Colorado Trip 2011 Blog 8

Waking up in a hotel room at the base of Telluride is sick, no questions asked but after a few righteous days skiing and exerting ourselves like there was no tomorrow, followed by a few cocktails, we were definitely dragging ass. As we sluggishly collected our items and replaced screens which had been removed the night before for outdoor refrigeration and accessibility reasons, showers and morning constitutionals were had. We finally make it out of the hotel room over to the gondola to purchase our tickets and there is what would seem like the biggest credit card debacle of all time taking place. Short tempered ladies behind glass windows equipped with microphones and have names like Flow, Mary-Lou and Jo-Ann are battling with customers over transactions. After what seemed like a life time of only wanting to hand a post-menopausal woman 97 bucks, we made our way up to Maggie’s for yet another breakfast burrito. For the record, since Annie and I met up in Vail we had successfully had a breakfast burrito of some sort from somewhere, four consecutive day’s strait.

Up the gondola and off at the top to get our tickets scanned at the top of the lift. Things were definitely feeling backwards. As Annie and I make our first turns of the trip with Griffon and Liz, the pace of the day was immediately set, ripping turns on magnificent groomers, turning SLOW DOWN banners and SLOW SKIERS into gates, everything was falling into place. As we made our way to the top of Gold Hill Express the intensity of the day’s sun was evident and the Camera’s came out for a bit of documentation at the top. We dropped off the backside to the Revelation Lift to rip a massive section of the bowl which was perfectly groomed right next to the lift. The fastest skiing and some of the best pictures of the trip came out of that run. After lapping it four times with multiple whoops and yee-haws! We moved on to the rest of the mountain.

A few hours ended up being spent over on the Prospect lift, finding stashes, shredding steeps, eating chocolate covered espresso beans and more or less basking in the balmy rays of the day. We gradually moved on to some of the other areas of the mountain and made our presence known with ridiculously bright colors, fast skiing and other associated antics of impressing friends and strangers at the top of ski lifts with things like walking on your poles and ski tails like a mangled crab.

This next part of the story is not the coolest thing, in fact it’s probably the lamest thing that happened on the trip but it needs to be documented for the sake of lame experiences and shitty people. Last run of the day, making our way to the bottom over traverses and green trails with small jumps to play around with on the sides of the trail, which means more time spent in the air than on snow, I get cut off by a snowboarder and miss the trail I was supposed to be on which was only separated by a few feet of un-groomed snow and an orange rope. I traverse over and duck under the orange barrier and get pulled over by a Telluride cowboy with a ski patrol jacket on with tele gear. Not only was this guy not freeing his mind with his free heels but he was carrying a box of pears. I don’t know what that means but it added to the absurdity of the situation. After accusing me of “jibbing and jumping” the wrong way and not getting cut off by a snowboarder ( I was in front and therefore had the right of way, KNOW THE CODE) he continues in a threatening tone to ask if I have a pass and where I’m from, I have no problem telling this jack ass I’m from N.Y. when I know damn well I can probably carve a turn backwards with my eyes closed better than this guy can push snow side to side with his bent knees and short poles. He responded with, “Yea, figures, that’s not the way we roll around here, you duck the wrong rope, your ticket gets pulled, you’re banned from the resort for two years and the sheriff gets involved”, which assumed I was rolling the wrong way. I skied down and reported to the gang what had happened and shrugged off the situation to enjoy my last turns at Telluride. In the parking lot goodbyes were sadly said but stoke levels immediately began to rise after stopping for a cup of Telluride java and a bagel before heading into the Colorado sunset to return to Vail.We rolled into Edwards about four and a half hours later to be greeted by Annie’s rents, who had a hot dinner and stiff margaritas waiting for us, yet again, paradise, which seems to be around every corner in C.O. Early to bed to shred Vail again in the morning.

I have to admit it, waking up was not easy after the prior days experiences but well worth it to get our last runs in of what proved to be one hell of a trip. No breakfast burritos…weird. A pit stop in Surefoot for a quick stretch on Annie’s boots. Vail is massive and it was still congested due to Martin Luther King Day, I’m not complaining, just saying... I admit it, we were spoiled. A final run to Blue Sky Basin to say goodbye to the mountains and drop off Lover’s Leap just one more time which still had good snow on it, off the hill at half past noon to leave the mountains in the west as we trekked back east. The experiences had on this trip were far too amazing to not conclude which is why I leave you with this cliff hanger, stay tuned.