Earlier in the week one of my coworkers mentioned that the staff meeting on Friday was cancelled; Covidien celebrates Good Friday. Sweet. Thursday night after class I grabbed the bulldog and headed up to the ski house in Dillon for my last weekend of the season (so I think as there is always the possibility that I will make another run to the Arapahoe Basin). Apparently none of my 17 roommates had Friday off, so we had the house to ourselves and as Sherbert is not the best conversationalist the night ended early.
Some of my freelance (Tim) and unemployed (Laurentia) friends were planning on skiing Breckenridge on Friday at 10, however I woke up a few minutes before 7 and decided to chase the few inches of fresh powder at Arapahoe Basin before meeting up with them. When I got to the Basin, there were about 10 cars in the parking lot. Again, sweet. I took a few runs on the front side and then headed to Montezuma. Evidently I was the only person to do so as I was riding the chair up after my third run in Zuma before I saw anyone, or even any other tracks (though I wonder how the lift operators got down). The runs had been groomed the night before and with the 3 inches of fresh, the only comparison is a hot knife through butter. I kept chasing the powder until it had all but disappeared; then dropped back to the base via the East Wall (the ice reminded me of east coast skiing).
I was painfully late getting over to meet my friends at Breckenridge, but I got no friends on a powder day. Laurentia and I hit most of Peak 10 before her first ever ride on the T-Bar. Apparently I did a poor job of explaining how it works as Laurentia tried to sit on it; after she fell we gave another go and took a run down Pika to the base of Peak 7. Subsequently Laurentia left for the drive back to Denver and I took to skiing with Tim. Tim, new to the sport, has exiled himself to the bunny slopes. After a brief bit on conjouling Tim and I headed down a blue run on Peak 8. Like many beginners Tim prefers to snowplow his way down; unlikely many beginners Tim actually had the balance and weight transfer down. It was rather amusing to watch. We finished up by taking green Skyway Skiway trail to the parking lot; I was run over by an out of control snow boarder.
Now, if you are not familiar with the mountain, this trail is more of a catwalk. Obviously at 4:00 it is rather crowded. I was making small turns to keep my speed down when the boarder slammed into me from behind, launching both of us into the ground. He proceeded to ask if I was alright and immediately followed by chastising me for “cutting” him off. I am uncertain how staying in a tight 5 foot wide area is cutting someone off or how bombing down a crowded green catwalk is staying in control, but hey, maybe I am just slow on mountain etiquette. Thankfully I was not injured.
Tim headed back to Boulder while I briefly returned to the ski house to say hi to the bulldog, and then back out to Keystone for night skiing. My legs were near shot but I could not pass up the opportunity to ski three different resorts in one day. I took a few uneventful runs before retiring for the night, and the season.
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