Monday February 13, 2012

What a unique day today was. It was both a mountain and a travel day. I intended for my reconnaissance mission to Crested Butte to be a simple overnight adventure. My plan was to wake up this morning and drive back to Telluride after having made a successful assessment of the trip to Crested Butte. There was no way I could get up and leave this morning after the POW CAM showed 8 to 10 inches of fresh snow overnight. I kept waking up last night and looking out the window. It was snowing hard every time. I knew that my plans to leave early in the morning were in jeopardy. I bought a half-day pass this morning at Crested Butte so I was able to enjoy the freshest of fresh powder before I left. It was some of the best powder riding to date. I wish I took my camera out today. There were a couple times that I was absolutely the first human on some runs. The 10 inches of powder was untouched, just waiting for me to come barreling down through and ruin it. These are just terrible phone pictures:

So I spent the morning enjoying the earthly delights and got on the road around noon. This morning was a success even though I was sure something bad would happen. I was up in the air about staying or leaving so I flipped a coin. The coin said to leave, I chose to stay. I don’t usually go against what the fate of the coin tells me to do. I did take a pretty bad tumble through the trees. I went head over heals and the only thing that stopped me was the back of my head and neck hitting a tree trunk. It hit right where my helmet ends, so most of the thump was taken on the helmet, but I did get a nice big brush burn on the back of my head. If that is the worst that happens for ignoring the fate coin, then I say bring it!

On my drive back into town today I saw a rare site. I saw a guy riding a giant unicycle while walking his dog. The tire to the unicycle had to be as big as a man. It was amazing! I was not in a position to get any video or pictures, unfortunately. However a quick search of the googlenet turned up plenty of pics and videos, including this one, which is not quite what I saw, but a great video nonetheless.

Sunday February 12, 2012

I had quite the enjoyable day on MT Crested Butte. It started snowing here last night and continued all through today. The mountain in Crested Butte is much smaller than many of the other mountains out here. Luckily size doesn’t matter when you’re having fun, that’s what she said.  I didn’t see anywhere on the mountain website that for $90 you were able to rent out the entire mountain to yourself on a Sunday. The only lift line I waited in was the one I chose to wait in, the first one up in the morning after opening time. I probably didn’t see 100 people by lunchtime.

I tried everything I could today short of believing in god and praying, but I was unable to get it to stop snowing. Something miraculous did happen today though. There was a point in time where the snow was coming down as plentiful as I have ever seen snow fall. At the same time the sun came out and shone with a ferocity that could only be described as sun-like in brightness. This lasted for probably about a half an hour. It was quite a climate marvel to witness, the perfect storm of goodness. It was a vicious battle that the snow ultimately won in the end. I assume that is only the kind of phenomenon that could happen here, in this square shaped piece of paradise known as Colorado.

I continued my constant polling of the locals, mind out of the gutter please. Everyone I speak to that lives in these towns is not originally from them. Almost all came west, or moved because of their love of the winters, snow, skiing, and mountains. 4 out of 5 that moved here for the snow say that summer is now their favorite time of the year. I guess I know where we are going this summer.

I saw this sign today. Chairlift speed dating…that is completely new to me. I never heard of anything quite like this. What a town this is. No, I was nowhere near the Twister lift at noon.

Saturday February 11, 2012

Not really. I have the greatest life I know. Made the drive today from Telluride to Crested Butte, Colorado. It was a very nice leisurely 4-hour drive, almost nothing in comparison. I say leisurely because I stopped for a visit to a post office, take a bunch of pictures, and was stuck behind a big truck going 20 for a long time. It was another lovely white Colorado drive. BT called to let me know he made it home alive. Apparently the snow followed him home. That’s not all that followed him. He told me a story about almost getting mugged by 5 guys today trying to sell him music. It’s the kind of story I have heard about, but not in North East or Rising Sun. Rising Sun used to have “organizations” to handle those type of situations. Poor BT.

I already went down to visit the town and have some lunch. What a picturesque little mountain town! So mountainy and colorful. Definitely feels like someplace I could settle down and raise dogs and miniature humans. It is now really easy for me to understand why and how half of my teenage friends dropped out of life and moved here. Wife told me that this town was great, I had no reason not to believe her, but it is different to see it with my own eyes. I was only planning to stay here 1 night, hit the mountain tomorrow, and then head back to Telluride. Since this was only a ‘scouting ahead’ mission one night was all that was needed. I think I might stay here a couple nights now. UPDATE: definitely staying here for at least 2 nights.

There is some kind of hippie yoga convention going on in this hotel right now. The sights and smells are bringing me back to another lifetime. Probably 2 or 3 lifetimes ago. I just saw this while I was down in the lobby, only in Colorado, and another fantastic reason to become a resident.

Some new photos from the drive and Crested Butte uploaded.

Friday February 10,2012

BT is officially gone. He didn’t call and let me know that his flying death box didn’t crash, but I saw online that it didn’t. In honor of his memory I put together a few video compilations for him and his family. That is part of what I did with my day off today. I also got a bunch of other nonsense done that is way to boring to mention or list…laundry, dishes, caught up on work, mourned over BT’s departure, had the board tuned up, went to the market…hmmm, looks like I still mentioned them. I am probably going to take a couple-day trip away from Telluride starting tomorrow. I am going to drive up to Crested Butte for a day or two. Wife visited there a couple summers ago and wants to see what the mountain is like in the winter. The trip there is solely a scouting mission. I can find out what the drive, conditions, and mountain are like before she shows up in a couple weeks. We’ll be fully prepared in case she also wants to make the trek to Crested Butte.

Below are a couple HD video montages that I put together to salute my week with BT. Disclaimer: as usual, long and dull.

Super Sunday February 5, 2012

Another travel day. Today I chauffeured BT from Vegas to Telluride. He rode like a Prince today. I would have let him ride in the back like a VIP but he brought too much luggage and there was no room for him. I had a great time in Vegas this weekend. Good fun and great food. BT and I had a lot of fun at the fights last night. Unfortunately I couldn’t pick a winner and the guy I was there for got robbed with what I am calling, “the worst fight decision ever no matter what my weird half Asian friends/salesmen might think even though he is wrong”.

Vegas was both fun and successful. I did lose my ass on my fight bets. I only picked 1 of the 5 I bet. Luckily that is only the second time I have lost on fight bets and the fight bets were paid for with casino money. BUT, thankfully I am the sports betting champion. I have now officially picked and bet on the past 7 or 8 Superbowl winners. Thanks to the Giants and my keen insight I made a 300% ROI on the Superbowl alone. I took them with the points, without the points, and a parley with the under. When I tally the Superbowl win and the fights losses I netted a cooooool $65 in sports book winnings. A win is a win and I keep my legendary status alive. Other than the sports bets I dominated on the table games. I left with plenty of their money. I kept looking in the rear view mirror from I-15 to see if they were shutting the lights off behind me as we drove away.

Tomorrow hopefully start our days back on the slopes. They got a little snow here the other day when the storms passed near Denver, but not a lot. The forecast isn’t too promising either. Hopefully that changes, the weather is a fickle SOB. Maybe BT has brought the winter weather west with him.

Big fight tomorrow night. I can’t wait!!

I had a fun day in Vegas, as if anything else is possible. Went to a Q and A with GSP. He is pretty boring and vanilla, but I already knew that. The weigh ins were pretty undramatic also. I made all my sports bets for the fights and the Superbowl. Have to see if I can keep my streak intact. I have won my bet on the past 6 or 7 Superbowls, pretty amazing. The best part is that I used all house money to make those bets. So far I still have all my money, and a lot of theirs. That could all change in a couple days…or minutes. We were crushing it on a dice table tonight. I had a ticket to go see the Joe Rogan Super Spectacular Comedy Show. It was so hot on the table that I didn’t leave. I assumed I would miss some or all of the show. When I left the table I went over to the House of Blues. I guess they started the show pretty late, and I sat down in my seat LITTERALLY as the show was starting. Pretty good timing all round, kind of them to wait for me.

Looking forward to the fights tomorrow. BT should be landing any minute now. UPDATE: BT’s metal tube that was hurtling through the cosmos did NOT, I repeat, NOT, plummet into fiery ruin.

Here is another picture I saw today and liked. Can you guess which one is Nick Diaz?

Wednesday February 1, 2012

Everyone knows that my family and I have been huge supporters of the Keurig® Company since the beginning. I am happy to announce that they are returning the favor. Keurig® has come onboard as an official sponsor of the Winter Carnival 2012. We are more than pleased to have them involved. The board of directors for the Carnival thanks the lovely people at Keurig® and hope this is the beginning of a long and prosperous relationship.

Now that the hard core facts have been presented, time for some daily gibberish. I think this must be my first time staying in a “true” ski in/ski out location. I have been lucky to stay in some nice locations, but this place is pretty fantastic. If I wasn’t staying on the second floor I could ride right into my room. I rode right up onto my downstairs neighbor’s patio this afternoon.

I think I am going to make today my last day here. I am scheduled to make the drive to Vegas on Friday to meet up with BT (name kept anonymous until I get a signed waiver agreeing to appear on WC12 website). I might leave a day early and have a much more leisurely drive. I had a blast on the mountain in Steamboat this week, but there is only so much riding I can do on that hard packed powder before I get wounded, frustrated, or worse. I can’t believe it is already to this portion of the trip. I never thought it would happen at all, let alone get this far!

I did get some great news from home. Wife told me she is going to finish ranked #5 in her graduating class at law school. I’m not being modest when I say I take a lot of credit for that. My plan has come together nicely. I leave for the winter, and she has plenty of time to focus on school, graduation, law review, and the bar exam. She was not as happy about her news as I was. She actually screamed “colon open parenthesis” at me when she told me the news. I could not be more proud of her. I love telling people on the gondolas about my wife back home finishing law school just because she wanted a challenge in life.

Monday January 30, 2012

It got windy at the top of the mountain today so I called it quits around 3pm. I had some things to do/get caught up on, so I took this early day as the opportunity. It was time for the Winter Carnival Cruiser’s first oil change. I found a local joint downtown called Grease Monkey. It went smoothly, I was in and out in a jiffy with a fresh lube. On my way back driving through downtown I realized what a phenomenon this trip really was. I was shocked, I knew they were happy to have me here in Steamboat but I didn’t expect banners and a parade. Luckily I am never one to shy away from the spotlight.

I spent most of the day in the woods again at Steamboat Springs. I took my video camera out again today. Once again to anyone else this is extremely boring. But this time I am personally happy with some of what I captured. Some parts are actually quite good.

Oh yea, look how pretty my wife is 🙂

Welcome to Steamboat Springs. Today could not have started out much better. I was standing in line to purchase my lift ticket and was approached by my new best friend in the whole world, a handsome man named David. He informed me that he had a 2 for 1 coupon for lift tickets and asked if I wanted a half price lift ticket. What a wonderful man and gesture. It must have been some kind of cosmic karma connection David and I had. I hope to be able to return the favor.

It was a beautiful day out today. The sun was shining all day and the temperature got into the mid to high 30’s. Quite warm at the end of the day. They did get some snow here the other day and are expecting some in the next few days. I didn’t see a whole lot of the mountain today, I found what I liked and hung out there all day. I found some really good snow and powder as well as some great tree riding after a little hunting. I went up and down the same area around 20 times. It was delightful. I was feeling as confident and comfortable as ever, and then I got my first flesh wound of the trip. I got a little too close to a busted tree branch and it reached out and grabbed me. Luckily it’s just a flesh wound.

I saw one of the neatest things today. I am pretty sure I met the actual Beastmaster.

That’s right, this chick was feeding birds out of her hand while she was riding on the lift in front of me. Pretty cool. She either rules or is a witch.

Since it was a beautiful sunny day I snapped a few photos.

Friday January 27, 2012

Last day, for now, in Telluride. What a beautifully perfect day. It snowed all night last night and all through the morning. I think they got 10-12 inches, every little boys dream. As soon as the snow stopped at midday the sun came out in all its glory. Today was as close to a perfect day on the mountain as I could ask for. A true fresh powder day all around. There were fresh tracks to be had all day long. My hours were spent either tumbling through trees or floating on clouds. It was the kind of day you wish you could somehow share with everybody.

I had my second celebrity sighting of the trip today. I road the lift with Mark Miller, he races off road rally cars all over the world. Dakar rally racing is what he does. He claims to be famous in his world, I believed him ;-), really nice guy. He was not quite as recognizable as Avril Lavigne, but way more interesting to talk to.

Once the sun came out I decided to try to make a nice video of whizzing through the trees. I both succeeded and failed all at the same time. I had a blast buzzing through the trees but then somehow ended up where I didn’t belong. I thought I was doing OK, I was following another set of tracks. I ended up at the base of a tree line that stopped going downhill. I knew I was in trouble when the other set of tracks vanished. When I realized I definitely had to unstrap and walk out is when the real trouble began. When I took a step and sunk in up to my knees is when I comprehended this might take a while. Then I took my next step and sunk up to my armpits…yep, my armpits. I ended up having to “body surf” to safety on top of my board. I crawled probably over 100 yards laying on my board using only my knees to skooch. Obviously I made it back to safety. It was definitely a trip. As I sat for a few minutes catching my breath I watched 2 other snowboarders come crawling out of the same tree line. Turns out they were following me through the trees. That’ll teach them, silly New Yorkers. The whole thing is caught on video. I’m not sure if it will be released or not do to The Embarrassment Act of 2012.

I am out of here tomorrow and off to Steamboat Springs. It will be hard to leave these plush accommodations, but I can hope that tomorrow’s location will do its best to compete. I can’t wait to be back in ‘Ride in a few weeks, I love this town!