Just One Of Those Days...

Thursday was just one of those days. I got up at 8AM, had breakfast, picked up a sack lunch, and headed to Steamboat.

Normally this trip to Steamboat would have been a nice, simple, 2 hour drive. Thursday however, it was a miserable, snowy, 4 hour drive. A drive where my top speed was 45 miles an hour. It started off with the car that was being pulled out of the ditch and was blocking traffic (I was trying to get to Steamboat before 11 predicted inches of snow fell). I then found myself on the interstate going slower than I had ever gone on the interstate, being delighted that no one wanted to pass me because I wanted the entire road for myself, and laughing at the west-bound traffic that was stopped (hey... at least I was moving) because of avalanche work on Vail pass (avalanche work is good, but I would not have wanted to be sitting in the middle of a mass of stopped traffic, especially once they started moving again). I got off at Silverthorne and continued along on my merry way on snopacked roads.
Eventually I got to Rabbit Ears pass, which I crossed at the incredibly fast speed of 10 mph with my hazard lights flashing the entire hour. This concept of driving with my hazard lights on was new to me, but when all of the cars behind me turned theirs on, I decided I would turn mine on (sometimes peer pressure is good). I soon discovered the benefit of having my hazards on- other cars could see me, so they had fewer excuses to run into me.
After awhile, I found myself behind a little white car. I really have nothing against little white cars, however, when there is snow whirling around in the air, turning your headlights on (and hence your rear lights) is common sense. Turning your hazards on would be even better, but I'll settle for regular lights. However, this genious did not turn any lights on, so every once they would step on the brakes and it would be like "Oh... there's that car again". Finally, I got across Rabbit's Ear pass and was in Steamboat.
I parked my car in a free parking lot at Steamboat Resort and glared at the overcast sky, not quite sure why I was going to go skiing for 2 1/2 hours (I couldn't check into my hotel until 4, but there is always the option of wandering around Walmart). As I was putting my boots on, I overheard some people walking past talking about what an epic powder day it was. Oh great... a powder day. I realize that most skiers and boarders out there love powder, but I do not share their opinion. I grew up in South Dakota and powder is still a foreign idea to me- a foreign idea that I do not particularly like. On top of the sky being overcast and it being a powder day, I had done a horrible job of packing that morning and could not find my sweatshirt. So, I decided I would go snowboarding in my jeans and tshirt with my snowpants and jacket and the hat that I had pulled onto my head that morning to disguise the fact that I hadn't bothered washing my hair the night before. By now I had decided that today was definately 'just one of those days'.
Then I caught the bus from the parking lot to the resort and was informed that the Gondola ride would take longer than usual due to high winds. Could today possibly get any worse? The answer was no, because today was just one of those days. One of those days where everything is horrible and then you go snowboarding and the world is suddenly a million times better. For once in my life, I was enjoying the powder- even when I went through the trees (I don't much like the trees either... racecourses are the way to go), fell down, grabbed onto a tree branch to get back up, and only suceeded at dumping more snow on myself. It was one of those days where you really should not be warm enough, yet you are... at least until you get back to your car and take your boots off only to realize your toes are frozen. I rode up the chairlift with a guy from the Steamboat campus of Colorado Mountain College who was capable of having an actual conversation (rather than turning his iPod up louder). I have to say, CMC is one of the few schools where it is actually acceptable to have a conversation about schoolwork on a powder day. Why is this? Because while talking about school work, it sounded more like we were talking about snowboarding (I guess that's what you get when you stick a SAO major and a Ski Business major on the same chair). It was one of those days where you get to the top of the lift, realize you have no clue where you are, and there is a friendly face waiting to direct you on how to get to the bottom of the hill. And when I got to the bottom of the hill and walked to the Gondola Transit Center, there was a bus waiting to take me back to my car.

Whistler was originally choice A for where I wanted to do my work experience next winter, but then I went there and scraped that idea... and I believe Steamboat has now taken it's place. There is just a certain charm about this place. The people are amazing and friendly and so incredibly helpful. Sitting on the Gondola, looking out at town, it looks huge, yet it seems so small while wandering around. It's close enough to Leadville to visit there a couple of weekends, or to talk my friends from Leadville into coming to Steamboat for the weekend. And it just might be low enough in elevation to allow me to not constantly feel out of breathe.

As for today (Friday)... it was a bit of an adventure. I'm up here to snowboard race in NASTAR Nationals. I went through the course and sure enough, I managed to find a way to screw up. I am accustomed to having 1 "FINISH" gate to go through, so I saw a FINISH gate and went through it. Turns out that it was a FINISH gate for the skiers and I should have gone through the gate to the left of it, which was for the snowboard course. For my next run, I was so concerned about making it through the gate this time, that I didn't exactly post the most amazing time ever. My mom's view on it is "well, you still got down the course in less than half a minute". My view on it is "Yea, but everyone else got down 4 seconds faster than me". If you don't race, 4 seconds might not sound like much, but it really is. Later on in the day, I took a beginner trail that was a "cut-off" between two other trails. Or at least it was a beginner trail when it was not waist deep powder that I quickly fell into. My mom was all excited because she was still upright, so, as luck has it, she fell about 15 feet farther down the trail. To conclude the day, I took my mom through the Rabbit Ears terrain park and went on the same flat box I went on the day before. Only yesterday I'm convinced the landing was a foot higher and today it did not feel so great on the legs when I landed or my wrist when I fell over from being off-balance. Needless to say, I was quite excited when I made it to the bottom of the hill and had less opportunity to cause injury to myself.

Rail Jam blog will be up next week or the week after... I have to get pictures from someone else since my camera stopped working.
Pictures from Nationals will also be up in a couple weeks... my parents have been using a film camera to take pictures, and if I forget to make sure they finish the roll of film and let me develop it, then it will really take a long time to get the pictures posted.

Now, go out and have some "Just one of those days" days! :)