iRide
Zaskoda’s Snowboarding Journal

Yesterday I headed up to Echo mountain with Velzy. I was hopeful since 4 fresh inches of snow had fallen the night before. We showed up to the slope to find that the 20mph wind had swept every bit of powder off of the run, leaving a nice icy surface behind. We didn’t even bother going out. After that disappointment, I just allllllmost passed on heading out today. I’m very happy I went ahead and drove up to A-Basin today; the conditions were great.

According to the snow report, only 3 inches fell last night. It sure seemed like more. I went a little out of bounds and found piles of snow about a foot deep. I have to admit, it was rather heavy/wet powder… However, given that it’s May, I’m pretty happy about it. I played hard and stayed until the lifts were closing. I wonder how much more snow we’re going to see this season.

Strange thing about this spring skiing thing - the parking lots are packed! The parking lots were so crowded today that they asked people to park at Keystone and ride the bus in. That doesn’t mean the mountain is actually crowded. In fact, the mountain wasn’t crowded at all today. It seems that a lot of people spend most of their time drinking at the beach parties.

48 days left…

Unless I can swing 49 riding days over the next 39 days (you do the math), I’m not going to reach my ultimate goal of 100 days for 07/08. Of course, I knew this months ago. Still, it will be interesting to see how many days I do end up getting. I’ve been taking it rather easy. Yesterday was my first riding day in a week.

The conditions were mediocre with ice in the morning and slush in the evening. The transitional period in the middle, when the snow first starts to get soft, is excellent fun. That means there’s just a few hours of good riding each day. In my current financial status (living on savings), it’s hard to justify the money it takes to travel out to the mountain for just a few hours or good ride time.

Spring is in full spring here in Colorado. Bugs are coming out. Plants are blooming and trees and turning green. I saw a fox with her pups the other night. The attached photo was of the mother (I think) the next morning in the same location. She seemed surprisingly tame. Colorado really is a unique place. There’s so much to see and do here beyond just snowboarding.

The last year of my life really has centered around this snowboarding mission of mine. I’m really torn between sticking it out another year so I can try to reach my goal, or moving on to surfing and trying to make my way to a beach.

Meanwhile, work is trying to pull me away from the mountains as well as the beach. There are opportunities for me growing in Austin, TX. I used to like living in Texas for travel reasons. I was in Dallas and the DFW airport was one cheap flight to all kinds of destinations. However, with the rising cost of travel, the world is becoming a much larger place. That same argument for living in Texas is starting to fade.

The time for change is coming. Meanwhile, I’ll keep riding while I can. In fact, maybe I’ll check out Echo Mountain tomorrow evening.

49 days left…

Friday I took off with Sui and hit Echo Mountain for some park work. The snow was a little hard, but with the sun out it softened up a bit. The conditions were surprisingly fast and it was easy to overshoot jumps. Sui and I had a great time. It was the first time I’ve been to Echo with anyone else. It was nice having someone to play with.

We raced back to town in time to watch Battlestar Galactica. Then Velzy and I packed up and headed out to A-Basin. We crashed in a friend’s RV in the last chance lot where things were a little bit on the wild side. Once the music went off and people put their clothes back on, we crashed for a few hours. At 6am we had to move down to the lower lot and help get breakfast started. We managed to get the RV stuck and had to get some help to pull it out and properly park it. Later we lost the keys and had to go on a quest for a “small girl” to squeeze through one of the unlocked windows. Good fun.

The event was the Ski Jam IV. I have a huge batch of photos to post to flickr soon. For $30 we had open bar and open grill. A huge crowd of costumed freaks showed up and partied down. Everyone was there, from Captain America to a giant Banana. It was one of the many “Beach Parties” they have at A-Basin in the spring. They call the strip of parking lot that runs along the edge of the ski area “The Beach”.

So the Ski Jam also happened to be my 50th day of riding. I think it was a swell way of celebrating. I might only be half way to my ultimate goal, but I’ve done well. I’ve gone far beyond my base goal of 36 days (matching the total number of days I’ve ridden previous to moving to Colorado). I’m also 14 days from hitting my secondary goal of 64 days (brining my total number of days ever to 100). Not bad for a guy who’s been employed full time in Broomfield for most of the season.

50 days left…

When the snow started falling last night, I knew I’d done the right thing. I spent the past few days trying to get ahead. This morning, Breckenridge was reporting 10 inches of new snow and I was caught up enough to go out and enjoy it. It continued to snow the entire time I was there today. It was an excellent snow day.

On the way to the mountain, I pulled up behind a Nissan Murano and noticed the two snowboards strapped to the top. I stared at them until I suddenly realized that I’ve seen that pattern before - that’s Jayne’s board! Turns out, I’d pulled up behind Jason and Jayne. I thought I would get to ride with them for the day, but I was wrong. They were coming back from the doctor. Jason managed to dislocated his elbow on a jump. He showed me the x-rays. It must have hurt… a lot.

While Jason was down for the count, Jayne came out for a few runs. It was a rather uneventful day. We played in the snow until close. This is the last week for Breck and the base is the thickest it’s been all year. Too bad everything is shutting down when the conditions are so good.

52 days left…

Well, as luck would have it, my first day at Vail was the last day of the season. It got pretty crazy. Folks were shuck’n clothes and drinking heavy. They told us that everyone rides lift 4 up at 4:00 for the big end of season party. We skipped out on the drunken fest. I’m sure it would have made for a lot of great pictures, but we had to get back to the cabin for some chores before the drive home.

I have to say, I’m not very impressed with Vail. The mountain was huge with lots of runs. However, there are a number of long catwalks which really blow for boarders. The parking situation kind of sucks as well. We did find a free spot along the road with a short hike to the lifts. I suppose once you know the area, it’s not that bad. Anyway, while the runs were fun, I didn’t find anything that really stood out above and beyond the other resorts in the area. In fact, the only thing that really struck me about Vail was the overall size.

There were a lot of costumes on the slopes. I wish I’d taken more pictures. What I did take, I’ve posted on flickr. I think that next year I’ll have to come out and get into character myself.

53 days left… (I’m soooo not getting in 100 days…)

Sometimes I realize that I live a rather fortunate life. This weekend is a shining example of exactly that. Velzy invited me up to a cabin near Vail and Beaver Creek for the weekend. I really had no idea what to expect. I was blown away by this absolutely amazing three story cabin. The master bedroom is more than half the upstairs with an unobstructed view of the creek, mountains, and forest. The entire west wall of the bedroom is really one big window! The rest of the cabin is breath taking, but I won’t drone on about it.

Today we went up to check out Beaver Creek. We had about 6 fresh inches of snow fall. The conditions were great. The day ranged between 30 and 40 degrees F with very little wind. I wore the least amount of gear thus far this season. Velzy continues to impress me with her quick progression for having spent so few days on the mountain. She did compliment me on my development as a rider; however, with as many days as I’ve gotten in this season, I better be improving a little bit!

At the very top of the mountain, we found a snow carving of old man winter, so we had to stop for some quick photos. We probably only explored a tiny fraction of the mountain. I didn’t spend much time looking at maps. The one thing that did trip me out about Beaver Creek was the escalators. This is the first resort I’ve been to with escalators. We’re supposed to hit Vail tomorrow. I hear it’s fairly upscale; so after riding escalators today, I can’t imagine what Vail is going to be like. Here’s hoping we get a little more snow tonight!

54 days left…