snowboard

On Wednesday, we took Carter and Monika to Winter Park, which is supposed to be one of the cooler resorts in the area. I also had further motivation as well - they're supposed to have a decent beginner-intermediate terrain park. The jumps at Loveland looked way too big to start on, so I figured this was as good a time as any.

Well, we did it. We ventured into the Jack Kendrick terrain park, bypassed the low rails (saving that for next time), and ended up at the top of where 3 jumps started. After first going slowly down them just to get the feel for it, Leif shrugged on our next trip up, and decided to get some speed. If he could do it, I could do it, and while it was a little scary with the speed we got just to get over the jumps, by the end of the morning I was landing all 3 consistently. Very very cool feeling to get that air and then successfully land.

Next up, more jumps, and the low rails. They couldn't have been more than 6 inches off the ground and had snow ramps leading right up to them, so I'm ready to tackle those!

EDIT: found a picture of the jumps that someone had taken. A neighbor kid said they were 6 foot, but I have no idea. All I know is that they were fun.

Oh look, it's snowing in the mountains today. I think we'll go snowboarding in the morning...

Damn, that's just never going to get old...

We went on a lark on Sunday morning when we woke up and let the dogs out, and I checked the weather report and found out Loveland had just received new snow. Headed up there at 8:30, got there around 9:30 (damn Leif, having to stop and get an Egg McMuffin), and boarded for a few hours on fresh, ungroomed powder. It started snowing while we were there, which was still a lot of fun.

Loveland still only has 3 lifts open, but they had the snow cannons going (which they didn't really need to) and I'm guessing they'll open a few more very very soon. We hit all the runs on lift 2, having not done them before, only to discover that 2 of them had moguls. Moguls on a snowboard = bad. It sucks to attempt to go down the run, and hit the top of a mogul when you're on your heel edge, and you catch air like that, and there's just no possible way you're going to land it.

I shouldn't complain though, the resorts at Lake Tahoe aren't even open yet. :)

I called it, mid-October, and while I didn't think resorts would ever open that early, both A-Basin and Loveland are open for business! A-Basin only has a blue run open, while Loveland has a green, but that's not the point is it? The point is that we can actually go snowboarding in Colorado now, and the season runs through May or June usually. WOOHOO!!!

A-Basin apparently was the first resort in all of North American to open too.

While we won't be able to go this weekend, that's fine since we have season passes to Loveland and I'll go during the week while Leif is working. :)

Link about A-Basin opening.