Happy Halloween!

This is probably the most beautiful Halloween I've ever had in my life! It was awesome to wake up to a crystal clear blue sky over Breck this morning.

This past week was my friends Maggie and Rachel's 19th Birthdays, so Happy Birthday to them! I guess the biggest event this past week was the snow storm, although I will say I feel Summit County got a lot less snow than they were saying we were going to get. I'm stoked for Boulder and Denver though, it's about time they get lucky with some snow! We did get enough snow to set up a pretty sick backyard jib session at my friend Evan's house though. We had a cliff drop to down rail, a long box (that was actually a stadium bench seat), a jump over a barrel, to an uprail. Here are some pictures:

 

I'm heading home late Wednesday night to visit family until Sunday. I'm super stoked to see my dogs, oh... and family! ;-)  We're going to have a mini early Thanksgiving while I'm there, and it will also be super awesome to have a home cooked meal. Fortunately my roommate makes good meals, because I am no cook, but it's still nothing like home.

I heard that while I'm gone Keystone is opening, (on Thursday to be exact). As much as I'm going to enjoy being home, I already can't wait to get back and check it out. From what I've heard they're going to be opening with two jumps and more than 20 features in their A51 terrain park. How sick is that?! So make sure you check it out this weekend!

Copper Mountain is also opens this weekend. On Friday they're starting their 5th annual opening weekend festival. They're going to have bands, demo centers, shred movies, chairlift prizes and more! Even if you don't have a Copper Pass, it's worth the drive to go check out the mountain, the barn, and Copper!

Red Bull: Stashed!

I had yet another exciting weekend of skiing, along with a county wide scavenger hunt! On Saturday I drove my friends CJ and Derek out to A-Basin to meet up with all our friends. It was so warm out with blue bird skies, and we all had an awesome shred session. We were cruising down the road on our way home and Derek was sitting shotgun drinking his Red Bull. As we kept driving, I saw what looked like a Red Bull car, which was ironic since Derek doesn't even usually drink energy drinks. We caught up and Derek rolled down his window. He stuck his Red Bull can out, gave them the thumbs up and yelled "Yeahh!!". They giggled, and a few minutes later caught back up to us and told us to pull over. We pulled over and talked to them awhile and they hooked us up with mad amounts of Red Bull and their newer Red Bull Energy Shots.

We asked them what they were doing just driving around, and they told us about the country wide contest they're doing called Red Bull Stash. Basically, Red Bull is hiding "stashes" (cases of their Red Bull Shots) all over the U.S. You have to go to their facebook page and type in your area code. Then, you can read hints and try to find the "stashes" hidden in your area. If you find one, you get the code to get the hints for the grand prize. It sounded super cool, so that night I kept updating their facebook for for hints. Around 7:00pm I saw they finally had posted hints for stashes hidden somewhere in Montezuma (Keystone area) and Dillon. CJ, Derek and I, joined by our friend Rachel, all piled in my SUV and drove out. The first hint read, "Need to tune up your skiis or snowboard before you hit the gondola. Stop at the booth on your right and you will find all your tools and some wiiings!" After about 15 minutes of searching in the surrounding area around the Keystone gondola, we decided to venture farther out. CJ and Rachel went one direction, and Derek and I went another, though he was still a good distance away. I was shining my flash light all over looking for some kind of tuning bench, and finally I spotted one about 50 feet away. I run over and around the back of it. It was kind of like a box, except it had no back so it was hollow. I shined my flashlight into it and sure enough, I found it!!

Being super stoked, we all ran back to my car and drove out to Dillon. The second hint read "Next to the amphitheater look up and to your right. There you will find a picnic area. Walk out to the farthest bench and enjoy the view with your wiiings." We searched for about a half hour, but unfortunately had no luck. That night I saw on the website that it had been found. Bummer! It was SUPER fun though!!! Stuff like that doesn't happen very much... so it definitely made for a fun night!

A BAY BAY!

I spent this weekend at A-Basin shredding!! Saturday I went earlier in the morning and the lift lines were pretty ridiculous, although they did go down significantly later in the evening. Sunday I got there around 1:00 and stayed until close. I took double the runs Sunday than I did Saturday.

The hill was super fun. There were a few small icy patches here and there, but overall I'm very impressed. The park had a flat down rail to down rail, and then a picnic table to corrugated pipe jib. I noticed that the two rails were pretty close together, so you have a bit too much speed going into the down rail if you don't hop off the first a little early and speed check. I heard they're supposed to put up two more features, not sure if they've done that yet. Besides that, it's a super awesome little park!

 

 

Bilateral WHAT?!

So for the past few years I've had pretty bad knees. My dad had his first knee replaced when he was in his 40's, and unfortunately I have a lot of his physical traits. Monday I finally decided to go to the doctor, so I drove out to a specialist in Golden. I have a pretty high pain tolerance, but I still didn't think there would be much wrong. I thought they'd maybe give me some knee braces and physical therapy exercises. After some X-Rays and an examination the doctor gave me a severe bilateral diagnosis of Chondromalacia. To explain it in the simplest terms; Both my knee caps are tilted outwards and have moved out of the center of my knees to the outsides, causing the cartilage on the outside of my knees to ware away. Of course, this causes extreme pain, and my right knee has come to the point where it doesn't even always stay in.

Resting my legs completely straight. See how far over and pointed out they are? Kinda gross, huh?

Left Knee.

Right knee. By far worse.

Treatment? Surgery, on both knees. Recovery time? 2 months. When? Well, here's the catch. I can get it now and miss the first two months of the ski season, or I can wait until April/Mayish and risk having a really painful but full season. It's extremely hard to even walk without wearing my knee braces, but I have decided to take the chance and plan for surgery in April. I came out here for a lot of things, but the biggest was the riding. I have Fibromyalgia, a condition of the Central Nervous System that causes all over body pain, digestive issues, cognitive issues and well, a lot of other issues, so a little knee pain is nothing I can't get through.

On a more positive note, A-Basin and Loveland are officially open for the season! I'm super stoked and hope to make my way over to A-Basin this weekend. If you're still planning on buying a pass, you can now by Summit Passes online as well as Epic. But if you're looking to buy a Colorado Pass, you can head over to the gondola station on Main St. in Breck to buy it. They're open Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 4pm. The season is here, get on it!

Free Summit Pass

Being a college student, I know what it's like to feel broke. So if paying for a Summit Pass isn't something you're super stoked about doing... don't pay for it! Interested? Read on.

Vail Resorts Guest Services offers a volunteer program in exchange for a 3 mountain ski pass with 10 days at Vail or Beaver Creek, one ski lesson a month, a 50% on mountain dining discount, and a locker. They require you to work 20 volunteer days, usually one day a week throughout the ski season. Things change from year to year, but this will give you an idea of what you’ll be doing.

Your day will start at approx. 7:45 and you’ll meet in the peak 8 locker room. You then get into your uniform and have a morning meeting where you'll get your daily assignments.  (Either Peaks 7 & 8 or the Peak 9 crew.)  You’ll be on the plazas answering questions until around 10:00-10:30 or longer depending upon the crowds.  Then you’ll be on the mountain doing all sorts of things, like answering questions at the maps and huts, helping people who are in over their heads, calling ski patrol for injuries, helping put skis back on, finding lost children... basically skiing around looking for people who need help. (We stay on the blues and greens mostly although there are some exceptions.) We also are responsible for giving a two hour mountain orientation tour that leaves the base of Peak 8 and 9 each day at 10.00.  Then you’ll have an afternoon meeting to get your assignments for the end of the day, i.e. plaza duty, map duty etc and depending upon the crowds you’ll go home around 4.00.
Our busiest times of the year are the 2 week Christmas holiday break and March (spring breaks).  This is when we need people the most so it really isn't helpful to only do days in  January and February when we have more than enough help.

If this is something you would be interested in for the upcoming ski season, just send an e-mail to Lori Kennedy at  lakennedy@vailresorts.com  in mid-October when they are getting their 150 ambassadors lined up for the season. They will not have a date set for the orientation until November because they need to get returning volunteers set up first.

It's a great way to meet people, get mountain experience, volunteer for your community, and get a free pass! What's better than that?!

New Beginnings

This weekend I moved into my new apartment in Breckenridge with my best friend Raven. We literally have a two minute walk to the Gondola on Main Street. And here are our views: (pictures don't even do justice.)

 

 

I'm very happy to be living in Breckenridge, especially right downtown. I love being able to walk and bike everywhere, and live so close to all my friends. Walking to the gondola is probably my favorite part... along with the view.

Saturday I woke up to not a cloud in the sky, so I decided it would be fun to go around to all my favorite spots that look over Breckenridge and take some pictures.

Breckenridge from Baldy Mountain.

Breckenridge from Boreas Pass Rd.

Breckenridge from Ski Hill Rd.

Last weekend me and 6 friends went to Green Mountain Reservoir. It's about 40 minutes past Silverthorne on the way to Steamboat Springs. We originally went out to cliff jump into the reservoir, but quickly realized the water level had significantly dropped and the cliffs were about 2 times their normal size. After a few jumps my friend decided the water was too cold, the drop was too scary, and the climb back was up was too sketchy. We looked across the reservoir and saw saw water flowing into it down this open concrete drain. So we made some fun out of that, instead. Check out the pictures and videos below!

Green Mountain Reservoir.

The cliffs.

 Here's a picture of the "natural slide".

Here's a video of my friend Michael jumping.

Here's my friend Alex hitting the "natural slide".