Sunday, March 21, 2010

The end of the 2009-2010 Ski Season

Well the end is near. Powderhorn closes next weekend and I've gotten in 21 days of glorious skiing--16 of them at our own little ski resort. I've added to my list of black runs skied at Powderhorn and other resorts:
Powderhorn: Racer's Edge, Showdown, Equalizer, Upper Snowcloud when bumped out, Bear Claw, Diversion, Wonderbump and Cow Camp. Snowmass: The Edge. This was a great accomplishment for me to ski a black run at a bigger ski resort because I felt like I was really accomplishing things. The Edge is a great, groomed black at the top of the High Alpine lift at Snowmass. It's wide open with only 2 fairly steep walls but it gives you a super long run if you ski from the top of the High Alpine all the way back to the Alpine Springs lift via "The Naked Lady" run.

Saturday we headed up to the 'horn for 1 last day of skiing together. There were 11 inches of new powder and there was a gorgeous bluebird sky overhead. Here are some shots of us on Diversion and Hooker (the BF on Hooker). What a great ski season!







Here we are headed up the West End lift for our final run. We'll be back next year though--better than ever!

Saturday, March 13, 2010

2010 Bike Season Begins!

It's official: The 2010 bike season has begun! I took Ellie the Rocky Mountain Element with many many custom features from the BF out today for a ride on Rustler's Loop in Loma, CO. I like Rustler's for my first ride of the season because it's not too long or too tough. I can warm up my legs, my saddle, my bike brain...on a nice 45 minute loop with great views of the Colorado River. Today I even had a great view of a cow as i passed him on the trail...and plenty of views of cow crap! It's cool though, I like the free-range cows, so I'll deal with dodging patties on the trail.

Along with the first ride came the first bruise and it is going to be a doozy! Rustler's has 4 sets of ledges about 1/2 way around...the first ledge is literally beside the sign telling you how to ride ledges. I've made it up that ledge several times and I've biffed on it several times. Today was a biff day. My bike tire slid out from under me when i started up and I landed on my hip. Ouch. The funny thing is, I sat up, and just sat there for a minute staring at the landscape around me and wondering if I should try this ledge again or keep going. I just sat there. Finally I got up, looked at the line I should have taken, walked back down the trail and tried again. I would have made it, but I chickened out and just stopped pedaling about half way up. That's the thing about biking...there's always something to work on, something to get better at...you can't ever be perfect at it and if you are, it's because you're just riding down the frontage road.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Skiing Season

Well it's been a while since my last post, but that's mostly because I've been tearing up the ski slopes.  I'm at Day 19 and I've got 20 as a goal, so I'll reach it this weekend!  Here are some photos from the last couple of months... 
this first one is from the "Long Shot" run at Snowmass. 



The second one is a nicely groomed "Racer's Edge" at our own Powderhorn Resort.  They were testing a new snowcat!

Here's another 
Powderhorn shot from right where Diversion/Lower Snowcloud and Hooker and Hooligan are over on the West End.

This is, I think, Pyramid Peak...from the top of the Elk Camp Lift at Snowmass.
The next one of me skiing is a black groomed run at Snowmass-"The Edge" up on the High Alpine Lift.The last one is the view from the Big Burn lift at Snowmass.