Telluride Day 1

This is what we were treated to at the top of the mountain today. Revelation lift, around 12,200 feet. Bluebird day, 30+ degrees. The skiing was a bit sketchy due to frozen snow melt from the day before, but no problem if you stuck to the off-piste terrain. And there is plenty of gnarly, bumped, rocky, steep terrain to stick to.

Most of our day was spent learning the layout of the mountain. Greg, Andrew, our two roommates Jeremy and Evan, and myself all took off to explore at about 9:00. We opened the lifts, and were blessed with a warm enough day to enjoy the high mountain. When we weren't skiing, we gathered lots of quality pictures.

The word about Telluride is that it has some of the most breath-taking scenery in ski-country. I think Andrew agrees:

We skied every type of run today - Which is saying something, because Telluride ranks it's runs in the following manner:
Green Circle - Beginner

Double Green Circle - Advanced Beginner

Blue Square - Intermediate

Double Blue Square - Advanced Intermediate

Black Diamond - Advanced

Double Black Diamond - Expert Only

We hit 'em all! Green through double-diamond.

Jeremy and I took a narrow, zipper-line, double-diamond run as our final challenge of the day. It was beneath the #10 lift, and we had people cheering for us as we hop-turned our way to the bottom. High-fives went all around when we got to the bottom - Thanks in no small part to Jeremy's spotting of a rocky outcropping.

Greg found a similar run off of the Apex chair, and was all smiles when he returned to the condo. Hopefully he'll show me the way to it over the next few days.

Beyond the skiing, we had a couple experiences with the local wildlife. During lunch, we were discovered by some hungry local birds who had no problem with pecking food straight from our hands. Andrew caught a couple of images of the action, and the ensuing joy that it apparently brought me.

While meandering down a run off of the Prospect lift, we came across a local Telluride legend - Stickers the Porcupine. He was pretty friendly, and as we found out later, he's been here since 2004. I guess he likes the attention.

Shortly thereafter, we discovered an interesting sign:

I guess we know how to get home when the time comes - But we don't plan on leaving this mountain paradise anytime soon.

Copper Mountain FTW!

We took our time on Friday, having a leisurely morning with coffee and mountain views. Then, we booted up and hitched it over to the Frisco Station to catch our bus to Copper Mountain. It was a short, crowded bus ride, but we were all pretty stoked to hit the slopes on such a sunny day - Even our bus driver agreed that it was an abnormally beautiful morning in Summit County.

Copper was great. The skiing was much, much larger than I had thought it would be. Luckily, Taylor had a general idea of the layout, and provided us with some good advice on terrain choices. We stuck to the groomed blues in the center of the mountain for our warm up, and made our way to the Super Bee lift, doing laps on the lengthy cruisers and gladed sections between them. The lift system is pretty cool at Copper, with high speed lifts everywhere. This, combined with very little skier traffic made for a pretty epic day - And some genuine smiles:

Even though it was below freezing, the sun made it feel like a day at the beach at times. We took a moment to lounge at the base of the Super Bee while we waited for some of our group to finish carving up the mountain.

When all was said and done, we got 4 or 5 hours of solid skiing in, and made our way back to the bus (which we miraculously caught just in the nick of time). I think the altitude, energy expenditure, and fresh air was taking its toll on Taylor - I mean, we were all hungry, but...

Yea. It was a good day.

We packed up the next morning, and started our journey towards Telluride around 10:30. I wish I had pictures from the drive, especially the section of I-70 through Glenwood Canyon. Honestly, this was probably the most gorgeous, um, gorge, that I've ever seen in my life. Dramatic monoliths of striated rock revealed themselves around every corner in the road - I don't think I've ever seen anything that can compare.

We pulled in to Telluride around 3:30 (about the same time as the Hoofer's buses), and proceeded to unload all of our stuff before going grocery shopping, and scraping our jaws off the floor after seeing the prices at the market.

Megan and I had a little adventure after we dropped off the van at the free parking lot. We were told that there would be a free shuttle from the parking lot back to our condos... But when we arrived, there was a sign posted saying: "Service will resume 4/05/2010." Thankfully, a local happened to come by, and gave us directions to the Chondola (a combination chairlift/gondola), and we managed to find our way back to the condo. This makes us mountain survival experts in my book.

More to come on the first days at Telluride soon!

To Hell We Ride!

Greg - Glad to be out of Nebraska.

Okay, I'll preface this by admitting the obvious - tackling an 18 hour cross-country drive isn't easy. It isn't something to be taken lightly. It is inherently dangerous to travel via car, and that danger increases exponentially when you include a significant winter storm in the course of your travels.




We departed from Madison a little bit behind schedule yesterday afternoon. I was well aware of the impending winter storm warning for most of Iowa and southern Wisconsin - but was under the impression that we would have left early enough to have made De Moines before any serious weather hit. That way we would have had a good spot to hold up while he storm passed.


I was wrong.




What followed were some of the wildest hours of winter driving I've experienced in the past couple of seasons.


I blame Andrew - He totally jinxed the weather when he exclaimed, "Wow, we haven't seen ANY snow yet!"

Within 30 seconds the first flakes were falling.
Within 2 minutes, visibility decreased to 1/4 mile.
Within 5 minutes, it was difficult to discern the road from the ditch.


This first wave passed fairly quickly - much to our relief. Unfortunately we continued to hit band after band of snow for most of the next 10 hours. Oddly, the roads never accumulated any of the stuff, leaving for pretty decent traction. The real problem was just the drifting snow, which at
times reduced visibility (and our speed) to nearly nothing.

On top of this all, our problems were made worse by incredibly cold temperatures and an incredibly weak heating system in our vehicle. My toes were cold once we were mid-way through Iowa, and by the time my driving shift was over (just past the Iowa-Nebraska border), I could hardly feel them. And it made me angry... Like Godzilla, apparently:

Andrew took over, bravely guiding us through the worst of the snow-blown I-80 corridor. Greg was his faithful copilot... And Megan and I served as free-lance photographers for a bit. We all just tried to stay warm for the rest of the night.


Finally, the morning came.


With the sun came the sunglasses - Lookin' good, Andrew:

Around 11:00 that morning, we finally made it to Boulder CO, and picked up our friend, Taylor from her home in town. Her family was incredibly welcoming, and prepared us all breakfast - A welcome warm meal for such a group of weary travelers. Major thanks to the Ellisons for their hospitality!




We high-tailed it out to I-70, and made our way up into the mountains. After the Eisenhower tunnel, I spotted one of my favorite road signs - "Runaway Truck Ramp." These things always make me chuckle:

We made it Frisco later that night, and all turned in early after a delicious dinner at the Backcountry Brewpub and Pizzaria in town.

Switching Gears

Winter break!

Having managed to survive the final weeks of the past semester, and pump out some promising results in the lab, I now find myself with time on my hands to relax and spend with family/friends.

I had a great time over the holidays with my family. Sharing conversation over a series over delectable meals, watching a great movie (The World's Fastest Indian - Netflix it sometime), and spending some quality hours on the slopes of Cascade Mountain. My first few turns of the year were a little bit wobbly, but it wasn't long before I had my edges back under me, and was cranking out some turns like in previous seasons. While I'm happy to just rediscover my ski-legs, it seems like my parents have both made considerable strides in their ski technique since I last had the chance to ski with them. It makes sense though, considering my Mom is a PSIA instructor (read: mad skillz), and both parents are highly active members of the National Ski Patrol (NSP). I wish I had the time this year to continue patrolling myself, but other things have taken priority this season, and I've made the decision to rejoin the patrol once my undergraduate education is over. Anyway, it's always fun to ski with the family.

When I think back on my childhood, it feels like I was pretty much brought up on skis. The winter meant several trips to local ski hills, and once my mom and I got my dad back into skiing, multiple trips to mountain resorts out west. Steamboat, Breckenridge, Keystone, and Big Sky have been past destinations. On my own (well, in the company of others than my parents), I've managed to conquer the steeps of Park City too.

And now I find myself on the verge of yet another winter mountain adventure. I'll be heading out to Telluride, Colorado tomorrow along with a few friends, a van, plenty of music, and about 24 hours of driving ahead of us. Hopefully we can add a bit of good luck to that list too - After all, the common adage about our destination probably isn't "To-Hell-You-Ride" for nothing, right?

Right now I find myself amidst the final stages of packing, hoping to not forget anything too vital. I've been through this before, but I've always managed to find myself missing something by the time I get settled in my hotel room or condo. I think it's inevitable, but I'm doing my best to assure that I don't leave something like my skis, boots, backpack, cellphone or my underwear behind... Yea that wouldn't be good. I think I've got it all under control though - Optimism can fill the void left by any of these modern amenities anyway. Well... Maybe not underwear - That would just be cold and awkward considering the destination.

Well - this should be fun. A good change of pace from school, indoor training, and the frigid recent temperatures of south central Wisconsin. All I can do is hope for good weather during the drive, and copious amounts of powder snow once we get there.

I'll try to keep up semi-daily posts during the trip. Hopefully there will be some pictures too, so stay tuned for more!

Best regards, thanks for reading.