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SPRING BREAK!!!
On our second to last day in Colorado, we went skiing at a resort called Loveland, which is pretty close to its more famous companions Breckenridge and Aspen. The decision on where to go ended up coming down to a Wendy's commercial we heard.... 2 for 1 at Loveland. Mmmm boy, money talks! So we drive out to Loveland from Denver, which is about an hour out. The resort is composed of three mountains: a beginner hill with just a few runs, an intermediate hill and an advanced hill across the freeway. Its really random, there is a lift connecting the base of the beginner hill and the other two. What you see in all the pictures is the intermediate hill, with the advanced terrain in the background. Unfortunately, a power outage limited us to just the intermediate hill.... more on this in a bit. . The week before this trip, I went on a ski trip with a bunch of people from IV's junior group, and on the first run of the day, my ski bindings broke. Fortunately the resort gave me free skis for that day, but I had to rent out in Colorado. I got these short heavy-cut parabolic skis. They are a very different experience.... they push you up very hard on the turns, but handle best at a much slower speed. They were 174 cm long each, while my skis at home are 190 cm, I think. So I found a lack of support, and the first time I tried to gun it full speed down the slopes, I wiped out in a major explosion of ski equipment. It must have been really cool to watch! I hope a few people got a good show. Actually, judging by the looks on the people overhead on the lift, they got a good laugh at my expense. My other big fall was when I attempted to land a jump in the powder. When my skis stuck in the snow, I can only describe my following crash as Superman-esque.... or maybe like being shot from a cannon. Wendy and Wayne both thought it was hilarious. So do I.... on reflection of course. |
Back to the issue of the power outage.... when we got up to the slopes, we discovered that only three of Loveland's lifts were working (on generators) while an outage had shut down the rest. That meant no base lodge to base lodge lift, no lifts to the terrain across the freeway, and no lifts to the fresh new powder that covered the top of the mountains. The reason was that apparently landslides on each side of the freeway had taken out the power lines to all the resorts in the area. All this occurred the Sunday night, apparently right as we drove through the area. If it hadn't been so dark, (or we had been more awake), maybe we could have videotaped an avalanche!
In the end, we all still had an awesome time. Fresh snow, clear skies, and good friends... what more could you ask for? Elliot took his video camera out on the slopes, at some point maybe I'll get a copy of the video to put on this site. Loveland was a great place to go skiing in Colorado, and if any of you have a hankering for a ski trip back that direction, be sure to give me a call!
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