Skiing

I got back to Madison from Colorado a couple days ago. I am currently going through mountain withdrawal. I think at some point in my life I need to pull a Mar and just up and move to Colorado. Maybe after that I'll be able to move on, or I might just end up never leaving. Who knows.

Skiing was great, and on top of that I got to hang out with Dartmouth people for the first time since this summer. You just don't find people that cool in outside of the small college environment. We skied A-Basin, Keystone, Copper, Breckenridge, Beaver Creek, and Vail. I set a record for 9 days of skiing in a row. The last 6 it snowed at least a little every day, leading to near-epic conditions at Vail with my dad, Copper, and Beaver Creek, and a top 5 powder day of my life with Mar at Vail on my last day. Photos and video are viewable on Facebook (I'm too lazy at this time to figure out that whole embedding video/photo thing in blogs).

The only downside to the whole trip was that with the storms, visibility in open bowls was crap so I am still waiting to experience the Imperial Bowl at Breckenridge and a truly great day in the back bowls. I settled for Blue Sky Basin at Vail though, which isn't a step down at all. I also discovered all but the most secluded powder stashes at Beaver Creek as I was there the two days after 16 inches fell. The Larkspur lift, the glades on Grouse Mountain, and the new glades near the Rose Bowl lift proved to be money; I was making fresh tracks at 2 in the afternoon.

With the lack of parental supervision I also attempted to increase my repetroir of tricks and cliff jumps. I managed to land a 180 for the first time, though it deserves an asterisk since I was attempting a 360 at the time. I also set 7-8 feet as my current max hight for cliff/cornice jumps. I attempted 4, landed 1, and have yet to ski away from any. The highest jump I skied away from was probably 5 feet. Mar and I were having fun launching small cliffs in the soft snow during our powder day.

I'm looking forward to going back in February for the All Boys trip, which will be crashed by Mar. I'm sure the boys will make an allowance for girls who rip.