Day 25 - Saturday 2.6.10 - Keystone: Funderburk, Parker, Greg the intern (I honestly don't remember his name), and I made a day trip from Denver - started at my place in Wash Park to Keystone. We enjoyed our dose of I70 traffic and took it like men, creeping along at mach speed, everyone counting the mile markers until we made the Dillon exit (for various reasons). Got to Keystone and the angles were shining upon us - with a truck filled with four we were ushered straight to the front row of the Montezuma lot for carpool parking - now that's class! I'm going to start packing a few blow up dolls in the back. We made a "b-line" straight for the Keystone Outback and after a couple of warmup laps headed straight for my favorite part about Keystone - the $5 snow cat rides! We made a couple of runs off the cat and then cruised over for a warmup at the Outback Outpost for some Gatorade and food. Jeff wasn't too happy about his McDonnals dollar meal size $13 burger but I mean come on Jeff - everything has to be brought in by Gondola or chopper or something out here in the Outback!
Day 26 - Sunday 2.7.10 - Loveland: Super Bowl Sunday! I went to Loveland for the day to take an ATAC clinic (skier speak for All Terrain All Conditions) and see what I could do to start pushing the next level with my alpine turns. It turned out to be a good group and had the same coach as my tele clinic (Mike Pantone - he rocks!). We worked on hucking cornices (stand tall in the air for good compression on landing), keeping the tips driven into the snow on the steeps (no skidding with the tails - control speed with continuous turns), and some bump techniques (big, small, big, small). Great day and headed home to beat the traffic and catch the Super Bowl (Saints vs. Colts) - Saints pulled it off!
Day 27 - Saturday 2.13.10 - Loveland Valley and Basin: Austin had his second lesson ever - probably the last for this season. I really want to get him off the tip ties / edgie wegie! Seeing the other kids without it is a big help I think. In the mean time Rory and headed over to Loveland Basin to get some powder skiing in as it was pounding but fortunately not too cold. So much snow in fact that when I went to pick up Austin at ski school (early so he could take me on a few runs before it got too late) that he had learned from his teacher "no friends on a powder day!" Uh Oh I said to my self so I quickly tried to get him to change up the phase to "no babies on a powder day" but for some reason he likes to this day (even walking around the mall, etc) "yes babies on a powder day" - oh to be 4.5 again... Rory and I headed straight up lift two at Loveland Basin and unfortunately the ridge was closed (likely due to high winds) we had an incredible afternoon skiing off of chairs four and eight - both located on the North side of I-70. Thigh deep powder at points, great open bowls and the trees were super! After some great adult skiing we headed back to the Valley (driving in ski boots) to make a few runs with Austin. A little bit of spying on him in the lesson and a few moves in the baby terrain park that were admittely regrettable (lets just say a bruise the size of a little league football on my left thigh and cheek) it was time to track down the little man. He was tired but excited to show off the rainbow tunnel - it was really cool letting him lead through the fun kid tree trail!
Day 28 - Monday 2.15.10 - Loveland Basin: President's Day so no school for Austin so Daddy took a hooky day from work to hang out for some one on one boy time! This was a big day today for me - first day on tele skis with Austin - all part of the grand plan...as he improves and gets more confident so should I - we can learn and get the feel together so it should be super fun. And it was - no more alpine skis for the meantime with Austin - and I proved it to myself (in a few sentences what few readers I have will see). We made two runs from top to bottom off of the monster lift 2 at Loveland Basin - super high - Ptarmagin Roost has an elevation of 12,050 feet. Definitely the highest he has been in his short 4.5 years! The cool thing about it is you can make your way down leisurely cruising the blues and greens...we opted for the greens! I was working on my tele turns carrying out big "S" moves and Austin was doing a great job following along - lots of carves and not too much pizza pie. We went for a third run and everything started off great...I was feeling my tele groove making a path and after a few nice knee bends I turned around and there's Austin barrelling right past me in a sort of pizza pie not being able to slow himself down enough...I shouted out STOP, TURN, FALL - to no avail! Well there was only one thing I could do...Pressed my (free at the moment) heels down and went into a tuck and chased the little bugger down - scooped him up, and we both proceeded to "sit down" (open to interpretation) in the snow! After that it took 30 minutes of negotiations mid mountain to get the rest of the way down hill. That's OK though - before we were back to Denver he was excited to ski again!
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