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 Dan Skate Skiing at Eldora On Saturday morning Katie and I went to the Nordic Center at Eldora Mountain Resort to try skate skiing. Seeing as we had no idea how to skate, we signed up for a beginner lesson (it did not hurt that the cost of a lesson was only $9). A lesson is apparently a great place to pick up girls, or at lease the odds appear to be in your favor; our class was eight girls to two guys. Seeing as I had no need to pick up a girl, I proceed on with the falling (I had assumed that all my hockey and speed skating would have set me up for this sport but all the falling would indicate otherwise).
We had two great instructors, Anna and Jack. Anna had skiing competitively in college at Colby and Jack had been skiing for 35 years; theoretically there should be enough skill and knowledge to get us skiing. Being a little late to the lesson, Katie and I must have missed the short introduction where the instructors said do not lean back. Or maybe I just didn’t hear it. In any case, on our ski over to “the stadium” for the actual learning, I discovered that leaning backwards is a very bad idea. In fact, I must have learned this at least six times.
When we got to the stadium, Jack and Anna took us over balance, edges, and body position before setting us loose to try for a few laps. I was undoubtedly the fastest person in the class, though my advantage would almost always be tempered by my failed attempts to go faster. I believe Jack thought this was mildly amusing; he told me that I was really close to getting the form down and that I just needed to learn forward a bit more. While leaning forward did have a positive effect on my speed, inversely it near destroyed my already pathetic balance.
After a while I became fairly comfortable with the V2 skate on the right foot, somewhat less so on the left foot. I was able to unintentionally switch without thinking about it on our way back to the Nordic Center; when Anna commented on it I immediately fell. As for the V1 stride, I understood the concept but was disastrously off balance. Alas, something to strive for.
After the lesson Katie and I decided to try some of the trails. Anna recommended that we take 17th Avenue to the Meadows Loop, though she warned us that there is a “little bit of hills” on 17th Avenue. I had assumed this definition was similar to the hills we had seen during the lesson; I was wrong. 17th Avenue was essentially one long hill all the way up. By the time we got to the top, neither of us had any energy to attempt Meadows Loop. Apparently really skiing is a lot more tiring than taking a few laps before pausing to learn the next drill. Seeing as we were all but dead, we took Cheater Corner back down. Which was great, except when I caught my ski in a classic track and went down by the top of the Little Hawk lift to the great amusement of all the snowboarders. Again, alas.
While I fell a lot and felt painfully out of shape, I really enjoyed the day. I will definitely try it again and maybe, just maybe, will find the water bottle I lost on one of my many falls.
If you know me, you probably understand that I am an extremely competitive person. To the point where I can be overly competitive. Perhaps today was such a day…
 Evil RTD Bus There are some days that I really just do not want to ride my bike home from work. Today was such a day. I rode my Jamis Supernova into work (and experienced a slew of smells including a dead skunk, burning rubber, cinnamon rolls, a slaughter house, and sweat) and ran a few miles at lunch. The afternoon consisted largely of a coworker trying to dump his grunt work on me. When the day finally concluded, I really did not want to ride home so I road my bike over to the RTD bus stop. And then it happened – I saw that the bus had already passed and was a few minutes down the road. Now I wanted to blame myself, but both my watch and cell phone confirmed that the bus was two minutes early. That was all I needed; I said I was going to beat the bus home on my bike while still wearing my dress clothes (though I did have on bike shoes). I put the hammer down and at the first light I had almost caught the bus – the light was really long and the bus had to make a few stops. Unfortunately the bus made the light and I did not. Waiting at the light, the desire to win just grew; there was no way I was going to let that bus defeat me. I took off the second the light changed and never looked back. When I turned on to my street, I looked at the coming bus and threw out some obscenities regarding meeting a schedule and how pathetic it was getting beat by my cyclocross bike. Score another win for Dan. Now I just need to deal with the pit stains on my undershirt…
 Pit Stains After Bike Commute Home
On my ride home from work today, I crashed my Jamis Supernova bike on an empty, icy road. Seriously, there was no one around, which probably explains why the road was still covered with ice. Thankfully it was an “easy” crash; my rear wheel slide out from under me and I went down on my elbow. A wonderful benefit of windproof winter jackets is that they resist tearing really well, though I was not sure about my elbow remaining in one piece.
When I got home and stripped down I was pleased to see that my skin was still in one piece, particularly since I could see the crash marks directly on an old scar (from the first time I use clipless pedals on a mountain bike and subsequently spent three hours getting gravel picked out of my arm at the hospital; you know it happened you too).
 Icing My Elbow with Dale's Pale Ale Anyways, after years of athletic injuries I know the proper recovery method involves putting something very cold on the wound; I improvised with a can of Dale’s Pale Ale.
 A Better Use of Dale's Pale Ale After about 8.7 seconds, I got bored and decided on a better use of my cold object. Sucks to be my elbow.
 The Remnants of My Cooling Device Now I just need to find someone else to blame for my crash on an empty, icy road while going 25 km/hour; suggestions?
 Katie Snowboarding at Vail While we still have not found a ski house, Katie and I could no longer ignore the mountains. A few weeks back we rented a condo for the weekend in Frisco and went for our first outing of the year to Vail; it was the only mountain that had decent snow. The back bowls were not open, but it was a decent start to the season. We followed up the next morning with a few runs at Keystone, which was easy seeing as there were only a few runs open…
 View from Ski Santa Fe Over Christmas we headed to Santa Fe with the misguided conception that it would be warm there. It was not. At all. The temperatures had highs in the teens and twenties. In any case, we went to Ski Santa Fe on Christmas Day. It was really nice with a the short drive; the ski hill was about 30 minutes outside of town. It was a reminder that we should ski Eldora sometimes instead of driving to Summit county. As for the skiing, it was similar to Keystone; there were a very limited number of runs open. We skied every single one of them. And then skied them again, because what else was there to do but ski on Christmas Day! It was nice exploring some new terrain, though I would really to try some of the more challenging upper runs if I go back. I did take this very odd picture with my iPhone; I have no idea what happened to it. If you know, send me an email!
 Odd iPhone Picture - Ski Santa Fe Finally over the last week I went up twice again, once on Tuesday to Breckenridge and then again to Keystone on Thursday. Breckenridge was absolutely packed with 30-45 minute lift lines; it was not an entirely enjoyable day. Keystone was much better, both in terms of lift lines and terrain from the previous visit. The snow was fairly soft, the Outpost was completely empty in the morning, and my friends were moving fast. It was the best day of skiing so far. Hopefully the season will just get better, particularly so I can stop taking core shots on !
 A Very Barren Keystone
 Patagonia Watermaster Waders For my second review of Patagonia gear this week, I took out my Watermaster Waders to the water today. A few months ago I bought a the pair; this was the second time I took them into the water and decidedly less successful than the first. After finding most of the water in Eldorado Canyon State Park mostly iced over, minimal flows on South Boulder Creek east of the park, and then a New Zealand Mud Snail closure on Boulder Creek, I finally found some fishable water near the Backpacker office where I was rewarding with losing one small rainbow.
The Waders:
The Watermaster stockingfoot waders are extremely lightweight and fit well around my body; they allowed excellent movement without feeling too balky. Along with the breathable material, the unique suspension system makes these great for warm summer days as you can easily roll down and secure the waders at your hips. Patagonia makes a big deal about the material being puncture resistant; unintentionally to test this I slide about 10 feet down a hill after stepping on some ice. My fishing spot was next to a bike path and my blunder did not go unnoticed. While my dignity may have faltered, the waders did not and I stayed dry. Including again after I broke through some bank ice.
 Boulder Creek My one complaint with the waders was the integrated gravel guards. At first glance I was ecstatic to no longer worry about forgetting or losing my gravel guards. Now, particularly when the water is running cold, I found them annoying. It is extremely difficult to keep long underwear pants in place while putting on the waders. Even when on it was difficult, though not impossible, to force the long underwear (or whatever pants you are wearing) back under the tight elastic strap.
Overall I am extremely pleased with the Patagonia Watermaster Waders and would recommend them to anyone looking for a lightweight and durable wader.
 Bloodied Patagonia Boaris Limited Edition Shoes A few weeks back Katie asked me if I would review a pair of Patagonia Boaris Limited Edition shoes when I went hunting in Wisconsin over Thanksgiving. And then she gave me a plastic bag containing the previously tested shoes…
I did take them home, and I wanted to hunt in them, I really did. But I also wanted to avoid losing my toes to frostbite; I could only use them sparingly. They fit my heel snuggly and had a surprising amount of traction; however I must question Patagonia’s color selection.
Read the full review on Backpacker here.
Patagonia will be getting some more love this weekend when I review fly-fishing waders this weekend – be sure to check back!
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