The Book of Sifty

Bums on vacation 5:06AM

Okay so my days off? I get three days off per week. Usually I just spend the days boarding around the resort. Theres always somebody to head out with and there are still trails I haven't ridden yet. Riding here is so different from NZ, and Switzerland. The resort is built at pretty much the same height as where we live, no driving up a small mountain before even hitting the slopes.. NZ style. There are trees everywhere. Which makes for some pretty cool riding. It also snows pretty much every week. So the conditions are pretty dang good. Infact unlike NZ they never shut the field due to bad weather, although it is cold as arse.

If I'm organized and sorted I try and get a couple of days away at other resorts around Colorado. We get free passes at a whole bunch of big name resorts, so I've been trying to get away most weeks for at least one day. The other month Jenn drove me up to Steamboat, where we hooked up another group from here for a days skiing (I was a bit rusty on the skis but but about 3:55pm I was just getting the hang of it again. Pity they shut at 4pm.. ;)

Week before last I went to Aspen with Elane, Mandy and Ryan. (Ryan is a girl with a funny name.. theres plenty of screwed up names here.. but that's another story). They're all locals from Boulder, and bloody good skiers. We stayed in a dodgy hostel and spent three days skiing the four mountains that are Aspen. Pretty cool, although the money at Aspen freaked me out a little. At the ski resort we parked in a multistory car parking building, then walked through an area that looked more like a hotel reception, then a shopping mall before actually hitting the snow. We were joined for a couple of the days by a group of Kiwis, Aussies, and Poms who also work here. Spent an afternoon riding the terrain park they used for the X games. (I sucked..)

The other day spent a very cool day at Copper Mountain. Wicked weather and lots of steep terrain.