26 and counting

See photos from our weekend HERE
See a pond skimming video compilation HERE
See a bouldering championship video HERE

Colorado in June, what a place! Another great weekend in the mountains. We headed up to Vail on Saturday and met up with our friends Jaimee and Wes at the Vail Teva Mountain Games. Every spring, they put on the country's largest celebration of mountain sport, soul and culture, with professional and amateur outdoor adventure athletes from around the world competing in seven sports and 21 disciplines including mtn. and road biking, trail/mud running, kayaking, rafting, climbing, fly fishing paragliding and dog competitions. They also have art, vendors and live music.


We caught the IFSC Bouldering World Cup finals for men and women. There were some crazy athletes in this comp. Click HERE to see a quick video of one of the women flashing (completing on first attempt) a route. We also saw the end of the Kayaking Freestyle event. Jaimee and Wes headed back to their camping spot down the valley and Melissa and I took off back over Vail Pass to the condo in Keystone. We enjoyed a dip in the hot tub and slept in a bit Sunday morning before Erich showed up to head up to Arapahoe Basin with us. Yes, the Basin is was still open. Last day to be exact. September 15, 2008 - June 7, 2009. That's quite a season! 26 days for me and 25 for Melissa. So far …

The day started out a bit cool, but with mostly blue skies. The snow was almost a slush, but more like a granular slush because of the cool temp. There were only a few runs left open, but we got some good turns in and met up with my friend Waxler for a few more runs. About three quarters of the way up the mountain, there is a flat area with a pond that has formed from the melting snow. This results in many people trying their hand at pond skimming, some more successful than others. Click HERE to see a compilation video of a few people trying some skimming. The last guy had a rough time at it and ended up ejecting from his skis and supermaning across the slush and ice. He was a bit scrapped up and cold at the end, but OK overall.


As we headed to the car, a storm moved in and the weather took a quick turn for the worse. Snow/hail began to fall and thunder clapped all around. We found out later that the top lift was hit by lightning, fortunately no one was hurt. This ended up being part of the same storm that hit the Denver area producing baseball size hail and five tornadoes. Glad we weren't there!



Well, that ends the "resort" ski season for '08/'09. But the skiing is not done yet. We are attempting to ski every month till the resorts open again. That will mean earning our turns by hiking into areas like St. Mary's Glacier or 4th of July Bowl. Stay tuned to CO Adventure to see how that turns out for us!

See photos from our weekend HERE
See a pond skimming video compilation HERE
See a bouldering championship video HERE