When we checked out of our condo and headed to the mountain, it was snowing! There hasn't been any fresh powder since we've been here, but the conveniently forecasted snow for this weekend, just in time for our departure. But we got a teensy-weensy taste (I mean, it would have been enough to shut schools in Maryland, but probably not enough for an APL snowday).
Look, I'm telling you guys it's Day 4. And those white spots are snow, not dirty spots on Chris's camera.
Since we were familiar with the terrain, we made our way to our favorite part of the mountain - the North Bowl (Haha, I just realized that sounds like North Pole. I wish there were elves and Santa Claus running around. Now that I think of it, I did see three people heading to the slopes dressed as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, Batman, and a wizard. Awesome.). With the snow and all, the views weren't that great. But it was still pretty cool to be up there.
We headed down into the bowl through the trees like before. It didn't take us as long this time though. I'm not sure if it's because we were tired and just looked for the easiest way out, or if we are getting better. I'm going to go with getting better.
We did not hit a single one of those trees.
However, being Day 4 of the epic snowboarding trip (yes, I just upgraded this trip to epic), our legs were a bit tired and sore. Here's Chris showing us all what happens when your legs are tired and sore:
I have to admit there was a lot of that today (from me at least...I was tumbling all over the place). But for any worried readers out there, those pictures are staged. This is just an example of some of the exceptional falls we have had this week. But, we have both come away relatively unscathed. Here Chris demonstrates is snowboarding prowess through the trees:
See, not falling.
We did a few runs in the bowl before we decided we were too tired to keep trying to avoid trees. Since not trying to avoid trees seems like it would just lead to something really terrible, we hit a few of the regular trails.
Look at how the sky has cleared up. Our foray into awesome snowy Colorado weather didn't last long. This is how the entire week as been (I guess you can probably figure that out from all the pictures), clear with blue skies and nice temperature. It's actually pretty warm in Colorado. For some reason I had it in my mind as a frozen tundra in the winter, but the weather was in the high 50s today.
While we were at the summit of one of the mountains I figured I would take a bunch of pictures of the scenery. Because it's awesome.
We left a bit early today to beat the traffic since it gets pretty crowded on the weekends. We were already starting to notice the increase in people and the sudden need to avoid more skiers on our way down. (You know, we avoided them when we could...otherwise, well, snow is soft. Just kidding, we didn't hit any skiers...just snowboarders. Interesting note, when going down a narrower path, skiers with generally call out "On your left" or "On your right" and tap their poles together to let you know they want to pass you and on what side (because with ski goggles you have the peripheral vision of an owl (you know, that's why they turn their heads like 200 degrees, cause they don't have much)), but snowboarders just whiz by you and figure they'll get around you...) (Wow, that was a lot of parentheses. The engineer in me just thought of those last few paragraphs as a math equation and thought you should read the words in the innermost parentheses first, and then go out. But don't do that, because then it won't make sense. Because there are words, not a math equation. (In case you weren't sure.))
Overall, of the three resorts we went to, I liked Keystone the best, followed by Breckenridge, and then Vail. They were all amazing and have no comparison back in Pennsylvania. I now scoff at your little hills and icy conditions Liberty, Whitetail, and Roundtop! It has been a great 4 days of boarding, but I'm ready to sit down for two days and regain muscle control in my legs.
After leaving Keystone we made a VERY IMPORTANT stop at Sonic so we could get more $1, 44 oz slushie beverages of deliciousness, then headed back through Boulder to Vanessa and Ryan's (friends of Chris, whose house we are staying in tonight. They are very cool people with the most adorable baby boy ever. Also, their cat can open closed doors. Like he can somehow turn the handle and push the door open.)
These are the Flat Irons where Chris used to climb and do ridiculous things like hanging upsidedown from ledges. He has the coolest picture ever.
We had a low key evening, mostly just hanging around and we went out to dinner where there were two musicians playing some freestyle flute. Yes, flute. Actually, flutes. It was interesting. (haha, that would have been a funnier pun if they had been playing tubas. Get it? Low key?)
We watched a disturbing TV show about little girls and parents who compete in beauty pageants (together). They have 6 year old's tanning and 2 year olds wearing ruffles and twirling a baton. I suppose there was also an older mother wearing a lot of belly-bearing spandex twirling a baton which might have been equally disturbing. All I have to say is, thank you mom for never making me wear ruffled dresses and acrylic nails and putting me in a beauty pageant. For this, I might forgive you for giving me a mullet when I was 4.
Well, I hope you enjoyed reading the blog for this trip. I'm not sure what we are doing tomorrow, or if I'm going to have a chance (or a reason) to update this anymore. But, Colorado, how I love thee and your snow covered mountains and crazy bike riding residents. Oh, and the Subarus. So many Subarus.
Free Nature Valley Granola Bars: 4...I might have waltzed into the registration office and grabbed a handful. There just in a big basket...isn't that what they are there for?
Subaru Count: Honestly, we were just too tired. And there were hundreds.
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