Labor Day

More details to come, but enjoy Part 1 from our Labor Mountain Biking trip to Moab.

Moab Part 1 from Drew Wagner on Vimeo.

I'm back!

After taking the summer off (from blogging), I have decided to start it back up! Over the next month, I will write up a couple posts about what I was up to this summer. Hopefully, I will get at least one video up. To highlight a couple of the activities this summer, I went tubing 4-6 times, camping all over Colorado and Utah, and trying to kill myself on a mountain bike.

Recently, I just moved out of the house I was living in and moved to Golden Colorado.  It is a small town nestled up against the mountains just west of Denver.  It is home to the Coors Brewery.  I am renting a small house with Aaron Smith.  I'm under the assumption that Coors Light deliveries come with paying for trash removal, but we have not figured that out.

This past weekend also marked the first ski day!  Arapahoe Basin opened October 17th, so three of us headed up on Sunday.  There was only one run open, but the snow was actually good.  It was a blast to be surrounded by people being stoked to ride one small run.  We skied seven runs in 2.5 hours, had a PBR or two in the parking lot soaking up the sun, then headed back to Denver to continue to move.

I will update the statistics on the right to start off the 2013-2014 season.  It will be interesting to see if I can top 58 days and 1 million feet in a full year with a job.

Be on the lookout for a crazy mountain biking video. The video was taken at Moab and involves falling down 7,000 feet of mountain over 30 miles and 7 hours of biking. The last 14 miles of the ride, I only rode in socks because the beginning of the trail was so hard, both my shoes completely broke.

Man and Mountain Bike vs Highest Paved Road in North America

Fortunately/Unfortunately, I live with two guys, Aaron and Sam, that have biked across the country, are training for an Ironman, and are younger than me. This means, there is always an outdoor activity that is going on at the house. That also means that when it involves being in shape, I am usually struggling to keep up, which never really matters anyways.

After our Friday night grill out party, which resulted in wasting away Saturday, we decided to do something bigger on Sunday; we were going to bike Mt. Evans. This road is the highest paved road in North America, and goes to the top of Mt. Evans, another 14,000 feet peak. Luckily Kristen decided to join as well, so I would have someone to start with.

We left at 6:30 am this morning, and headed up to Idaho Springs. There, we would drop off Aaron and Sam, so they could do the full 27 miles/over 6000 vertical feet bike ride. Kristen and I headed up to Echo Lake to start our trek. We "only had 16-17 miles of all uphill. Unfortunately, since I only have a mountain bike, I had to use that. For those that don't bike, this is a huge difference. Mountain bikes lose a lot of energy in their shocks, and although sturdier, the tires need a lot more energy (These are just the beginnings of my excuses!).

We started up. Luckily, the first 1/4 mile was pretty level, but then it started up. Luckily, it was not too steep, but it never got less steep. The road we were biking on is called Mount Evans Road and starts at around 10,000 feet above sea level. After around an hour, I was only about 5 miles in, with three necessary stops under my belt. Kristen left me mile marker 2, which I was glad about. I knew just the difference in bikes, I would not be able to keep up with her.

At this point, it actually started to get cold. The weather called for a high in the upper 60's, but the wind was blowing like crazy. It seemed like not matter what side of the ridge I were on, or which way the switchbacks were headed, I was biking directly into the wind. It wasn't as rough as the hike last week, but there were some good 30 mile an hour gusts. My breaks got more frequent and the miles slowed. The goal was to average 5-6 mph, which doesn't seems like a lot, but with the wind and steepness, it was all I could do. As I was getting passed by other bikers, I would always have a nice little chat with them. Many spewed words of encourage. Most complained about the wind. I definitely stood out. I was the only one without a road bike or bike shorts. My Trek 4500 and mesh shorts stood out.

Quickly the motto of "go one mile then break", turned into a half mile, then a quarter mile. As the miles slowly passed, I actually became more confident. I thought I was done at mile 4, and I was still going "strong" at mile 8. My legs started shaking uncontrollably around mile 5-6 because of fatigue, but I just keep pushing on. Aaron and Sam actually passed me at mile 12. At that point, they had gone 23 miles, while I had just gone 12. I knew at that point, I was not going to make it to the top. I set the goal of two more miles, which would put me around 13500 feet. The switchback turns on the road became more frequent, the wind stronger, and my legs weaker. I would be able to go around .1-.25 miles before I needed to stop for a couple minutes. Aaron, Sam, and Kristen headed down from the top and met me struggling up.

It was a relief to see them. It meant that uphill was done and I could turn around and enjoy the downhill. I had gone up 14.3 miles and gone up almost exactly 3000 vertical feet. The downhill was amazing. We average around 30-35 miles an hour, actually passing cars, once we got used to the switchbacks. The road is on a cliff for around 5 miles of the ride. A cliff that if you misjudged a turn just a little, that would definitely be the last mistake you ever made. It dropped at least 400 feet in most places. Of course the wind was still howling and pushing the bikes around quite a bit. Because of this, we had to ride the yellow line for most of the ride. We made it back to the car. Kristen sacrificed for the team, and loaded up the car with her bike. Aaron, Sam, and I biked down the rest of the downhill to Idaho Springs.

After all was said and done, I had the most intense 39 mile bike ride I have ever had. We of course had to go to Beau Jo's again for some massive pizza. I posted a couple pictures below that I took, then a couple screen shots from Google Street View to try to show the intensity of the cliffs we were biking on. Of course, nothing does it justice.

For those people that have been out here, I biked over 3 times farther than Loveland Pass, and climbed over 1800 feet higher than Loveland Pass, while actually being about 2000 feet in altitude higher than Loveland Pass. Basically, I'm just trying to make it sound as hard as possible. Although I was sort of upset I didn't make it to the top, I realized that I'm not living in Colorado to cross things off my bucket list. I'm out here to try these things. With that said, I will bike up Mt. Evans by the end of this summer.

The route I took going up.


The cliff I was talking about.


One of the many switchbacks.

Another busy weekend

I need a break from my weekends. This past weekend provided another busy and amazingly fun time. Luckily, my work provides me the option of working 9 hour days and getting every other Friday off. This past Friday was my first flex Friday.

Friday: I have actually been looking to buy a house in the Denver/Golden area, so I knew that I had to be back in cell service at around 8:30 to work with my Realtor to submit an offer on the house I wanted. So Thursday night, I packed my backpack with my skis, boots, poles and everything else I needed to ski, with the intention of getting up at 2 am, hiking up a 14er, skiing down it, then getting back to the car by 8:30 am.

After 3 hours, I actually woke up at 1:45 am and started the 1.5 hour drive to the base of Mt. Torrey. This is one of the easiest and closest 14ers to hike. I did not know that the last 3 miles of the drive was a small dirt road with pot holes the size of a football offensive lineman. I actually got stuck once, but after slowly backing up and trying again, my trusty Subaru made it past the giant ruts.

I got to the trail head at 3:20 and started hiking at 2:30. It was amazing to hike in the dark by myself. All I could see was what my headlight shone on and of course the moon and every star in the sky. Unfortunately, I underestimated the altitude and the heaviness of my pack. It weighed around 30-40 pounds and the altitude was killing me. In steep sections, I could only walk around 2 minutes until I had to stop and catch my breathe. I realized at around 5:30, I would not be able to make it to the top, ski it, and get back to the car by 8:30. Instead, I found a great place to relax and watched the sunrise over the mountains. I then headed back to the car. After passing around 20 people hiking up (don't people have jobs to go to?), I made it back to the car at 8. Even though I failed to reach the summit of my first 14er, I had an amazing time.

After being on the phone for the rest of the morning, I met with my realtor to work on the contract. Two hours, the contract was complete and signed. I was finally able to get some rest around 3 pm.

Saturday: I found out that the seller was going to counter my offer. To clear my head, I went mountain biking with Kristen on Green Mountain. Then, came back to the house, only to head out 20 minutes later to meet up with some people at a Brews Bluegrass festival. Unfortunately, after the 5 mile bike ride there, I realized I had forgot both my wallet/ID and my bike lock. That was the end of that night.

Sunday: Woke up bright and early again, around 5:30 and picked up Kristen to hike Mt. Bierstadt, a mountain 14,065 feet high. We knew it was going to be crowded, since it was another close one to Denver. By the time we got there at 8 am, there was easily 40 cars there and a line about 10 people long for the outhouse. The hike was about 4 miles up. It was a gorgeous day, but very windy. Halfway up, we needed to put on our jackets and gloves. Honestly, I didn't know if I was going to make it. I had to stop every 200 feet to catch my breathe.

The final .75 miles rose about 1200 feet, with two snowfields to cross and over .5 mile of rock scrambling. And the wind, it was relentless. We finally made it to the top after 2 hours 45 minutes of hiking, which was actually a pretty good pace. Even with me holding us back, Kristen and I passed 4 people and only got passed by 7 people. The top was amazing. You could see for miles and miles. Someone had a devise to monitor wind speed. The entire time we were on the summit, the wind didn't dip below 48 mph!

It took us 2 hours to get back to the car. On the way back to Denver, we treated ourselves to some Beau Jo's pizza and a 32 ounce Tommy Knocker Amber in Idaho Springs.

That night, I talked with my realtor and decided to stop pursuing the home that I put the offer down on.

What a weekend! Pictures and videos to come soon.

"Extreme" Tubing

This past Sunday, I went with 5 friends, Rob, Henry, Sam, Aaron and Kristen, tubing down the Colorado.  We started about 30 minutes past Beaver Creek (40 minutes past Vail) and tubed down to Glenwood Springs.  We were going to raft through some class two and three rapids, but we only had two helmets and one life jacket.  For some reason, we came to our senses and avoided these rapids and put in a little lower.  So we are now scouring Craigslist for cheap life jackets so we can go back.

Henry was sporting the beverage raft, while the rest of us were rocking the tubes.  I have to admit it was sort of funny watching people pass us in big rafts with helmets and life jackets while we were just sitting in tubes drinking.  The water was unfortunately pretty cold, around 58, and the sun hid behind a cloud for half of the trip.  We did go through some class 1 rapids, which were pretty fun, and the canyon was just unbelievable.  We were surrounded by 1000 foot cliffs all day.  There was one wave that Aaron, Kristen and I all went through, and wrecked.  The video is from Aaron's perspective.  The sound is pretty cool when the GoPro goes in the water.

Luckily at the end of the trip, we stopped on the side of the river where the hot springs came into the river by Glenwood Springs.  It really is amazing how warm the water was.  To finish off the day, we went over to Rob and Henry's amazing place in Beaver Creek, had some great BBQ and ribs while enjoying the view. Really a great day!  If these past two weekends are any indication of what my life will be like in Colorado, I'm sad it took me this long to come out.  That being said, I still do miss my friends in DC.  You should all come out here!

On Friday, I may be trying my first 14er, either Gray's or Torrey's.  There is a good chance I will just sleep in, but hopefully I will wake up in time.   I have to wake up around 2 am on Friday morning if I want to hike it and get some turns in, so I decided to pack tonight.  Maybe some GoPro ski footage to come soon.

For those that don't know, Bud Light Lime-A-Rita's are amazing!

Untitled from Drew Wagner on Vimeo.

How much are memories worth?

I just got a call from the guys working on my hard drive.  Apparently they haven't been able to recover any of the videos.  There is a good chance they can, but they would have to tear it open in a clean room, which would cost $1,500.  Of course.  So now I have a big decision to make.

On a higher note, I woke up early this morning to bike up Green Mountain and take this picture as the sun came up over Denver.  This was actually 3 weeks ago, but my phone lost service and it didn't post it, although I thought it did.

Lunch

A nice little place to eat lunch.  Click on the picture to make it bigger.  This is right minutes away from my office.  Okay, this picture didn't turn out well, but believe me, it is great.

A great way to end the season, but not the blog

Thanks everyone for following.  It has been a lot of fun creating this and even though there were a lot of days I was skied by myself, I always felt excited to come back and write about it, knowing there were people that were actually interested.  I have been able to stay with Accenture and have a role starting May 14th.  I am really excited to stay out here, so if anyone is in the area, let me know.  I am going to continue the blog.  I have someone working on my external hard drive, so hopefully there will be more videos to come.   I will keep this updated with my adventures this summer.  Thanks again for following!

And now the last day of skiing...................

It was 70 degrees and the sun was out.  A perfect day to go skiing, just after put on sun screen.  I don't think I had ever skied in weather so warm.  It was a blast.  I was also made it to million vertical feet!  It was close, but after 57 amazing days of skiing, I finally made it.

Final Stats of the Year:

Total Vertical: 1,000,679 Feet

Number of Different Resorts: 7

Number of Ski Days: 57

Total Number of Runs: 773

Stats from my phone, which is from only 46 out of the 57 days.  There were some days I couldn't track on my phone.

Fastest: 78.36 mph

Distance: 845 miles

After skiing and hitting a million, I then went for a quick hike along an awesome stream and found some great camping areas.

                                 

After coming back to the condo, I spend an hour just watching two foxes hanging out at the condo. I never thought I would be able to hang out at 7 at night in just shorts and a t-shirt and still be warm.

Maybe the last day of skiing

Today may have been the last day of skiing, which means I did not ski a million vertical feet, which I'm actually fine with.  I honestly had a chance, but when I made it up to the mountain today, I saw they had the Lake Chutes open for the first time in a couple of weeks.  Instead of bombing easy slopes, I just decided to head up to Lake Chutes.  After one warm up run, I headed up.  The hike to the top was really tough because it was half small boulders, half really slushy snow.  I again skied the headway of the Y chute.  It was amazing.  Unfortunately, I had to hike back to the lift, but I decided to do the hike one more time.  I think the hike took me twice as long the second time around.  The chute was amazing again, but my legs were spent.  I just decided to call it a day.  As I was skiing down to my condo, I fell.  I didn't just fall once, but fell TWICE on a green run back to my condo.  I think that is a perfect ending to this year.  Skiing the hardest line on the mountain, then later in the run falling twice on one of the easiest runs on the hill.  My legs have just hit a wall.  Skiing 31 out of the last 36 days is my limit.

It's been a while............

So, even though all I really do all day is ski, for some reason I have been really busy. Sorry for all those people that I have meant to get back to, specifically Eric, Toby, and Rob. I have just been avoiding the real world since I'm sad my 3 months is almost up. I will get back to you as soon as possible. A lot has happened since I have posted.

Since Josh made me the excel sheet planning out every day of skiing, I think I will get to 1,000,000 feet of vertical. I have skied 27 of the past 32 days and have skied a total of 569,914 in those 27 days. Pretty crazy. And yes, my legs are starting to get tired. My parents came out for 5 days which was great. We skied Copper one day and Breckenridge two days. We also went up to Steamboat to go to the hot springs up there. The next time I have any visitors, I am taking them there. It is definitely worth the two hour drive.

Then Erin and Tom came out and they killed me. We skied 4 days in a row, hard. Two days at Breck, one a Copper, and Gaper Day at A-Basin. The first day at Breck, I took them up to Peak 7, the best snow on the mountain and the steepest part of the mountain other than Lake Chutes. We did have to hike twice, once over a rock field about 200 feet long, but it was worth it. Then Sunday, Gaper Day. For those that don't know the term gaper, it is an insult to a skier/boarder, basically saying they don't know what they are doing. It comes from the gap between the helmet and goggles that most people have, even good skiers. A synonym is BBRG (Buffalo Bills Rodeo Gangster). April 1st is a day to dress like a Texan, who is a stereotypical Gaper, with jeans tucked into the boots and starter jackets. For those in the east, just think New Jersey. Back to the actual day. We reserved a spot and started the day off with egg, bacon and cheese burritos on my stove with mimosas. We then strapped on our snowblades and rock skis. It was in the 50's all day. There was a ton of daffy's, spread eagles, adult beverages and mud/rock skiing. The snow was actually good, so we skied quite a bit. For a comparison, it is extremely like Foxfield, except involves skill. A local DJ was there and brought his speakers in his truck. You could hear the music at the lodge halfway up the mountain. Great day.

The past couple of days, I have just been skiing by myself, getting a good goggle tan and trying to kill myself in the park. I was also able to ski Lake Chutes one last day. The snow was so good, I was able to ski the headwall of the main chute, which felt really good. I have been eyeing it all year, and I think I was one of the first ones to do in a while. Hopefully I will get my videos up, so you can at least some footage from Gaper Day.

Lost videos?

Anyone know how to fix external hard drives?  The WD one I have with all my videos isn't working fire some reason. It shows up as a device, but I can't assign a letter drive to it to open it up.

Off to Copper

So far the weekend with my parents has been great. We have skied two days at Breckenridge and went up to the hot springs in Steamboat yesterday. The two days of skiing was great. We would get over 15,000 feet of vertical before 12:30, then just hang out outside the bar, listening to live music and relaxing. I got the opposite of a golf tan. Both of my hands are burned completely since I had long sleeves on. One of Bob Marley's sons, Julian, played one day. He was okay, but no Bob Marley. Yesterday we drove two hours up to Steamboat to go to the hot springs. They were awesome. Five different pools ranging from 115 to 101 degrees. We then could jump into the freezing river, which was somewhere between 32-40 degrees. It was a really cool place. From now on, people that take a day off from skiing, I will take them there. We are heading out to Copper, but I will try to post some pictures of the hot springs later tonight.

Burned out

Yesterday I did nothing. I woke up and could barely move, my legs were so tired. I had skied 13 of the past 14 days. The only day that I didn't ski, I drove over 7 hours and slept in a cold car. I think my body was just shutting down. I actually did go out for one run at the end of the day. I went out with snow blades. It was actually really scary. Those things are crazy. Anyways, I'm heading to the airport to pick up my parents. I probably won't be able to get any more videos out until Tuesday. I think my beard is getting close to threatening (the unkempt beard). http://i.imgur.com/faoEs.jpg

Honestly, the best day of the year

About five years ago, I learned about Wolf Creek, which surprised me that I had never heard of it before that with all the snow they usually get.  Ever since I read about the resort in a magazine, I have wanted to go.  Finally, today was the day I was able to experience it.  The mountain itself is what I thought it was.  Very small and flat near the base, although very steep at the top.  Once you hit the middle of the mountain, you don't turn, or else you won't be able to make the bottom.  They got 12 inches of snow last night and probably got another 2-5 throughout the day today.

I tried a couple new ways to film today.  I think they turned out pretty well.  I'm going to make a good video later this week with all the footage, but I just wanted to throw together a quick video to show everyone how good it was today.  I actually stayed down near Wolf Creek, so I could ski it tomorrow.  It will be the last day of the year that I ski powder.

I hope you are all jealous of the snow and the snowy beard.  It actually got better as the day went on. The snowy beard will be showcased in the "real" Wolf Creek video coming later this week.

Sleeping in car

Quick post from my phone.  Made it to wolf creek around midnight.  I think I found a good place to park.  It's 24 degrees out so the night should nor be too bad.  The snow looks great.

UPDATE:I woke up this morning to head lights right behind my car.  I thought for sure I was getting towed, since there was so much snow on the car you couldn't see in. I quickly put in my contacts and drove away.  I found our that our was not a tow truck, just some guy who wanted to park right behind the only car in the lot.

For sleeping in a metal box all night (my car),  I slept really well.  I only needed a t shirt and mesh shorts.  The sleeping bag was amazing.  I'm now eating in the restaurant of the parking lot I slept in.  I hope the snow is worth it.

Happy Late St. Patrick's Day

I hope everyone had as much fun yesterday as I did.  The past couple days, I have been skiing with Ryan, Michelle, and Mia.  It has been a great couple of days.  Everyday has been sunny, warm and okay snow.  I haven't worn my gloves since Wednesday.  After picking them up on Wednesday, skied Breckenridge Thursday and Friday.  On Friday night, we went to Beaver Creek and stayed at an amazing hotel.  We just spend Friday night in the outdoor hot tub/pool having a couple of drinks and admiring the stars.  On Saturday we skied Beaver Creek.  It was really good.  We skied almost the entire mountain.  In the evening, we spent the night in the Beaver Creek.  Unfortunately, Ryan started to feel pretty bad, so Michelle and Ryan went back early and Mia and myself stayed out for the rest of the night.  After skiing on Saturday, we went to the pool and hot tub again.  I actually sat by the pool in just my swimsuit for 30 minutes without getting cold at all.  It was really cool to hang out by a pool, looking up at ski slopes that we had just skied an hour ago, and not be cold.

We are heading into Denver to drop them off at the airport, then I am going to go Wolf Creek.  I haven't figured out where I am staying for the night, so I think I am just going to sleep in the car.  Thanks for the really nice, warm sleeping bag for Christmas Derek!  The reason I am going down is they are supposed to get 14-20 inches over the next 24 hours and where I live is supposed to only get 2-4 inches.  Also, I have always wanted to go to this mom and pop ski hill.  They average the most snow in Colorado.  I hope it is worth it!

Three short videos

While Kevin, Josh, Tony and Rob were out, I was able to take a video of three of them, Josh, Kevin and Rob, going down a black diamond run at Breckenridge.  Since I am being lazy tonight, I have decided to do simple thing and create three videos of each entire run.  It's really hard to tell, but on these runs, these guys are going about 45-50 mph and the run they are skiing is actually really steep.

While I am at it, I decided to make them more like real ski movies and put in rap songs of artists you have never heard of.  Below are videos of Rob, Josh and Kevin to music from Swollen Members, Rockwell Knuckles, and Bliss n Eso.  Check out their other songs too.  They are actually pretty good.

Don't worry, I'll actually make a video from that entire weekend that will also include Tony.  Sorry I missed you in these videos.

Why am I not bored?

So I have been out here for almost 2 months now. The time has flew by. Today was my 30th day on the mountain and the past couple days have actually been horrible snow. It was a blast when JC and Greg were out, but spring has come. Along with the warm weather comes the crowds and sloppy snow. Not that I am complaining. I don't think I have seen a cloud in 3 days. I just don't understand myself. With all the skiing I have been doing, I should be bored skiing bad groomed, easy runs. I go out with the intention of skiing for an hour and coming back in, but when I am out, I always end up doing one more run, until it is all of a sudden 4:00. It hasn't been until the last couple of days, skiing these not perfect conditions, that I needed to do this entire trip. Even know my ankle stills hurts a little and snow has been the worst in 30-40 years, I needed to do this. It has been a great feeling! Check back later tonight for video of Josh, Kevin, Tony and Rob. Thanks again Greg and JC for coming out! Now go fill out your brackets. This will be the first year a 10 seed wins it all.

Spring has come

Today was the first day JC and Greg were here. We decided to ski Vail since neither of them had ever been there. The snow was the definition of "dust on crust". Unfortunately, it was probably the worst conditions of the year, and it looks like nothing is going to change in the next ten days. Lots of sun and no snow. Every day the snow melts, then at night it refreezes. The next morning it is hard has a rock. It looks like there will be a lot of groomer runs over the next week. There better be at least one or two more storms at the end of March. Now, back to today. Since the conditions were so bad, we headed right back to US(upside-down sled). It was actually really good. A lot of people had been back there, but we were still able to hit 3-5 inches of fresh powder. It's amazing how one week will change anything. We were willing to traverse for 15 minutes in and another 10 minutes out, just to get 5 good turns. We ended up skiing that run once more, after lunch. Even with the horrible conditions, we were still able to ski over 20,000 feet. Greg is a machine, so I expect the next two days to have similar numbers. Josh was quite offended when I stated early this week that I won't be able to make a 1,000,000 feet this year. To keep himself busy at work, he planned out the rest of my trip with how many feet I need to ski each day to make 1,000,000. Now that I have a plan, I still don't think I will make it, but I will try my hardest. I don't want all of Josh's efforts to go to waste. It is the best work he has done since.......well........ever. The Ridge tomorrow and maybe A-Basin on Saturday.

Matt and Jeremy Post

I forgot how good the snow was until I went through all the videos over the past two days.  Man, that week was really good, both Vail and Breckenridge.  It was probably the best conditions I have skied at Breckenridge.  At Vail, we skied all the back bowls except Blue Sky Basin because it was closed all day.  While we were there, we found a great run that was really hard to find.  It will now be called Matt's Run, since he was the one that spotted it.

At Breckenridge we skied basically everything, including Whale's Tail, twice.  The snow was great everywhere.  Check out the long video below!

Thanks again guys for coming out!  It was a great week.  Make sure you guys keep the mail flowing.

86,627

This morning I went to Keystone with one goal, ski 100,000 feet in a day.  With the snow not great and the temperatures in the in 40's, I thought today would be a good day to try it.  Keystone is the only resort in the area that has night skiing, so it is the only place that is possible to ski that much in one day.  I packed my backpack with 3 liters of water, tons of food, as well as extra socks, shirts and gloves in preparation to ski until 8 pm.  Unfortunately when I got to the resort, I found out that the resort wasn't open late.  I decided to stay anyways and try to ski the entire mountain and get as much vertical as I could, even though I knew 100,000 feet was impossible, just because of the amount of time you have to spend on the lifts.

After pushing myself all day, and many helpful text messages from Josh, I was able to get 86,627 vertical feet.   I was hoping for somewhere in the 70,000 range, so I was ecstatic. To put this in perspective, if you combined my two biggest days ever before today, they would not equal the vertical I did today.  Even after skiing most of Keystone, I still don't know why anyone goes there, other than for their terrain park.  All the groomed runs where icy, even though it was the warmest day of the year, and everything else was just lacking snow.

I ended up skiing over 57 miles.  I maxed out at 70.3 mph, which was on my third run.  That is the only run I recorded and you can see it in the video below.  Most runs I maxed out at 50-55 mph.  For the entire day, I skied 2 hours 17 minutes, which means I was on the lifts for over 5 hours 15 minutes.

Even with the vertical I covered today, I still won't be able to hit my goal of 1,000,000 vertical feet this year, but I should be able to get to 750,000 now.

Hope you like the video!  More to come tomorrow morning, since my legs may still be a little tired from today.

Slacking again

Again, it's been awhile since I have posted anything.  Kevin, Josh, Tony and Rob came up for the long weekend and I didn't have a chance to update this.  Since Tony and Rob make us wake up at 4 am yesterday to get to Denver, I fell asleep early last night in the middle of editing Jeremy and Matt's video.

To sum up the great weekend, someone fell off a cliff in the back bowls at Vail (Josh), someone skied 48 mph even though it was only his 6-7 trip skiing (Kevin), someone got frostbite on their nose while snowmobiling (me), someone put on skis for the first time ever and skied blue runs (Tony), and someone went at least 12 mph on a snowmobile (Rob).

Hopefully much later tonight I will have video from Jeremy and Matt and more specifics about this past weekend.

Big News!

Two great days in a row.  Unfortunately, everyone from Denver heard about the good snow up there and the slopes were packed today.  They did open up the Lake Chutes today.  I was able to hike up finally ski a chute that I have been eyeing for a while.  It was the first No Fall Zone I have really skied since I have been out here and the first time in a very long time when I was scared out of my mind while not hitting a jump/cliff.  It felt great.

But the big news is this past Sunday, my brother proposed to his girlfriend Erika and she said YES! Welcome to the family Erika!  As a tribute, I finished the video of when Derek was here.

Derek-Can I use this video as the wedding gift?

A little wordology lesson

For many, the title of the post earlier today was confusing. Puking just means "snowing really hard". I was not actually sick today. I am currently working on videos from when Derek was out as well as Matt and Jeremy. Be on the lookout for these coming to you later tomorrow night.

It continued to snow throughout the day.  We probably ended up getting around 6-8 inches, but after the slopes closed, the snow continued.  I was thinking of driving 4 hours tomorrow morning just to get more snow at Wolf Creek, but it snowed so much after the slopes closed today, I'm just going to head to Vail tomorrow.

Below is a picture Will took of me as we quickly went in to grab some water before heading back out.  There are a number of things you can see in the picture.
1. Yes I still have the beard, even though my excuse for growing it was because Derek made me until he came out and he has already been here and left.
2. It was a little snowy, cold, blowing today.
3. I look like a Teletubby.  That is the camera I use to film, so you better be enjoying the videos!

Puking

I'm getting my oil changed right now, but so far we have over three inches and expecting over eight.  It should be a good day

Another Great Week

Thanks to Jeremy and Matt and Toby for a great week.  We got lots of snow, and lots of good runs.  Check back later this week for videos from that week.  Check out the video below from some of the runs that Kate and I did at Vail.  As you can see, it was an amazingly bright day, so many of the shots are washed out.

I just got yelled at

I just got yelled at via e-mail from one of my good college friends, David, for not posted anything over the past couple of days. Thanks David for keeping me honest! Videos still won't be made until Toby leaves, Monday night or Tuesday night. The snow has been great over the past couple of days though. Jeremy, Matt, and I drove back to Denver Friday morning, over the Continental Divide. The view was amazing. You could see for days. As we drove down to Denver, we stopped to watch the Buffalo fight, which was the first time I had ever seen that. Finally, when we made it into Denver, we headed to Beau Jo's, a pizza place that Matt saw on Man vs Food. Although we did not order the 14 lbs pizza (the challenge is for 2 people to eat the pizza in 1 hour), we did order a 3 lbs pizza. It was delicious. After, we headed into town to the Flying Dog brewery, which ended up just being a taste room. We got two free tastes of beer, a full beer and a Flying Dog glass for $4. Since we all still had 1 lb of pizza in us, we just bar hopped downtown Denver until Toby got in.

Toby and I got back to Breck around 1:00 am and went straight to bed. When we got out on the slopes, I honestly didn't know what to expect, since Toby had only ever been skiing twice, but two runs in, we were doing blue runs. He is honestly one of the most natural skiers I have ever seen. He does so many small mechanical things right without even realizing it.

Yesterday was great. We did blue and green runs all day. Unfortunately he woke up a little sick today. I went out for an hour and skied Horseshoe Bowl a couple of times this morning and we will probably head out later this afternoon if he is feeling better. 

More snow to come this week and boys weekend is coming up this weekend. Check back Tuesday for some videos.

Blower conditions today!

Eleven inches at Vail yesterday and another foot today? It's going to be great.....if we can get there. UPDATE: Vail misrepresented and they only had 2 inches. The snow was still great. Heading to Denver tomorrow.

Interesting Day

Today was a great day, although interesting. I headed up right to the top of Imperial. The wind was blowing and it was snowing like crazy. As I started my traverse, I couldn't see a thing and I had no idea where I was. Suddenly, a huge gust of wind, at least 50 miles an hour, blew and actually pushed me back around 2-3 feet. I didn't realize I was so close to the cornice and felt right off it, tumbling 20 feet down the hill. Luckily, the snow was deep and soft, so I was able to stop myself without getting hurt. I continued down the mountain about 5 turns until I couldn't see the tips of my skis. As I stood there, waiting for the snow to clear, my head started to spin. It felt like I had just woken up 3 hours after drinking 15 adult beverages (not like I would know what that feels like). My mind couldn't comprehend which way was up and which was down, since I couldn't even see my skis. After a couple minutes of standing there, I felt something. My breakfast. I proceeded to throw up everywhere in the middle of Whale's Tail (the name of the run). I finally composed myself and realized if I looked at my orange boots, my mind could get some sort of direction. I finally made it down. Since the snow was so great, I decided to do one run on Chair 6 and call it a day. After 2 hours of lapping Chair 6, I made it in. The snow was great and after the first run, I felt fine. I'm heading into Denver right now to pick up Matt and Jeremy.

Editing going crazy

For some reason, some of the videos I took when Kate was here are not working. I can view them, but can't edit them and put them in a video. Instead of staying inside all day to try to figure this out, I'm heading out skiing. Sorry Kate. I will get these videos out as soon as I can. Jeremy and Matt are coming in tonight so there probably won't be videos for a couple of days. Unfortunately, Breckenridge did not get the 40 inches Steamboat has over the past 3 days, but it should still be good. Derek-Everyone says thanks for the beer!

Great weekend with Derek

Derek was in this weekend. The snow was great and the sun was out. We skied Vail Friday and skied Breckenridge on Saturday. We finally did some runs I have been waiting to do since I have been out here. At Vail, we went out the Western gate in Blue Sky Basin and did US (Upside Sled). This is a pretty secret stash that Jason showed us a couple years ago. The ridge is a really popular sidecountry area for locals, but most either drop in before this spot or go farther along the ridge. I'll let you know how to get there as long as you don't tell anyone. After passing the gate, you need to traverse for about 15 minutes, going through 3 fields. Each field will be marked with a number on the orange warning signs. Don't worry about the signs that say "Leaving the ski area" and "You are headed to a lost, cold night". These are just there to scare you, although you should be scared. Anyways, once you get to the third clearing, look for the upside down emergency sled. Immediately drop in from there and about 300 feet in, you will find an amazing clearing with a 5 foot cliff and untouched snow. When Derek and I got there, we were very hesitant, since there were no tracks into this area, which is not normal for the area. Once we got to the clearing, it was perfect. The snow was deep and untouched. Just don't fall, or you can't get up by yourself. So if you are at Vail, feel confident, and have the appropriate equipment, try it out! Today was bitter cold. Danielle and I headed out early, but only did 6 runs, since the snow wasn't great and it felt like -10. I am heading back to Denver tomorrow to pick up Jeremy and Matt. Should be a great week. Also, I found out great news that Ryan, Michelle and Mia are making it out in mid-March. Check back later. Hopefully I will stop being so lazy and will post pictures from when Kate and Derek were out.

Day at Vail with Aaron and Will

I have been really bad updating this. The best day so far this year happened on Monday at Vail. Will, Aaron, and I hit up Vail after they got around 5 inches of snow. It was definitely more snow than that in places. Derek is coming tonight, so I am really excited. Enjoy the video below. And yes, Will (the guy in all black) does throw a backflip off the rock at the end of one of the runs. Enjoy!

Best Weekend So Far

Lots of snow. Lots of fun. Lots of lots. Kate was here for the weekend and man, it was great. She has set the bar very high for every other visitor coming. She bought 4 cases of PBR for us and payed for Will and I at bars every night. We are simple people. Also, it was great to catch up with Smitty, Reilly, and Katie. Overall, the best weekend of the weekend. Anyways, it started snowing Wednesday night and hasn't stopped. We have gotten at least an inch every day. Last night we got at least 5 inches, so Will, Aaron and I skied Vail today. It was by far the best conditions of the year. Be ready tomorrow for some sort of sweet footage tomorrow of the guys I ski with and of course Kate. I forgot how bad I am until I skied with the two best snowboarders that I have seen in person today. Be ready for some backflips, dropping cliffs of 20 feet and some sweet doubles. Happy Valentines Day and more importantly Jim Kelly's birthday!

Snow and Snow and Trees

Today was another great day in paradise. Breck said they only got 4 inches, but it was definitely closer to 6 inches. I also met up with Adam and his friends this morning. We did a couple laps on chair 6. The snow was finally great and my ankle held up enough that I could fake it. I'm skiing around 70% right now, which is exciting. Anyways, back to the skiing. After the first couple runs, we stayed in the trees, because that is where all the snow was that wasn't skied out. I'm quickly uploading a video and then heading into Denver to pick up Kate. I wanted to make this video longer, but Kate probably wouldn't be happy if I wasn't there to pick here up.

Out Skiing

I was too lazy to make a video from yesterday, but I went to Vail. Man, it was amazing. Perfectly clear. The snow wasn't great, but I was able to ski most of the back bowls. Make sure to check later (around 7 EST) to see a couple videos from yesterday.

RICE works

After 5 days of not skiing, I finally got back out there again, and it felt good. It is sort of a double edged sword. My ankle felt a lot better, but I think it was just because I have been taking it easy. With Kate and Adam coming in during this week, I'm going to go to Vail tomorrow, just to get familiar with the mountain again. I took some footage today, but again, the angle wasn't good. I think I got it figured out finally. The only footage I have is of one of my 3's. It was the first time this year I went off a jump. I'm not sure it was the smartest thing for my ankle, but enough is enough. It is February and I just have to ski through the pain. Don't worry. When you see the video and the whole 4 feet of air I get, you will see how it can't be that bad for my ankle.

Perfect video

I need to start making my videos like this. Short and to the point. I just love the title "Perfect Daffy". It definitely doesn't lie. Have a good weekend everyone!

Did not expect this

I just found out that both Kate and Toby are going to try to come out this month. That means that there is only one weekend from now until when my leave is up that I won't have visitors. I just want to thank everyone who is coming out. I know I definitely won't get bored over the next two months. I can't wait to see you all!

First first chair of the year

Sorry for not updating this in a couple of days.  Check back later today for a video that does not feature country music.  On Tuesday I actually did get first chair, which felt good, until I found out that the top of the mountain didn't open until 9 or 10.  Since I had my bigger powder skis, I decided to straight-line a couple blue and black runs.  Unfortunately, since I rushed out of my condo to get first chair, I forgot my phone, so I was not able to see my top speed.  After a couple runs of that, I took the T-Bar up, then waited for 30 minutes to get 3 chair of the season on the Imperial Chair.

The video that I will post later has one of the straight-lining runs, me riding the T-Bar, then finally making it up to Whale's Tail.  I am still working out the angle of the camera, so I apologize for that.  Hopefully the skiing you see on Whale's Tail will be the worst you see all year.  That is the first time I skied a double black (it was definitely an easier double black run) with control of only one ski.  My ankle really started to hurt, so I went right back to the condo after that run.  I am going to take at least 4 days off, since visitors will be coming soon. I want to make sure I can ski the entire day with them.

Since I didn't ski yesterday, I decided to head to ABasin where Dean Cummings was there to show his movie, The Steeper Life, and talk about avalanche protocols.  It was really cool.  There were only about 15-20 of us there.  Most were either from the ABasin ski patrol or editors/writers for Ski magazine.  He is a really quite humble person, but amazingly talented.  If you haven't seen the movie, you should try to check it out.  It is only about 50 minutes, so it doesn't take too long to watch.

Make sure you check back in a couple of hours to see the new video.

Early morning tomorrow

After my big day yesterday, I decided to give my ankle a rest today, especially since we may be getting some snow later this week.  Breckenridge announced a couple hours ago that they were going to open up Imperial Lift tomorrow, which is the last lift to be opened.  I took a picture of the area Imperial Lift early this year, called Lake Chutes.  I'm not sure what will be open tomorrow up there, but I'm taking my powder skis out for the first time this year.  I can't wait!  It may be a quick day again tomorrow, but it will hopefully be worth it.

This lift is quite impressive.  It is the highest, altitude-wise, in North America.  The top of the lift is 12,840 feet high.  Well, I'm off to get first chair tomorrow.

Big Day

This is going to be short and sweet, since I am pretty tired.  After two days of hanging in Denver with Dan, I decided to wake up early and really test my ankle.  I started skiing at 8:45 and by 1, I had skied 30,000 vertical feet.  I skied until 3 and ended up with 39,226 vertical feet for the day.  Definitely the most vert I have ever done in one day.  The ankle of course is hurting after all of this, but I was happy my legs could last that long.  Below are some more stats from today, since I love numbers.

Number of lifts rode: 31
Fastest speed: 60.4 mph
Distance traveled: 40 miles exactly
Amount of time skiing: 2 hours 13 minutes

First Video

This video has everything a good ski video should have.  Someone with a beard, snow, and a horribly angled GoPro.  Hopefully I will get better at taking videos, especially the aiming part of the camera.  This video is pretty boring, since I wasn't really able to ski much.  I just filmed part of my last run to the condo.  The video highlights me limping down a green/blue run, walking through the trees to the road, then skiing down the road to the condo.  Honestly, this is one of the best things I have found out while being out here.  I love being able to ski right to the condo door.  I hope you guys like the video, or more importantly the scenery, because that is the only reason I posted it.  Have a great weekend all!

You can also check out my Vimeo account and check out a video I made from last year when I went out to Snowbird to ski with Doug.

The weekends are filling up!

Before coming out here, I was concerned that by the end of the season, I was going to get really bored of skiing.  I know, I don't think that is possible either, but it is especially impossible now.  Not only is Kevin now coming out, but Greg, JC and maybe even Doug (if I can convince him that skiing with friends is better than skiing deep, deep powder) are coming out.  I hope everything works out and you all will be able to make it out and the conditions are good when you do.

Kevin is coming out! and the most frustrating day ever

I just found out that Kevin is coming out with Josh and Rob.  Definitely made my day better.  Can't wait to see you out here Kevin!

We were supposed to get 3-5 inches last night, but woke up to over 8 inches, with Vail getting 11 inches.  I decided to stay at Breck since I knew where the groomers were.  There were no groomed runs since it snowed all night and my ankle just couldn't hold up.  The conditions were amazing, but I just couldn't ski it.  I took 5 runs and slowly skied back to the condo.  Maybe next week.  Check back later, I'm going to post a little video I took of me gingerly skiing back to the condo.  No matter how much my ankle hurts, it's still cool to ski back to the condo on the road.

Also, I'm heading into Denver to hang out with Dan for the weekend, so no more posts until Monday or Tuesday.  I hope everyone can get through the weekend without reading these amazing posts.

Day 2: Even better than the first day

Today was even better than yesterday. I got up a little earlier and got on the slopes at 9 and skied until noon. The sun was out and the snow was as good as ever. My ankle was slowly feeling better, which is why I skied a little longer than yesterday. Even though I skied longer, I didn't get lite headed today, which means I am getting used to the altitude. I did a little research about the altitude and found out that at my condo, there is 70% of oxygen here then there is in Erie or Washington DC. That makes me feel a little better when I am completely out of breath after walking up two flights of stairs.

Today was a little more crowded, which wasn't bad, because I met more people on the chairlifts. On back to back chairlifts I meant the following people.
     Chairlift 1: I met two people who moved out from Killington to Breckenridge and are living in a motorhome. A father and son were also on the lift. They had just moved from somewhere in New Jersey to Breckenridge. Since they moved out here in the middle of the school year, the son is being home schooled for the rest of the year. So, he just snowboards with his dad every morning, then gets home schooled in the afternoon. They are renting a house on 4 O'Clock run, so it definitely seemed like they had a ton of money. Those houses there are huge.
     Chairlift 2: Met two guys in their late twenties from England. They flew in yesterday. This was their first time in America ever. It was a lot of fun talking to them, since I had just been over there for a wedding last year.
     Chairlift 3: There were 5 older people from Pittsburgh. I talked to them about Seven Springs, then I found out that they actually have family in both Erie and Edinboro. Wow, small world.
    Chairlift 4: A couple of older guys from Georgia/South Carolina. I found out that one of their daughters is a third year at UVA.
It's amazing who you meet on chairlifts.

Lastly, I bought an app for my phone to keep track of my runs and stats while I am out here. As you can see on the right, I ski around 13,000 feet of vertical today. Hopefully, I will be able to start doing 20,000 days when I am back to 100%. The total miles that I skied was 15.9 miles and the fastest I went was 46.9 mph. I found some great groomers. I think one of them I will be able to beat my personal record I set last year at Jackson Hole of 71 mph. I don't think I can get up 90 mph, but hopefully I will be able to crack 80 mph.

I'm going to ski tomorrow, but take the weekend off. It will be more crowded and the people I live with won't be doing groomers. It will be too tempting to follow them. I will probably end up spending Saturday night in Denver and meet up with Dan.

And don't worry. The only reason these blog posts are so long is just because I am only skiing 3 hours a day. Soon, I will be posting two sentence posts.

First Day on the Slopes

Today I finally got on the slopes. It was a great day. The sun was out, the temperature hovered around 20, and there was no one on the slopes. It took me about an hour to get out on the slopes. Mostly because it was so painful to put my foot in my boot. If you ever have a sprained foot and try to put it in a ski boot, just shove it in quickly. Putting your foot in slowly just prolongs the pain. Once I finally got my boot on, the foot didn't hurt.

I decided to ski Breckenridge, since it is only a 10 minute walk, or a 30 second bus ride. When I got to the top, it was amazing. You can see forever. I took a couple pictures, but they don't really do justice to the view.




The first run was both frustrating and fun. It was great to get out on the snow, but it was tough to not be able to ski like I am used to. Since the conditions were perfect, I had to start of with a black diamond run. The first couple turns, I was very optimistic. Three turns in, when I hit a small patch of pushed up snow, my ankle screamed like I was just hit with a baseball bat in the foot. I quickly found out that I had to stick to runs that were groomed today.

I only stayed out for a little more than 2 hours today, but skied about 10,000 feet. If my ankle/foot does heal quickly, I am going to try to ski 1 million feet and 50 days. That would be an average of 20,000 feet. I think it is going to be tough, but on the right hand side of this, I am going to keep track of my status by resort.

Before I skied down to my condo(yes, I can ski right to my condo), I took this picture of the Lake Chutes. They are filling in nicely. Hopefully, my ankle will be close enough to 100% by the time these open. They look like a lot of fun.

Josh/Rob- Are you guys ready to ski this?

Testing the phone at ABasin

I drove up to ABasin today to check out the conditions and see how easy it is to post from my phone.  The conditions look good and the parking lot is empty.  When is my foot going to get better?

I hope these pictures upload right.

Lots of snow, but no skiing

Over this past weekend, the resorts around the area got 10-20 inches of snow. Unfortunately, five days before I left I sprained my ankle playing hockey and now my foot is in a splint. Hopefully I will be able to try my ankle out on Wednesday, but we will see. Until then, I will continue working on my taxes and waxing my skis for the forth time.

Oh, and name of the blog came from the altitude that I am at, 9,900 feet. So if you are planning on coming out, make sure you are ready for the altitude!

Finally made it

After 1812 miles, over 25 hours driving and 85.18 gallons of gas, we finally made it to Breckenridge. Other than me almost hitting a coyote somewhere in the midwest, having to drive through the longest, most boring state, Kansas and driving through Denver rush hour during a snow storm the drive was not that bad.

Of course, the last 2 hours from Denver to Breckenridge was the most interesting. Having to climb over 5,000 feet in 90 miles was not kind to the car. Twenty miles into the drive, the car started to overheat. We had to travel the last 70 miles with the four ways on going 30 miles an hour.

Three days after leaving DC, I finally made it to Breckenridge and the condo that I am living in.