Weekend on the Slopes!

Saturday morning I was awake very, very, very early! I don't think I've been up that early since I was swimming in college...fortunately, I wasn't headed to a freezing pool at 5:30am. I grabbed all my ski gear and headed up to Manitou Spring (no, there isn't any skiing in Manitou:).

Brandon, Haven, and I loaded up Haven's car and got a dark-and-early start on the back roads to Vail Mountain. Since the drive took us through Breckenridge, we stopped really quick so I could rent skis and poles (I've got my own boots...very important if you want to be comfortable during a day on the slopes...warm and pain-free feet!). While we were in the ski shop, all three of us decided to rent ski helmets and see what it was like to ski with a helmet.

We reached Vail only a few minutes behind schedule...threw on our ski gear and headed up the Gondola. 4 hours and many, many, many runs behind us, we stopped for lunch in one of the lodges. The day was absolutely beautiful...bright BLUE skies, warm sunshine, uncrowded runs on the back-side, fresh groomed trails, good skiing buddies, and AMAZING skis on my feet!After a lunch break, we went down a few more runs on the back-side, headed over to the front-side and made our way back to the base. We made an early exit back toward Frisco to check into the hotel, shower, change and grab some dinner.

After I layered up into every item of clothing I could fit under my ski jacket and pants (4 layers on top and bottom) Haven, Brandon, Jeff, Mary Kate and I rode back over to Vail for the Counting Crows Concert. Need an explanation for the layers and layers of clothing?? The concert was OUTSIDE...in VAIL...at NIGHT...in DECEMBER!!! Other than loosing feeling in my feet halfway through, it was a great concert with good songs and a very interesting crowd!!

Thankfully, we parked like a mile away from the concert venue so the walk back to the car helped me regain feeling in my toes. I was actually pretty warm when I got in the car...and with the heater running, I actually took off my hat and gloves for the ride home.

Funny thing is...I had to put my hat and gloves back on in the middle of the drive back to the hotel in Frisco. WHY??? Because we were halfway up the Vail Pass on I-70 when Haven's car ran out of GAS!! It's 11pm at night...temperature is 10 degrees Celsius...good thing no one in the car was named "Donner":)! We called for help and only had to wait 45 minutes, play one 'name game', and eat the rest of the pizza...before 2 gallons of gas was delivered to the car. We made it to Frisco, filled up the gas tank, and fell asleep within seconds of crawling into bed.

I remembered to set an alarm for the next morning so that we would not be late to Day 2 of skiing in Breckenridge. And it was a day you would not have wanted to miss...more blue skies, warm sunshine, great trails, and another day with fantastic skis (I still can't get over the great performance of my B2 Bandits ...I didn't even have to TRY, they did all the work for me!).

Unfortunately, my two cool ski buddies had to make it home for Sunday Night Football so my first day at Brec was cut short. We skied non-stop from 9am to noon, returned my rental skis and the helmets, realized Brandon left his jacket on the roof of the car, and then drove straight back to the Springs.

I had a great time with my camera on the slopes, grabbing some 'in motion' shots and some posed group shots at the mountain tops. A big thanks to Haven for doing all the driving to-and-from the weekend ski adventure and for remaining calm when he ran out of gas:)