Monday, December 31, 2012

Birds of Prey World Cup Downhill

Race start is just over the horizon of the top back peak

 
The other day Beaver Creek hosted a round of the Men's World Cup of Downhill Skiing. The races were held on a western slope of the resort with a vertical run of  around 3,000 vertical ft. These dudes really know how to boogie, getting down the mountain in about a minute and a half going over 120km/h. This was the real deal with international TV coverage, commentary and the best downhill skiers from around the world. We saw a couple of heavey spills and but most made it down in one piece.
Here comes the winner

Monday, December 24, 2012

Merry Christmas

and a happy New Year

Thomas Hates Dogs...


 

For the nearly three years that I have known Thomas, he has made a point to tell me over and over that he is definatly a cat person and hates dogs. Well, after living with Phil and his dog Keona for a month here in Colorado, Thomas has proven that he really does "hate" dogs!!!







Thomas Loves Keona

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

First week on the slopes

First day riding out at Breckenridge
So with Amy and I having both finally secured winter jobs, we also finally got our season passes. So the first opportunity we had, we headed down the road to Keystone for a mornings ride and the following day to the adjacent Breckenridge resort. Still early season conditions with most of the snow being man made, and with still only very limited runs, but still plenty of fun. Especially at Keystone which is open top to bottom with a long 950+ meters of vertical descent making for one long run and Breckenridge had a few jumps for me to attempt.

So when were not snowboarding, there is that thing we do every now and then called work. I have a job at a shop called Sports Authority in the rental department, which is actually way cooler than it sounds. We have hundreds of skis, boots and snowboards to rent out and we're getting busier and busier with the season kicking off. I have learnt how to set up the skis and boards, do tuning, waxing and repairs. I'm really enjoying being at work there and the hours are allowing me to get a bunch riding in with alot of afternoon shifts so I can be out on the mountain 4 to 5 days a week while still working 40 hours. 



Amy had her first day at work today as a counselor at the 3-6 year old Ski and Snowboard School at Beaver Creek where she spends most of the day out on the snow helping these little ones negotiate the bunny slope and all the fun things that come with working with those cute little kids kitted out in all their ski gear. She's also starting in a weeks time at a restaurant in town in Avon. So hopefully we can work hard, snowboard even harder and save a bit of money for our next adventure. 

That being heading out to Europe then to Asia to teach English, leaving America late May once my visa expires. So just the other day we enrolled for a TEFL course, "Teach English as Foreign Language", through the University of Chicago which begins in mid January and runs 10 weeks online and 20 hours in an English as a Second Language class in a school nearby. Maybe it seems we're only just getting set up out here and we're already thinking about the next step, but no worries we have plenty of time to enjoy good times out here in the mounains.
Good times on opening day at Beaver Creek