(Our) Last Day at Eldora

Last day at Eldora. 35 days for the season. I thought I could break 40 but I'll take the 35 I had.

Spring has sprung

60 and sunny. Mash potato's all day long. Jack didn't make it off the bunny hill. He duped me into getting him a cookie for a snack and then bailed on ridding Challenge. Wah Waaaahhhh.

The Youngren's joined us and EY organized a rolling Uno game on the way up. It was a beautiful day.

Jack went to apres ski with Meg, the Haller's, and Proctor's While I did another couple runs with the 3rd graders. Jack and Katie actually know one another although you can't really tell.

They shed some layers and then recognized each other. I guess a helmet and goggles makes everyone look alike.

No way!

Wow! Jack and I didn't even get dressed to ski today. Meg rode with Luke, Maisey, and Rob.

All Blue Runs!

We did all Blue today. Sundance and Windmill/International.

Another Multi Day Riding Weekend

Luke and I made it up and hooked up with the Max and Eric of the Youngren fame. Everything is filled in but it was hard and fast today. I broke a branch off a tree with my neck and lost my heel side edge of my snowboard on the hardest possible surface to land bum first on. All I can say about Muleshoe is OUCH!

Challenge!

Major progress in the little boys skiing development. The picture below says it all...

Can't get a view like that unless you are at the TOP of the mountain!

We rode the Challenge triple lift 2 times and did Windmill twice, International and Hot Dog each once. YES!

50ish inches of snow in the last 7 days!

Jack woke up early this morning. That early start paid off. I was able to get Luke and I ready to go to Eldora early. We were out the door at 8. No repeat of last week, we were in the parking lot and it was only about 60% full!

Looks like another cold, windy day at Eldora? Surprise, it was calm, sunny, and around 30.

We had fun!

Ski School

Jack took how 4th lesson today and we really have had a good experience at Eldora and the Mountain Explorer Lessons.

Jack had a 4th different instructor and possibly his favorite so far. He was riding with John, the instructor, and another little boy. A perfect sized group lesson!

Jacks ready to hit the slopes!

I worked in my Eldora office and got some turns in later in the morning.

Powder Day!

Crazy storm. Eldora got 30 inches in 24 hours. We left the house at 8:15 and got to the (full) parking lot at 10:30. We found the last spot. They started turning people away the lot was so full.

Jack and I rode EZ and it was oh so soft! And we were all smiles!

FRIDAY!

Jack and I had a busy day. I got up early and worked until it was time to go to gymnastics. Jack tumbled for an hour at the North Boulder Rec Center and we headed home. We had some lunch and we headed for Eldora!

His turns are getting better! And he can get up by himself (most of the time). The Mountain Explorer Lessons are paying off. Steamboat here we come!

More Snowboarding (barely)

You'd think 2 days in a row would be a boon. But not when it's 20 degrees with 40mph winds. We did 2 runs and went home.

Multi Sport Adventures

The day started with a bike ride!

Route: Dirty Bismark 1/21
Activity: Cycle
Google Maps URL:
http://maps.google.com/?q=http://share.abvio.com/76b1/9a3d/4f08/d9bb/Cyclemeter-Cycle-20120121-0853.kml
Started: Jan 21, 2012 8:53:08 AM
Ride Time: 1:51:00
Stopped Time: 0:00
Distance: 20.02 miles
Average Speed: 10.82 mph
Fastest Speed: 34.16 mph
Ascent: 981 feet
Descent: 1020 feet
Calories: 1081
http://www.cyclemeter.com

From there it was off to Eldora!

Um... one minor problem, Megan forgot her coat (it was easy to forget it was 60 when we left Boulder). No problem, her shell is in the back and she could borrow my vest for extra insulation if she needed it. I'll just get my ski coat. Um... two minor problems. The only gear of mine that made it in the car was my ski's and boots? No gloves, no pants, no coat, no pass? What the???

The short version is Megan borrowed a jacket from the Runk's. Megan and Luke rode with the Runk's and Jack and I hung out in the lodge.

They were having fun and Jack and I were bored so they all piled in the Runk's van for the ride down.

Rob's Mormon family!

Holiday? Sort of...

School holiday, and having missed the sign up for Y camp, equals what are we gonna do? I didn't have the day off so I signed Luke up for a snowboard lesson and Jack had another ski lesson. It seems everyone had a good time, Luke learned to ride switch from his favorite snowboard instructor and Jack is making major progress. I see riding blue chairs in Steamboat for spring break, no problem!

That's the post lesson hot chocolate 'toast'.

And me? I got some turns in!

Group Ski Lessons

Turns out a group lesson on a Thursday is much more like a private lesson... Well actually it turns out it was a private lesson since Jack was the only student.

It was cold! And windy! Jack is a trooper! You can tell in the above photo by the lack of exposed skin that it was really cold. How cold?

Thats right. The high was 14 around noon.

Thats why I was happy to spend some quality time in my Eldora office. I did get out of the van to do some skiing but lets say I was not troubled by the call from the project manager to help solve a problem after I dropped Jack off.

We all had a good day, I got my work done, I got some good runs in, and Jack had to be cut off wanting to do one more run when the day was done. That's how it's supposed to work... Always leave them wanting more.

It snowed!

The weather report was for snow. Up slope storm! Well... we got a trace in Boulder but Eldora was reporting 6 inches. All the Runk's and all the Elph's today. Luke and Meg had their chance on Challenge in the a.m. while Jack and I rode EZ.

That is a better picture of Jack.

And that's a better picture of me! Next time I'll work on getting us into the same frame :)

And for sure Meg and Luke were having fun the whole time (but Luke isn't really showing it is he?)!

Apres ski was a bike ride to the Runk's for dinner and the Bronco's playoff victory over the Steelers on the Tivo. It was a pretty good day!

Ski School

When we were skiing at Loveland for Meg's birthday we saw a lot of ski school groups. Jack and I discussed it at length and he decided it would be fun to go to ski school. Friday is Jack's day off from Homestar so I signed him up for a full day lesson.

It was a nice day, a little breezy but a high near 40. That was a relief. I was nervous about the little boy's full day lesson because a full day for us is typically about 2 hours of riding EZ. He really liked his instructor, Ryan, and had a good time with the one other student in his class. They never got off the Sun kid Magic Carpet but he didn't even care. He said he had 5 cups of hot chocolate and chicken nuggets and pizza for lunch. I told Ryan we'd request him next week for a green lesson so Jack can learn to ride a lift without daddy.

I worked for a couple hours in the morning and again for a couple of hours in the afternoon. It was a semi productive work day and I did a dozen runs on my snowboard. I was all set to pay for wireless access for the day but my cell phone doesn't work in the lodge (WTF?). So I worked in the car on the iPad and it was all good. Next time I'll take the van so I can have a more spacious 'office'.

The little boy was tuckered out from his full day of skiing. He had a great time. I was persuaded into buying a 6 pack of lessons... so we'll be there next Friday.

New Year's Eve

We had planned on a family ski day. The weather forecast was not so good, more wind and blowing snow with temps in the teens. We checked the ski report and the Eldora website indicated both backside lifts were on weather hold. Not a good sign. We checked again and about 10:30 all the lifts were open. Usually we won't go unless all the lifts are running. Today that wasn't enough. Meg and Jack opted to stay home.

We were sort of committed. It was Max's birthday!

But no one would have blamed us for skipping it, it was so cold and sooooo windy!

The weather improved!

So 4 days out of 6 for John. Not too shabby for the Xmas trip! Only
one windy day if you believe that about Eldora.

Windy!

It was Meg, John, and I today. Breezy is an understatement.

16 inches part II

It did snow 16 inches yesterday and today the conditions were fabulous!

Blue skies and great views.

John's having a great time.

It was clear all the way to Kansas.

And poor Megan had to stay home and work.

Poor Meggy... Monday she'll get after it with us.