Snowmobiling Vail Pass

Snowmobiling on Vail Pass is quite the adventure. Especially when you go with Gary and some of his friends who are much more skilled at riding than I am. And after 14"+ of fresh powder during the past two days. Since moving to CO, I've been on a sled twice. The last time on Rabbit Ears Pass (near Steamboat) about four to five years ago. The type of riding we did was not your typical trail riding while sitting down. Nope we took off through the meadows, up steep hills and through the forest all around Vail Pass. I got my sled stuck a few times (Due mostly to my inexperience and lack of confidence on this 500lb machine that took me upwards of 50mph) and was up to my chest in snow trying to dig it out. Throwing around a sled and trying to make it go where you want it to, and not into the deep tree wells, is quite the work out. My back, neck, fingers and arms are all sore the day after from holding on. It was a blast and I can't wait till I can get out again and maybe have a little more confidence in what I'm doing out there.


Check out photos in the slide show above or HERE

Vail Powder Day

Two weekends ago, Melissa and I drove up to Vail and had the best powder day of the season. With more than five feet in the past two weeks and a report of 13 inches Saturday morning, we were knee deep in powder while it continued to dump all day. We spent the majority of our time in Sun Down Bowl, with hardly anyone else in sight!

NOTE: This is my first movie using iMovie. The video is from our digital cameras, so the quality and lighting is bad. I'd like to have some tracks slowed down or sped up, but this program does not allow that in the version I have. Anyways, enjoy a very amateur video.

Powder Day!!!

It was a powder day at the Basin on Sunday!!! We headed up to the mountains on Saturday evening and found much different weather than in Denver. At the tunnel the roads were snowpacked and once we made it to Keystone, it began to snow harder. In the morning we headed up to A-Basin with Erich and Julia and enjoyed 23 inches in two days (they are now up to 35" in the past 3 days!!). The top of the mountain was not open yet due to winds topping out at 80 mph!!

But there was plenty of snow to enjoy lower on the mountain. Patrol opened some glades skiers right, but the terrain was not steep enough on the first time through as we sunk to our mid thighs and had to walk our way through most of it. As more people rode that terrain it got much easier to get enough speed to have fun.

Melissa and I were going to head out around 1 pm to watch the Patriots back in Denver, but we ended up sitting in traffic for two hours without even making it to I-70, and it's ony 6 miles away!!! We ended up turning around and heading back to the condo in Keystone. Instead of waiting in 6+ hours of traffic to Denver, we enjoyed a dinner at Kickapoos and a brew at the Wolf Rock Brewery in River Run Village. The bad part was we had to get up at 4 a.m. to drive back home for work.

I think it was all worth the early season pow turns!!

See more from Arapahoe Basin HERE.