The photo above looks like a Santa Claus convention – I’m used to it because most of my guests are a touch older than I am but this is getting a bit crazy. I’ll get to the Santas later.
This is the last post for this winter. Here are some mates that I skied with later this winter……
First up are the Hutch’s from Queenstown. I got a few turns in with Paul up at the A-Basin. This place reminds me of the Remarks back in Queenstown…. one of my happy places. Up at the Remarks a few years ago I got to ski with Paul when he broke his thumb so badly they thought of cutting it off…..
A multi-thumbed Hutch and I at A-Basin a few weeks ago.
Paul and Caitriona waiting for me…..
Paul and I need some work on our mogul skiing. There is a joke there about teenage girls which I am not going to share.
Paul’s legs are burning. (I skied this run 47 times last Wednesday – I’ll get to that later).
Paul standing mid-stride of one of the lovely in-bounds ski runs here in Keystone. Not sure what Hutch is thinking…… maybe “Bugger” or maybe he is calling me nasty names.
I wish the pic below and the pic above were of the same run but they aren’t – same ski area though – kinda. The pic below is Hutch up to his nipples in elephant snot snow way way way out of bounds at Keystone. Hutch chose to leave the ski area and at this point, he is 4.7 miles from the nearest road.
There were a couple of good turns up high so it was worth it. The push out made the hottub and Bundy well worth it!!!!!!
One of my 2 runs down Crumps this winter – chin-chin Hutch.
My mate Shaz made it over this winter. I know Shaz from rollerblading back in Brissy, way back in the early 2000’s. This wasn’t Shaz’s first time in Colorado, she’s used to gorgeous blue sky days……..
Shaz loves the snow here in Colorado.
Shaz is a good sport when it comes to the company we keep here in Colorado…. From left to right that is Josh, Erin, Dave, Aimee, Shaz and Megs the neighbor.
Shaz fits right in with some company in the backcountry of Beaver Creeek – Shaz, Lynne, Paul and yours truly..
Now onto the Canadian Docs. Can you believe I get medical advice from this guy? After this foto, I might ask about a breast reduction.
Paul making some nice turns amongst the aspens at the Beaver!!! Is there a joke about your beaver navigational skills old fella? I’m not going there.
After skiing with Lynne, Chris (Christine) and Shaz (Sharyn) for a few weeks in January. Paul returned from Canada, and decided to have a Santa Clause convention at my place. A few of the deacons drinking my whiskey on the beach at A-Basin.
After the photo op above, Paul and I went out for a wee ski run that he hasn’t done before.
One of the crew on that run, Thad, the most experience of all of us on the snow this winter having a wee tumble down that same run.
To finish this post off I thought I’d share with you the story of my first Enduro.
The Enduro is a ski race at A-Basin, there is this dirty old double chair lift which accesses some pretty steep stuff. The race is to ride this old chairlift as often as you can in 10 hours. You have to ski 20 different runs, in order, and a few of them are particularly steep. I’ve got 24 winters under my belt these days (20 in a row), so when I say a run is ‘particularly steep’….. take my word for it, she might be a wee bit steep mate.
For years I’ve tried to enter the Enduro and either haven’t had a ski buddy (it’s a 2 person event) or I missed the entry date. This year my mateJason was keen and I got up at 1am in the morning to enter. We were team 17 out of 30 available, I can’t believe 16 teams signed up before us in the first hour.
The day of the race was horrible, the snow was SUPER ICY, the weather was windy and just horrible and we lined up to ski 20 of the steepest runs in the county….. multiple times. Good thing I had a team mate (who is a much better bump skier than I am) who called me out by asking if I was an ‘only child’ after all my bitching during the first 10 runs.
Time for the race….. after the Star-Spangled Banner, an avalanche bomb signalled the start. It was a Le Mann start and this is the only time all day that Jason saw the back of me.
We are 34 runs in at this point, still mates and still smiling. We made as many runs as my age….
I don’t know why we are smiling – I’ve never skied these runs 4 times in a row, they are steep, the moguls are chest deep on a good day. We have 3 hours to go……
We managed 47 runs, 60,000 feet of icy horrible bumps in 10 hours. Despite that – we both think we can get 50 next year when we enter. So we are coming back for more.
The skiing isn’t over yet but things are in transition……