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I Love Colorado

We just got back from an awesome trip to Steamboat Springs, Colorado.  I went snow-skiing for the first time ever and had tons of fun.  We got a few inches of snow every day, and 10" on one of the days, and it was cold enough that at times we were up to our knees in "fresh powder" as they say.  People were saying this was the best week for skiing that they had all year.

We had also gone to Steamboat in the summer of 2005, and it was equally awesome during that time of year.  We did lots of hiking, some biking, and almost did some white-water rafting.  (I took photos at Fish Creek Falls and Rabbit Ears Pass.)

In any season, Colorado is a beautiful and amazing place.  Steamboat Springs in particular is a nice and quaint little town that just feels like home.  I’m having a hard time understanding why anyone would want to live anywhere other than Colorado.

I didn’t take many photos on this trip since we mostly just skied, but Kim took some, and I’m sure she’ll post them soon.  The few photos that I took were from the plane and I’ll post them if there are any decent ones.

Posted by Anthony on Feb 18, 2007 | 4 replies
Filed under: Adventure, Life, Outdoors

Comments:

01. Feb 19, 2007 at 08:31am by Rolly:

I’m glad to hear you had fun skiing, and you had supreme conditions.  I’m so jealous.  Did you catch on quickly?  Will you go again?  Sadly, Margie and I have not been out yet this year.  We have been pretty busy with buying our house and related things.  It looks like I will get to go on one trip this year, to Montreal and Mont Tremblant at the end of March on a bachelor party.

02. Feb 19, 2007 at 10:27am by Anthony:

Yeah, I definitely want to go again!

I caught on quickly.  I started Monday morning with one of the beginner lessons, but it wasn’t very helpful for me.  The instructor spent most of 2 hours teaching us how to put our skis on and how to walk uphill sideways; she also spent a lot of time helping 2 people (out of the 10 of us) who were constantly falling over.  I did maybe 6-7 runs down the little hill we were on during the whole time.

The group took a break for lunch, so I met up with Kim, her mom, and Debbie & Lamar (Kim’s mom’s friends who were with us).  The beginner group was supposed to regroup after lunch, but instead I went up on one of the green trails with Lamar and Kim, and Lamar taught me how to ski in about 20 minutes.

So I skied about 2 hours that afternoon on the lower mountain green trails, then about 5 hours on greens and blues the next day.  We had planned to take Wednesday off, so we did that, and then we skied all day Thursday.  I didn’t ski any black diamonds, though Kim and Lamar thought I would have done fine on some of the less-insane ones.  Thursday was the day with 10 inches of new snow -- and it was also only 10-19 degrees out -- so we were up to our knees or deeper in some spots.  It was pretty windy too, so even with my hat, goggles, and mouth/nose mask (see here), I was freezing.  We stopped for a break and Kim and I got toe-warmers to put in our boots, which helped a lot.

Friday they actually closed many of the lifts, including most/all of the upper mountain ones, because it was extremely windy: they had 100+ MPH winds at times.  We heard reports that the only open lifts had hour-long waits, so we didn’t ski on Friday.

Regarding buying your house: do you mean the house you’re in now?  Or are you moving?

03. Feb 19, 2007 at 11:26am by Rolly:

Wow, you did catch on quick!  That’s awesome.  I bet winter is in a whole new perspective for you now.  Next year we are definitely gonna go out west for a trip.  It’s long overdue.

Margie and I bought a house in Roxborough, which is about 6.5 miles to the NW of where we are now, but still in Philly.  We are doing some work and gradually moving between now and the end of March.

04. Feb 20, 2007 at 12:24am by Anthony:

Lamar has taught a bunch of people how to ski over the years, and he said that I picked it up quicker than anyone else he’s ever seen.  It seems to me that it’s mostly a matter of balance, and since I can mountain bike, waterski, and (slightly) skateboard, it wasn’t hard to get the hang of it.  The other issue is control: it takes a lot of leg muscle to control the skis and thus your motion properly.  I’m relatively out of shape and it was quite hard on my legs, but given those sports I mentioned plus the fact that I play the drums, I think my legs are generally pretty strong.

Yeah, we definitely gotta take a trip out west sometime.

That’s cool about moving gradually -- moving all at once is such a pain and is so hectic.

Update: Kim has now put her Steamboat Springs photos online.  I’m the guy behind the mask in the skiing photos.

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