Thursday February 23, 2012

Dear diary-today was blistery cold. We went to Arapahoe Basin Mountain. It was about a half an hour drive from our place. It was some of the worst driving conditions yet this winter. It snowed again all last night. A-Basin got about 9-10 inches of fresh snow overnight. Many of the mountain passes in this area were closed for road conditions or avalanches. I-70 was closed in big sections, so there were no travelers making their way to these mountains unless they were already in the area, like smart people.

I am glad we made it to A-Basin for several reasons. I was able to see that my GPS uses fun little icons for ski resorts. We were able to play in some fresh, soft snow for a couple hours, making our own tracks wherever we went. Added a new sticker to the collection. And I was reminded at how humbling Mother Nature can be. Today was most likely some of the most severe weather conditions I have been outside in this winter…scratch that, my entire life. The wind gusts were almost too much to stay upright. The snow was blowing at a pace that I would call sandblaster-esque. There were times that I couldn’t see the ground below my feet, let alone which way the mountain was zigzagging. The wind chill had to be close to a million below zero. We made it until about noon. We were both beaten up pretty bad and the weather was not getting any better. It was without a question worth the experience, but not one of the funnest days so far. It was excitingly exhausting. This picture speaks a million words.

One last day here in Breckenridge. We will hit the mountain tomorrow and then head to Denver (hopefully) for an early morning flight on Saturday. I think it’s time to go, I’m starting to get embarrassed. JO has been here 4 days and has a bigger beard than me. It’s not fair. What else isn’t fair is that JO spent 4 hours shopping and all I got was this. It barely fits.