one of thoooose days

the alarm was blaring. and blaring. and blaring. and blaring. and blaring. 5am. i was very disoriented. and very annoyed (with the alarm). and very excited to go play in the snow: a very complicated state of being in which to start a saturday.

all i knew is that vail was reporting something like 9 inches of snow. that is just enough for a little inspiration! so. tele-ho!

620 am. met with hil and dave in the dark. threw them (and their stuff) in the car and jumped onto the highway. i thought it would be very difficult to corral ed, hillary and dave for a full day of big-resort turns on a big-snow day. but it all happened easily enough, as we've been threatening to all turn and burn together now for months, and it's never happened. with the nice mid-size storm looming, i thought it would be ther perfect day.

the highway adventure to vail was without incident, and without too much traffic. it was with great relief that we parked the buggy and set out to the base of vista bahn -- stopping to replace ed's pass and grab a few meat pies .... we hurried up to wait in line for our first lift ride. ugh.

spirits were high though. it was great to have the pals close by and out playing with ed and i, for once!

vista bahn to mid-vail to the top: cold. 2 warm up runs for dave to get centered on his New Ponies, for Hil to adjust to a deeper shade of snow, and for ed and i to warm up and remember what we were doing. luscious turns even on the 'groomers'.... that always cracks me up.

so i led them off the back side and down through some very special trees. VERY fun, very smooth, very long line at the bottom. ed swore to never ski vail on a weekend again. hillary fidgeted with gear and i tried to will the line to just disappear or move faster so we could get on the lift. ugh.

up to the top, off to the right, down the ridge, steep drop into the bowl. big masher fun! total chop and my new ponies REALLY love to plow through them. i'm falling more and more in love with the new ponies day by day. i tightened down the bindings quite a bit, and that seems to have helped. if all goes as i think/feel it might ... i will hit new heights very soon ;-)

line at the bottom wasnt't TOO bad. hit the top. hit red square -- disappointingly cut up, but fun. the aspens below the ridge were succulent, uncut, and all ours.

met with hil at the bottom, and i took it up on myself to drag them out to one of my favorite spots: jenys joy. we made a few huge laps off the poma into some untouched trees, off some untouched rocks, and hit some of my favorite secret lines. why this area is so little traveled is beyond me....... but that's ok. ;-)

i was really hoping to show ed, hil and dave ALL of my favorite spots. unfortunately, that was grossly impossible. with the crowds and the corraling, it just wasn't going to happen... BUT, i did get to show them some stuff that i THINK will get them to agree to go back with me again in the future..... perhaps next time i'll get to show them the other few jeny spots, and perhaps even lure them down the rabbit run into minturn for margs. more planning on my part, and less attachment (and perhaps fewer chocolate-covered espresso beans), and all will happen....

so ... after a few laps of bliss, we headed over to blue sky, where we let ed drive for a few laps. nice job honey! the first run coalesed in a head-on collision between dave and some guy. WHAM, i saw it happen right in front of me and i can't believe that neither of them were seriously hurt. phew.

the last run in blue sky proved inspiring: ed's trees... seemingly endless, relatively uncut for 3pm!!! that doesn't suck one little bit.

hit tea cup to get out. the storm had moved in in earnest. hil was reaching new depths of low-blood-sugar-ness, and i vowed to get us off the hill quickly and efficiently.

ed and dave wanted more, hil wanted food. and i wanted to ... please everyone ;-) so hil went down, and we dove into the empty lift area, picking up a LONG lost friend, John along the way. his insane energy was just what we needed to a.) make a couple extra runs and b.) waste the living hell out of ourselves in the process.

as wasted as we were, those last two runs were the most amped up and power-hungry runs of the day! what a treat! given, none of us could hold it together for very long, and the ridiculous icy-front side was a like playing pin-ball on a sheet of ice, we laughed ourselves silly all the way down the front side of the mtn for the last run. john had a real treat in store for us for the last pitch: bumps. while bumps are usually just fine, and i'll take 'em when they come ... i could barely turn to save my life as it was.

9am to 430 pm tele day. not bad. it was a joy to spend the day with friends, laughing pretty much the entire time, skiing hard between lifts up the hill. sunshine. snowstorm. deep snow. secret trees and private stashes. truly, this is one of the reasons we're all here, doing what we do. THANK YOU ed, hil and dave for surrendering to my whims and and mania or a whole day ;-). i promise we'll have yet more fun next time ;-)

ending a day in a state of barely-walking-ness is so unbelievably satisfying. the cool part about that is that i finally felt physically on par all day long.

it's about time.

jj