I’ve been looking forward to this winter…. since the last one ended!!!
Last winter had a great late season with Little Spoon and lots of snowmobiling, the winter before was the BIG one with 97 days in a row of guests at the Chateau Grindlay and this one is shaping up to be a cracker. My scheduled guests don’t arrive until later in the season and what I thought would be a nice quiet start to the winter has turned into anything BUT quiet.
Things started off on Thanksgiving with Erin and Lynne – this is our turkey impression. I think we succeeded in looking like a bunch of turkeys (not literally).
Eric has been up a little bit and he brought a bunch of Aussie lamb…… Bloody good fella that Eric.
Was great to get some tennis in with Eric!!!
Megs having another birthday was a good excuse to head over to Beaver Creek. It was a nasty drive and Black Betty isn’t quite up to scratch…. so much so I nearly took her into the dealer/wrecker after the drive. We made it and the snow was great, -27C kept the snow in great condition….. fingers were a little sore though.
Al’s crew were in town for New Years and we snuck in a day during the busy period. We did get to ride Woodward (the indoor foam pit joint) which turned out much more awesome than any of us could have thought. I think there are some photos about but I don’t have them yet – will post them when I get them.
After the crazy season settled down I thought I’d throw a spanner into the mix and have a barbie. I think there were about 18 of us and I had a chance to test out the barbie’s winter performance.
I cooked some “Shrimp on the barbie”. (I’ve never done that in Australia).
Who said there aren’t any girls in Summit County?
The night after having 7 people crash at the Chateau Grindlay….. my old mate Pottsy from Queenstown arrived with his boy Trent.
We had a couple of days skiing in what were kind of ordinary conditions with anything but ordinary skiers. The first morning we explored Keystone a little to get Pottsy and Trent used to skiing trees and bumps, then we spent that afternoon skiing the Basin before retiring for hottub, steak and cards (500) until 3am.
Next morning we made it out of bed and headed over to Vail.
First run was a little firm, so we tried a different aspect and the snow was pretty good. Then we headed out of bounds……
Since we didn’t have any of those degenerate snowboarders with us, the troops followed me on a 20 minute traverse which I’ll admit, I wasn’t too confident about . I think the troops were questioning my judgement (I know Trent was)…..
This pic is taken about half way, I’m saying keeping going, do they look convinced?
After 20 minutes, to my relief (and surprise), I delivered the goodies, holy cow did I deliver the goodies.
We stood above a run with over a foot of virgin pow!!!!
My best turns of the year thus far.
No trip to Vail is complete without a run down the Mile to end the day.
Ducking a ‘Closed’ sign….. not the first time, not the last time either.
Some pics down the Mile – she was in good nick and for the first time EVER, I skied the Mile with a crew and nobody overtook us (we overtook about 8 people). 3.7 mile ski run and I know Pottsy was looking forward to that ltr of Margarita at the bottom.
That pretty much sums up this post. Some early season skiing, no real snowmobiling yet but that will come and I can’t wait for some more of the southern hemisphere folks to get here.
This last photo was taken last night down in Denver for a showing of this years Warren Miller flick put on by my neighbour CV. What I thought was going to be a quiet night turned into a hoot with a bunch of folks.
