To blog or not to blog...

I’m under orders to blog earlier in the day so that my mother can go to bed. I plead a two hour time difference.

Today was another great day out in the wild. Sean and I ended up heading to Buttermilk after a nice leisurely morning. The sun was shining, the sky was a gorgeous blue and the snow was as white as er, snow. A cloudless day and still so very few people out on the slopes! I don’t know what’s wrong with everyone but they sure as heck aren’t here. It surprises me, that in peak ski season in a well known ski place, how many vacancy signs are up at places to stay here. The guy at the front desk where I’m staying mentioned that for weekend traffic, most people in the Denver area go to Vail because it’s closer for them and they’ll spend less time in the car. He also said the economy is a factor which I figured.

Sean wanted to do some runs and have me film him on his video camera so we spent some time on a run we both liked on the west side of Buttermilk and took turns filming each other. I’ve just reviewed the footage and luckily my spill of the day was just over a rise where the camera didn’t see me. Nothing spectacular, I just want to look good on digital film. While I was waiting for Sean to come down the run, people on the chair lift overhead kept calling down to me, asking if I was ok. I’m just sitting at the side of a run in the snow. Do I really look that bad? I assured them that I was fine. Later on, Luna wanted to have some photos taken of her at the top of Buttermilk so I headed back in that direction with her. What a great day for photos! I will post some when I get back and hopefully they’ll give you an idea of how pretty it can be here.

According to the snowboard school level descriptions here, I come in at a level 6 out of 9. Not bad but I think I’ll take another lesson one day soon when I’m back on a real mountain. It never hurts to improve oneself. Today I was working on trying to get Luna more up on her edges when I make turns instead of my usual process of sliding through turns. I adjusted my toe bindings to ride right over my toes instead of their usual spot across the top of my foot which seemed to help me pull the toe side up better on heel side turns. I tried to also use Sean’s suggestion of crouching lower in my turns which seemed to help as well.

There were two additional stories for the day. One was a guy I saw snowboarding with a chainsaw as I went over him on the chairlift. True story. The other happened in the parking lot. Midway through changing out of my gear, I got in the truck and shut my door so that some yahoo on his iPhone could park next to me. He parked close enough for him to squeeze out, still yakking on his phone, but left me insufficient room to get out and finish changing. Thankfully Sean had room on his side to move his truck over.

Tonight Sean and I decided to have a real dinner instead of our usual après ski free fare although the soup did look good tonight. The meatatarian had his eye on a rib place down the street and we ended up with an assortment of ribs, chicken, smoked beef, smoked pork, corn on the cob, baked beans, coleslaw, fries, onion rings and garlic toast. I don’t think I’ll eat anything for a month now.

Tomorrow is first tracks at Aspen Mountain again then I’m off to Buttermilk again to try my hand at this carving thing on a real carving board if I can snag a demo. Wish me luck!