Snow, Pros, and Dog the Bounty Hunter?

If I ever had to pick one of the most exciting weekends in my life to talk about, this would be it!

Last Thursday Breckenridge opened and it was a beautiful day. I took a few videos with my new Flip Video camera that was sent to me thanks to CMC! It's a pretty cool (very light weight) little video camera, and it comes with awesome software that makes it easy to upload, create, and post videos!



If that wasn't exciting enough, two very good friends, Angeli Vanlaanen and Ashley Battersby, got into town from Salt Lake City. Angeli and Ashley are both very talented pro skiers and I admire both of them so much! Me and Angeli spent the day skiing together, and then around 1:30 we headed out to Woodward. Angeli had a two hour private coaching session with one of the Woodward directors, and she really enjoyed it. Even pros can learn a lot there!
Friday I went to ride at Breckenridge, but left early for Keystone and met up with Angeli and Ashley. It was pretty busy, so we hiked the terrain park and they coached me on different features. I just started skiing, so they were pretty impressed on how comfortable I already was. I was also riding with my friends CJ and Jocelyn. Jocelyn followed me over a feature in the terrain park and ended up falling and breaking her first bone- her pinky finger! Sorry Jocey!
Unfortunately Angeli had to leave Saturday morning to go back to Salk Lake, but me and Ashley met up at Keystone. By the time I got there she was pretty much done for the day, so she sat and coached me while I hiked certain features in the park. She definitely worked me good, but I'm thankful because she makes me a much better rider. After a few hours we left to go to my friends Tyler and Ryan's house. They have a pretty sick club house with hot tubs, a pool, ping pong, a pool table, and racket ball, so we went and hung out there for a while.

 

Sadly, Ashley's car broke down on the way home that night. So the next morning we had to go and watch "Jimmy" be taken away to the car hospital. As you can see, Ashley was pretty traumatized... ha!

Sunday and Monday we spent at Breckenridge, and I met and got to ski with pro skier and Breck team rider Keri Herman. 

Last night my friend had told me that Dog the Bounty Hunter was staying in the hotel above the shop he worked at. Today while I was driving down Main St in Breckenridge, I spotted someone with long blond hair out of the corner of my eye. Sure enough, it was Dog the Bounty Hunter and his entire camera crew! I parked my car and pretended to walk down the sidewalk like I didn't know what was going on... but in all my excitement I forgot my phone in my car, so I didn't have a camera! If you're not sure who Dog the Bounty Hunter is, he has a reality TV show on A&E about catching criminals on the run who have broke their bonds. I'm not sure why he's in town, but it was exciting to see him nonetheless!

KEYSTONE!

Me and my friend Rachel shredded Keystone this morning. The sun was shining, the lines were short, the snow was awesome! Overall one of my most fun shredding days thus far! Here's a video of the park.

Great to be back!

I had an awesome weekend in Wisconsin. It was a little too humid for my liking, but it was very fun nonetheless. While I was gone I spent a lot of time with my family, even visiting a few aunts and uncles and cousins. We talked a lot about skiing (obviously), so my mom finally decided she wanted to learn how. She hates the cold, so we'll see if she actually gets out and tries it this winter. I know she has the athletic ability to, she's an awesome water skier! My grandparents came over for an early thanksgiving dinner. I also loved seeing my dogs, Dillon and Dan.

On the plane ride there I was reading the November issue of Skiing Magazine and thought a few of the articles were blog worthy. The first I'm going to share with you is about a local skier Rainer Hertrich. It was ironic to see this article, since I had just seen Rainer in the local newspaper.

"By August 31, 2009, Copper Mountain snowcat driver Rainer Hertrich, 47, had skied 2,134 consecutive days. That's every day since November 1, 2003- since the Marlins won the Series, and through bouts of the flu, a separated shoulder, and four rib injuries. And he's still going. he works six months a year at Copper and shoulder-season days at Loveland and Arapahoe Basin. He grooms Mt.Hood by summer and finishes the year in South America. He's amassed more than 70 million vertical feet and a Guinnesss record, all on telemark gear."  - Eugene Buchanan

Here's the article in the Newspaper:

The next piece of an article I want to mention was tips and tricks for a more enjoyable season. A few of my friends have one horrible problem off the mountain: SMELLY BOOTS! Since I know everyone can't afford boot driers, the magazine gave an awesome tip. After your long day on the hill, put a dryer sheet in each boot. The wicking action helps dry them faster, and the scent keeps them smelling spring fresh!
And another tip that I'm sharing from personal experience; If you suffer from cold hands, and can't seem to find gloves that work, I have a solution. Wear latex gloves underneath your regular gloves. You know, the ones doctors and dentists wear! I know this sounds silly, but the latex will keep your sweat in, which will keep your gloves dry. I also think the latex helps keep the warmth against my hands better.

The last article I want to share is probably one of the coolest skiing stories I've ever read. Again, this article was taken from the November issue of Skiing Magazine.

I LOST A RESCUE TOBOGGAN LOADED WITH A PATIENT.

" In the winter of 67'-68', I was 19 and recruited for the [redacted] ski patrol. Young and very sure of myself, I had the attitude that I could ski anywhere and could handle a toboggan.
     One day I was called to an accient in an advanced area. I was paired with "Dave," an avalanche-science guru who was also one of the strongest skeirs on patrol, and we took a two-man toboggan rig to the scene. We arerived to find a patiend with a dislocated hip, screaming in pain. Dave was a paramedic, meaning he was allowed to carry intravenous drugs. He took a needle from his pack and gave the shot to the patient. Thrity seconds later, our patient wetn from screaming to smiling.
    We packaged him into the sled and discussed the safest way down. I told Dave I'd skied this area a lot and I knew a chute through the cliffs. I told him to pick up his end of the toboggan and follow me.
    Dave had never skied this terrain before. The line was too steep for Dave's veteran edges, especially now that he was holding a loaded toboggan while dropping off the end of the world. We began skiing, me leading and Daven in the back. Suddently, we began to spin. Dave passed me- still holding on to the handles. Then the sled and I flew past Dave, who popped out of his skis and began selfarresting. I hung on for dear life, thinking we could recover and make it. But the sled broke my rip. I came ot a sop and watched the sled, still right-way-up, sailing down the ru. I started to ski fast, in hot pursuit.
    At first I though the whole rig might shoot down into the rocky amphitheater below. Instead, it beered into a few small threes, The sled bent the trunks in half but the trees halted its progress. I arrived about a minute after it stopped. I hurried to uncover the patient from the layers of tarp and blanket and feared the worst. When I got through, the guy looked up at m. With the same druggy smile he asked, "Are we at the bottom yet?"
    From that day forward, patrollers mandated the lowering of toboggans in this area with a rope.
    Twenty years later I was no longer a patroller but skiing in the same area with a friend, who broke his ankle. When patrol arrived, they bundled my friend in a toboggan and radioed th plan to HQ. "We're headed down Donny's Chute into the amphitheater with the patient and his friend. What's your name, sir?"
    Not knowing until that moment that the incident had gone down in local history, I answered him: "I'm Donny." As told by Jeff Burke.

Hi from Wisco!

So yesterday I land in Milwaukee, get my bags, and go sit outside for my brother to pick me up. I see a car pull up with a Wisconsin plate and I excitedly say "Hey, they're from Wisconsin! That's where I'm from!" to the lady sitting next to me. She laughed and turned away. "Well, that's rude", I thought to myself. The next car pulls up and it also has a Wisconsin plate. I again get excited and yell, "Hey, they are too!" She then turns to me and says, "You're IN Wisconsin!" Goes to show how much I'm actually at the airport in Wisconsin... I guess I need to fly home more! Anyway, I was very excited to see my two dogs. I sat down on the ground and they came over and licked my face until I fell over. It should be a good weekend. Though I am bummed I'm missing the opening day of Copper and Keystone!!

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".