This week In Colorado

[jim-ratliff]

Well , Lynn and I are loving our week away from East coast bitter cold and visiting warm Colorado. As it turns out, I believe Todd and HighAngles are both here this week as well. Weather has been reasonable, but tomorrow is supposed to be pretty windy and chilly, with highs in the teens and lows less than 10 below.

We had a wonderful and productive day skiing with Bob Hintermeister yesterday (Sunday) after 4" of fresh snow the night before. It was EXTREMELY foggy at the base, but half way up the hill we would come out above the fog into blue sky, sunshine, and freshly groomed snow. Too bad that we had to ski back into the fog to get to the base of the lift.

Lynn had some major 'liner stretching' and is ecstatic at how much better they feel (plus a minor grind today).

Today's highlight for me was when her assessment of a run was "Jim, that was the best I've seen you ski," Of course, that was followed a couple of runs later by "That skiing hurt my eyes."

Lynn's skiing also took a big leap forward, so much so that we will probably update her  'oft-critiqued' avatar.

[Svend]

Hey Jim,

Great to hear that you're having a good time out there.  And bumping up your skiing a notch too -- brilliant! There's something about going out west to the big mountains and chucking oneself into more challenging terrain.  You always come back a better skier.  But I'm sure the lessons helped too 

BTW, it's warm and rainy here now in the east, at least in Ontario and upstate NY.  Bizarre weather.  Colder temps and snow coming later this week, though, which is cause for optimism for the Ellicottville guys getaway.

Enjoy the rest of your trip, and "HI!" to Lynn.

[Gary]

Hey Jim....a few days in the west this time of year is way better than the dull dreary east coast weather....for sure.

Sounds like you guys got some great snow and some fine tuning with Bob...awesome. I know the weather in the Rockies has been so all over the place.

Glad you guys are enjoying..G

[HighAngles]

So I managed to actually show up for dinner with Todd, Jim, and Lynn last night.  It was great to finally meet some more of my Internet "ski buddies".

There's always some "risk" in connecting the virtual world to the real world, but I'm happy to say that we hit it off really well and we'll have to do it again sometime soon.

We're in the middle of a bit of a cold snap in CO, but it should be normal again starting Thursday through the weekend.  Unfortunately we haven't received as much snow as I was hoping for this week, but what is open is skiing nicely.

[LivingProof]

Four "Peak Skiers" at dinner is great, but, not as great a four on the slopes.

Jim and Lynn,
Glad you are getting some fresh snow. It's about the skiing and not about a silly avatar pic. It's funny how some runs we can just feel the technique kicking in, and, a run later, just feel the sloppiness.

Enjoy.

[jim-ratliff]

A picture from Vail today. We ran into a lot more snow that we were expecting.  The first is up by Two Elks Lodge gettting our skis out of the racks.  The second could have been most anywhere, but was pretty flat.

[LivingProof]

Jim,

Wow that is more than a little snow.

Fishers on a POW day??? Bringing a knife to a gunfight.

[HighAngles]

Vail definitely got the goods, but the top of A-Basin skied really well too from this storm.

Jim and Lynn stopped by our PMTS camp at the end of the day to say hi and socialize a bit.  They met the one-and-only Geoffda.

[jim-ratliff]

Jim,

Wow that is more than a little snow.

Fishers on a POW day??? Bringing a knife to a gunfight.

Mike: pretty observant. We had an equipment malfunction. 
The wide bindings that Lynn brought were not the ones that fit her bindings, so we only had one pair of wide bindings between us. Being the gentleman that I am, Lynn got them. I was surprised that the 74mm Progressors  did so well, but then 70mm was an all-mountain ski 10 years ago.
Hope you all have great snow at Holimont.

[HighAngles]

The weather forecasters sure blew it when forecasting this storm.  It dumped all day long Friday and tomorrow (Saturday) promises to be a blue bird day with powder-a-plenty.  I hit the top of A-Basin at about 2:30 p.m. Friday and managed to get to the West Wall through 3 foot snow drifts along Cornice run.  West Wall skied about a foot deep and was completely untracked.  I didn't have anything rockered with me so I managed to pull this off on my new Scott Neo skis (82mm underfoot).

[ToddW]

I'm a little late in posting, but I really enjoyed our mini peak skier zone gathering the other night.  Highangles, Midwif, and Jim were excellent dinner company.

I'm sure the Holimont crowd will have a great time this weekend too.  We're fortunate to have such a great group of members in our forum.

[jim-ratliff]

Ditto Todd!!  And it was fun skiing Saturday.  Thanks for helping with the videoing of Lynn and I.

We decided that, after a great day and great week, we didn't want to end it on a mini-downer by reviewing video.
It will be much better to look at it later in the week or so; then it will be vacation revisited.

[Perry]

A picture from Vail today. We ran into a lot more snow that we were expecting.  The first is up by Two Elks Lodge gettting our skis out of the racks.  The second could have been most anywhere, but was pretty flat.

NICE!  Now that is a memory!  Good on ya.
Good to see pics of you having fun.

[Gary]

AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW WWWWW......Lynn.... sweet snow.....gosh...wha t I would't do....

Glad you guys got some. Sounds like a blast too.

G