night, hit the mountain tomorrow, and then head back to Telluride. Since this was only a ‘scouting ahead’ mission one night was all that was needed. I think I might stay here a couple nights now. UPDATE: definitely staying here for at least 2 nights.

There is some kind of hippie yoga convention going on in this hotel right now. The sights and smells are bringing me back to another lifetime. Probably 2 or 3 lifetimes ago. I just saw this while I was down in the lobby, only in Colorado, and another fantastic reason to become a resident.

Some new photos from the drive and Crested Butte uploaded.

Friday February 10,2012

BT is officially gone. He didn’t call and let me know that his flying death box didn’t crash, but I saw online that it didn’t. In honor of his memory I put together a few video compilations for him and his family. That is part of what I did with my day off today. I also got a bunch of other nonsense done that is way to boring to mention or list…laundry, dishes, caught up on work, mourned over BT’s departure, had the board tuned up, went to the market…hmmm, looks like I still mentioned them. I am probably going to take a couple-day trip away from Telluride starting tomorrow. I am going to drive up to Crested Butte for a day or two. Wife visited there a couple summers ago and wants to see what the mountain is like in the winter. The trip there is solely a scouting mission. I can find out what the drive, conditions, and mountain are like before she shows up in a couple weeks. We’ll be fully prepared in case she also wants to make the trek to Crested Butte.

Below are a couple HD video montages that I put together to salute my week with BT. Disclaimer: as usual, long and dull.

Super Sunday February 5, 2012

Another travel day. Today I chauffeured BT from Vegas to Telluride. He rode like a Prince today. I would have let him ride in the back like a VIP but he brought too much luggage and there was no room for him. I had a great time in Vegas this weekend. Good fun and great food. BT and I had a lot of fun at the fights last night. Unfortunately I couldn’t pick a winner and the guy I was there for got robbed with what I am calling, “the worst fight decision ever no matter what my weird half Asian friends/salesmen might think even though he is wrong”.

Vegas was both fun and successful. I did lose my ass on my fight bets. I only picked 1 of the 5 I bet. Luckily that is only the second time I have lost on fight bets and the fight bets were paid for with casino money. BUT, thankfully I am the sports betting champion. I have now officially picked and bet on the past 7 or 8 Superbowl winners. Thanks to the Giants and my keen insight I made a 300% ROI on the Superbowl alone. I took them with the points, without the points, and a parley with the under. When I tally the Superbowl win and the fights losses I netted a cooooool $65 in sports book winnings. A win is a win and I keep my legendary status alive. Other than the sports bets I dominated on the table games. I left with plenty of their money. I kept looking in the rear view mirror from I-15 to see if they were shutting the lights off behind me as we drove away.

Tomorrow hopefully start our days back on the slopes. They got a little snow here the other day when the storms passed near Denver, but not a lot. The forecast isn’t too promising either. Hopefully that changes, the weather is a fickle SOB. Maybe BT has brought the winter weather west with him.

Big fight tomorrow night. I can’t wait!!

I had a fun day in Vegas, as if anything else is possible. Went to a Q and A with GSP. He is pretty boring and vanilla, but I already knew that. The weigh ins were pretty undramatic also. I made all my sports bets for the fights and the Superbowl. Have to see if I can keep my streak intact. I have won my bet on the past 6 or 7 Superbowls, pretty amazing. The best part is that I used all house money to make those bets. So far I still have all my money, and a lot of theirs. That could all change in a couple days…or minutes. We were crushing it on a dice table tonight. I had a ticket to go see the Joe Rogan Super Spectacular Comedy Show. It was so hot on the table that I didn’t leave. I assumed I would miss some or all of the show. When I left the table I went over to the House of Blues. I guess they started the show pretty late, and I sat down in my seat LITTERALLY as the show was starting. Pretty good timing all round, kind of them to wait for me.

Looking forward to the fights tomorrow. BT should be landing any minute now. UPDATE: BT’s metal tube that was hurtling through the cosmos did NOT, I repeat, NOT, plummet into fiery ruin.

Here is another picture I saw today and liked. Can you guess which one is Nick Diaz?

Wednesday February 1, 2012

Everyone knows that my family and I have been huge supporters of the Keurig® Company since the beginning. I am happy to announce that they are returning the favor. Keurig® has come onboard as an official sponsor of the Winter Carnival 2012. We are more than pleased to have them involved. The board of directors for the Carnival thanks the lovely people at Keurig® and hope this is the beginning of a long and prosperous relationship.

Now that the hard core facts have been presented, time for some daily gibberish. I think this must be my first time staying in a “true” ski in/ski out location. I have been lucky to stay in some nice locations, but this place is pretty fantastic. If I wasn’t staying on the second floor I could ride right into my room. I rode right up onto my downstairs neighbor’s patio this afternoon.

I think I am going to make today my last day here. I am scheduled to make the drive to Vegas on Friday to meet up with BT (name kept anonymous until I get a signed waiver agreeing to appear on WC12 website). I might leave a day early and have a much more leisurely drive. I had a blast on the mountain in Steamboat this week, but there is only so much riding I can do on that hard packed powder before I get wounded, frustrated, or worse. I can’t believe it is already to this portion of the trip. I never thought it would happen at all, let alone get this far!

I did get some great news from home. Wife told me she is going to finish ranked #5 in her graduating class at law school. I’m not being modest when I say I take a lot of credit for that. My plan has come together nicely. I leave for the winter, and she has plenty of time to focus on school, graduation, law review, and the bar exam. She was not as happy about her news as I was. She actually screamed “colon open parenthesis” at me when she told me the news. I could not be more proud of her. I love telling people on the gondolas about my wife back home finishing law school just because she wanted a challenge in life.