The snow report on ColoradoSki.com was taunting me daily last week and it finally got the best of me. Before I left work Thursday, I told my boss I'd be taking a snow day on Friday. :) Christine and I both had a free lift ticket from going to see the Warren Miller movie, and this seemed like the perfect time to use it.
After dinner, I put the ski rack on the new wagon for the first time and started getting things ready. I started keeping a list last year of all the various equipment that I needed for ski trips to keep me from forgetting things (I have a bad habit of forgetting things like my goggles, snowboard lock, and various other little items) , but it turns out that it also helped me gather up all my gear for the time of the season. Packing for the first ski trip of the year is always a bit of a chore because my gear isn't all gathered in one spot yet, but my packing list made the chore a little less painful and I was sure I wasn't forgetting anything.
Waking up to an alarm clock is no fun, but it's somehow a lot easier to wake up for a ski day than it is a day of work. :) We left the house around 7 and didn't hit too much traffic on our way to Copper Mountain. The Eisenhower Tunnel area was slow due to snowy roads (chain law was in effect and Loveland Pass was closed), but that's to be expected and Christine piloted the Subie beautifully. At least everyone was driving civily. It drives me crazy when the weekend warriors tailgate or weave through lanes in that kind of weather just to get to the mountain a few minutes quicker.
After a quick lesson on how to use my new Dynafit AT bindings, we we on the mountain; Owen and I on skis and Christine on her snowboard. The first run was sort of a disaster for Christine, because she was reminded just how much her bindings stink. They kept popping open so she wisely chose to go back to the car and put on her telemark skis. In the meantime, Owen was beating me up on the bumps by taking me down a double black. I wouldn't say I was smooth or anything, but I made it down in one piece. Good to know I can still make it down the mountain on skis. I was really happy with my new gear, especially the boots. They fit leaps and bounds better than any other ski boot I've worn. Even with it being pretty cold out, my toes stayed nice and warm. By the end of the day, I was feeling a lot better on my skis. I still feel like I'm working harder than I need to, but hopefully I'll get more efficient with time (and tips from my skiing buddies).
I always forget how much I like Copper. It's got a good layout with a lot of great terrain, plus the Center Village is a fun place to hang out for a beer and some snacks after a hard day of skiing. Even though there wasn't as much fresh powder as we expected (sorry to be a snow snob), we still had a great time playing around and dusting off the off-season cobwebs. I can't wait to go back when there's some more snow and even more terrain open. If our current snowfall trend keeps up, we're in for a killer ski season.
We keep all of our ski equip. (goggles, socks, base layers, ski pants) in a huge rubbermaid container labled "ski stuff" and thus far it has saved us from forgetting anything.
ReplyDeleteWonderful day of skiing, sounds like!
I like that idea. I've started doing that a little too, but the problem is that some of my stuff belongs in two "buckets". I wear a lot of my base layers, for example, for cycling. But keeping everything in bins does cut down on the time it takes for me to hunt down my stuff, and it keeps things a little more organized (which is always a good thing in my messy basement).
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