What's up everyone?! First of all, I'd like to say I'm so stoked to be the new Breckenridge blogger for CMC. But before I get started, let me introduce myself. My name is Ali Gingras, I'm 19 years old and originally from Wisconsin. In the summer I worked at an action sports camp called Woodward at Lake Owen and was a snowboard instructor in the winter. I came out in May to check out CMC Steamboat and ended up getting a job interview at Woodward at Copper. I went home and two weeks later I was living in Copper Mountain as the first female counselor ever at Woodward at Copper. Epic! It wasn't long before I realized I wanted to work at Woodward year round as a coach and go to school in Breck, so here I am!
I started snowboarding when I was 12 years old. Last season I rode almost 6 days a week and progressed a lot. In late January I fell off an 8 foot flat-down rail and got a hematoma on my side that had 2 1/2 pints of blood in it. Long story short, I fell on it again a few weeks later and decided I needed a break from snowboarding, but I couldn't stay off the snow. So with about 2 weeks left in the season I decided to put on my friends skis, and I haven't put on my snowboard since. I still love snowboarding and I'm still going to do it this season. Skiing just comes a lot more natural, and it's super exciting learning something new.
Besides shredding, I love traveling, kayaking, hiking, mountain biking, photography, my dogs... the list goes on and on. I've gotten to travel to a lot of cool places, and really it's only fueled me to want to travel more. Hopefully I'll get to travel to Africa in the next few years to volunteer. I'm also hoping to finish up my last two years of college in New Zealand. My dogs Dillon and Dan are like my kids. They're back at home with my parents, but hopefully someday I'll be able to get them out here.
But enough about me! This is my 5th week here at CMC, and time is flying by! I'm taking four classes: English Comp, Western Civilization, Intro to Business, and Public Speaking. In my second week of Public Speaking we had to give a speech about a story or event in our life that defines who we are. To say the least it was probably the most interesting 3 hours of school I've had yet. There was a girl who has moved 18 times and gone to 11 different schools. There was a guy who dropped out of school his freshman year to travel around Europe and work. There was a guy who was raised in Palestine and was finally sent to the U.S. after his school was bombed. There were two guys who are from Guatemala, one who didn't speak a word of English when he moved here 3 years ago. There was a guy who talked about his struggle with Cystic Fibrosis, and a 34 year old who was a "punk" as a teenager and is now a monk who funded his schooling by painting religious pictures and selling them. I would have never guessed moving to Breckenridge that my classes would be so diverse.
I know this is old news, but that's what happens when you have to catch up! Two weeks ago I woke up and noticed there was a weird yellow tint in the sky. By the time I walked out my door to go to class the surrounding mountains in Copper Mountain were covered in smoke, and I smelt a light scent of fire. I was kind of baffled because I hadn't heard of any fires in the area. As I drove to school I realized that it wasn't just the Copper area, all of Summit County was covered. It turns out the smoke was from the Californian fire in the Angeles National Forest, which is north of Los Angeles. Since August 26th the fire has burned more than 140,000 acres, and the smoke has traveled as far as the Louisiana Gulf Coast!
Back at home in Wisconsin my friends are telling me that the temperatures are still in the high 70's to mid 80's. It's crazy because all the leaves are changing here, and there's already been mornings when snow is covering the peaks.
Today I woke up to a surprise. I opened my shades a crack and the light nearly blinded me. I thought it seemed a lot brighter outside, so I rubbed my eyes and opened my shades all the way to see a snow storm! It's September 21st and we had a snow storm!
I know this is old news, but that's what happens when you have to catch up! Two weeks ago I woke up and noticed there was a weird yellow tint in the sky. By the time I walked out my door to go to class the surrounding mountains in Copper Mountain were covered in smoke, and I smelt a light scent of fire. I was kind of baffled because I hadn't heard of any fires in the area. As I drove to school I realized that it wasn't just the Copper area, all of Summit County was covered. It turns out the smoke was from the Californian fire in the Angeles National Forest, which is north of Los Angeles. Since August 26th the fire has burned more than 140,000 acres, and the smoke has traveled as far as the Louisiana Gulf Coast!
(Taken via my iPhone of Lake Dillon)
Back at home in Wisconsin my friends are telling me that the temperatures are still in the high 70's to mid 80's. It's crazy because all the leaves are changing here, and there's already been mornings when snow is covering the peaks.
(Taken via my iPhone of the changing leaves in Copper Mountain.)
Today I woke up to a surprise. I opened my shades a crack and the light nearly blinded me. I thought it seemed a lot brighter outside, so I rubbed my eyes and opened my shades all the way to see a snow storm! It's September 21st and we had a snow storm!
(Taken via my iPhone in Copper Mountain.)
