BRRRRRR!!!!

Well it's finally here, ski season! Sunday was opening day at Loveland, and yesterday was opening day at A-Basin! Two weeks later than last season, but I can't complain because my first day of the season was a POW DAY! I woke up at about 6:45am (skiing is probably the only thing I'll get up before 8:30am for. You know what they say... Coloradan's will drive 2 hours in 12 inches of snow to ski but can't get to work when there's 4.)
The blizzard was supposed to start at 3am, but I looked outside and it hadn't snowed a flake... and there wasn't even the slightest hint of a blizzard on the way besides the fact that it was cloudy. I had high hopes because this is supposed to be a La Nina season, but Colorado's weather is always unpredictable. I grab all my stuff, put on my ski gear and head out the door to what? Yeah, rain. My jaw dropped in disgust and I almost debated whether I wanted to go or not... but no way in heck was I letting a little rain ruin my first day of the ski season! I left the house around 7:30 and literally no more than 10 minutes later this is what the roads looked like:

As I said... Colorado is predictably unpredictable. It took me about 50 minutes to get to A-Basin though it usually takes 25-30 minutes. It's safe to say I'm one of those annoyingly slow drivers in bad weather... and proud of it. I don't plan on totaling another car this year (you're welcome mom and dad). Though just for clarification, I was not at fault for that... and they actually ended up fixing that small section of road this summer, thank God! Apparently I was one of a few cars that got pulled into the ditch there. ANYWAY, I finally got to the mountain and drove into a parking lot with around 6-8 inches of fresh snow on it.
"I knew I should have brought my powder skis!" I thought to myself. I was kind of in denial because we hardly got any snow last season, much less on the first day! I met up with some of my friends a few minutes later and we hopped in the lift line. The lift line during pre-season is usually ridiculous but the new lift they put in this summer made things so much faster. We rode until 12 and the weather got bad enough that I decided I would leave before the roads got any worse. The temperature also dropped more than 10 degrees, so I was definitely not dressed properly. Despite the blizzard and having the wrong pair of skis with me, opening day was a blast! I'm not nearly as out of shape as I thought after not doing anything all summer. I really want to go today, but it's 13 degrees outside right now, and windy! I thought it was supposed to gradually get this cold... I am not prepared for this! Yikes!