The Most Beautiful Day in Colorado

Who could ask for anything more? The four of us woke up this morning to what I would call the simple best skiing conditions I've ever seen. The temperature was 28 degrees, there wasn't a cloud in the sky, and the only wind in the air was against our faces as we raced down the hill. Conditions in the mountains don't get better than this.

Since we tackled most of the runs on Peaks 8 and 9 yesterday, we decided to hit Peak 7 today. It was mainly Blue Squares, but had immediate access to the upper bowls, some extreme skiing of Double-Black Diamonds that Garrett and I were eyeing constantly. I'm not going to lie to you, I picture myself getting impaled on some hidden rock underneath the powder, but it did look enticing. Unfortunately, we never made it up that high. But, we made up for it in stride.

It was a simple day, to say in the least. I started the day with my book on the couch as I was waiting for everyone to wake up, who, one by one mingled into the living room and somehow got hooked on watching Parent Trap. Not the old one with Haley Mills, but the new version, with Dennis Quaid and Lindsay Lohan, when she still had red hair and actually retained some level of 'cute.' That ended near 10am, after which we immediately hit the slopes. We spent the beginning of the day putzing around lower Peak 8, in a lot of the Blue Squares and a few Black Diamonds that Garrett and I needed to tackle. Eventually, as promised, we made our way over to Peak 7, the far eastern mountain that we nearly spent the rest of the day on. Garrett and I stuck together on most of the runs, while Lisa and Claire explored their own paths down. The nice thing about Peak 7 is that no matter where you go, it all ends up in the same place.

So Garrett and I got hooked on the trees. I've always been a fan of tree runs and Garrett is developing a growing appreciation of them in any chance he gets. Unfortunately, at one point down the slope, we got separated and I picked the wrong tree run. He saw me go in, and I never came out. Why? Stupid trees. It was a narrow run, pretty much in the middle of a dense alpine forest. I was moving a decent pace when the pitch increased and I picked up speed. Now, in a tree run, there's no slowing down, not in one this dense anyway. You can't hockey stop. You can wedge. It's all reaction. I was doing fine until I made the turn and saw a tree, fairly large in size, right in the middle of the path. I caught an edge and got spun around, launching me a good ten feet into the out of bounds powder. It's a god-send that I didn't hit a tree on my way down. After dusting myself off and regaining a bit of humility, I was off again, only to meet the rest of the gang at the bottom of the hill in the midst of worry. Garrett was currently calling me as he saw me go into the trees, but never come out. But this would not be the end of our tree runs.


The Ore Bucket. Garret and I freakin' loved this hill. I found it first, as everyone went right, I went left, and came across the the path that led into this glade of alpines and bowls, full of powder and ripe for further exploration. As soon as I met Garrett at the bottom of the hill, I told him to follow me and we spent the next four runs jumping between the pines in the Ore Bucket, each time finding a new path, we could've done it the rest of the day if we had time. Unfortunately, we didn't.

A few runs later, we were back where we started, only a minute after 4:00pm and all the lifts of the mountain closing down for the evening....just the time for some apres ski, as the rounds of beer and scotch were passed around as an appropriate ending for the day.

Right now were about to head out and start our evening. It is, in fact, Lisa's 28th Birthday today, so celebrations are in order. More to come as the evening inevitably comes to a close...