Winter Full On

New Years Day at Vail

Winter really just seemed to blend into a white haze of snowboarding, skiing, friends, dogs, digging snow and I guess there must have been a bit of work in there, too. For myself there was a work change. I was sick of the attitudes and work ethic at the distillery, so I took on full time hours at a ski shop called Base Mountain Sports. This place was my second home surrounding me with good people, friendly tourists, a great working atmosphere and more beer than a brewery! Amy kept at it with Carriage House Preschool and very much enjoyed her four day work week and took advantage with maximum days on the slopes. 

The trusty, mighty Bronco

With nothing special planned for New Years Eve, we took the evening as it came, with friends new and old. We ended up venturing on a night walk above town on Hosier Pass, finding ourselves a prefect out cropping sitting right above town and looking right across to the ski field, the perfect spot to watch the fireworks light up the sky. With the dogs in tow, we wandered through the snow covered forest on a beautiful clear evening, cold to the bone as the time of year generally is. Back at the house we released some lanterns with varying success, a few got going and others caught on fire in the driveway or in a neighbours tree. We drank, we played games, and we made mini pizzas with dough fried in a frying pan. The only actual incident of the evening was during an acroyoga performance back at home. Amy's glasses got tumbled on and the tape around the centre method didn't stick, so they were retired from there on out. To start the year in style, on New Years Day we headed over the pass to Vail to ride and pose for photos with Phil and Sarah.

Into the New Year we had a visit from Amy's high school friend Janelle from NYC. It was great to host and show off our little winter paradise to the city slicker. The busy girl was still sending work emails off at night and all but did manage a good few days skiing. We also met with Amy's mom's boss Emily and her son Ben later on in the season. We met them for some mad sushi in Dillon and they were more than happy to let me play tour guide across the mountain for some skiing adventures. 

Amy and Janelle

There were some cool things going on regularly in town over winter. Particularly the International Ice Sculpting Festival. Over a few days we saw the huge blocks of compacted snow get carved out to the most intricate and innovative designs from teams from all over the world. I honestly cannot comprehend the skill and talent that was displayed. From basic geometric designs to the most intricate intertwined mermaids and dragons. Also we were very motivated to participate in the Science Day march through town. It was very disappointing though that the march was not allowed to make its way through Main Street, instead they pushed us to the backstreets of town.  

Because life wasn't enough of a party, we and every other local made a day of April Fool's Day, renamed "Gaper Day" in the mountains. To celebrate 'The Gaper', those being the woeful weekend skiers and those making their annual ski trip form Texas. Generally adorned with questionable talent and even more questionable fashion sense. Skiing in jeans and an unintentional retro look is how you spot them, but on Gaper Day we take back our mountain. Particularly encouraged by my fellow employees, I adorned my wetsuit for the speed skier look, with trendy headband and undersized googles, oversized poles complemented my custom built mini-skis. Rocking laps around the mountain with Amy, who wore just a dress and leggings and my boss Justin, head to toe in black and also wearing just sneakers strapped into his snowboard, we made as many turns as I received high fives.  

Keeping on the theme of generally having a great time, maybe the best work life balance was achieved with an 8am start at the shop, breaking at 12 noon to head up skiing with Amy and our mate Will for a couple hours, before heading back to the shop and jumping in the hot tub attached to the associated hotel in the building. Having a couple beers and a good old soak, then to head back to finish off an honest days work renting skis to the friendly crowd of out-of-towners. Finishing off the night chilling with friends and the dogs by the fire at home. 

Always loved taking these guys out for a walk.

Thinking that spring was upon us, Amy's work locked in their Sunday BBQ at 'The Beach' at A-Basin. The Beach being the first row of parking spots which have picnic tables set out and where everyone chills out American style as they would at the real beach. Grilling on the BBQ, copious quantities of beer, and generally a year round Gaper Day attitude generally leads to a fun time. However, the sun stopped shinning and one should never complain about fresh snow, but it just meant less chilling on the beach and more time hustling down the double blacks. 

A beautiful day at the beach

The one thing I had really been hoping for over winter was a night ski session where it was just dumping snow. Particularly for the reason that its always very quiet and that means more snow for me. So low and behold, the last night of night skiing ever, about an hour and a half before lights out, the heavens opened up like never before. An accumulation of around a foot in that hour or so made for a heavenly few last runs of the season at Keystone. With the snow falling under the artificially illuminated skies, it was quite possibly the coolest experience, quite surreal because of the contrast of black and white, and there was a lot of white. The skiing was unbelievable and just generally a fantastic memory to cap off the end of the night skiing season. 

Follow the lights the to gates of heaven

One might notice my mentioning a lot of the term skiing. Generally referring to one partaking in the activity of maneuvering down hill on two separate 'planks' rather than the term to ride, referring to the cooler more modern singled planked snow sport. Generally we refer to the idea that 'we went riding' or 'we went skiing'. If you have been paying attention, I have been using the literal skiing wording far more than the term riding. This is because I did myself have a bit of a mid-season crisis and ended up spending a lot of my time on the mountain on skis. Which I loved. Proving a bit more of a challenge and opening up new levels of learning. I would borrow skis from the shop, which then enhanced my sales experience for my customers giving them first hand advice on the skis they were renting off me. Not stopping with just me, Amy even caught the ski bug too. Venturing out a few times to hit up the greens and blues, Amy did good as, and when on the more basic terrain there I would practice my backwards skiing and therefore could give good face to face coaching while on the go.   

 

Maybe our biggest love of all, food. We had some good old american food adventures, very deserving after big days of skiing and riding.  Happy hour specials all round, a few of our favourite spots with their particular deals. Monster nachos at the Quandry Grill, $7 workman's lunch burger and beer at the Breck Brewery, pizza followed by Pacman at Downstairs at Eric's and our best hookup at Cecelia's Cocktail Lounge where its all about who you know.