Ride

So, I've just spent my days off in Colorado. Snowboarding. Wonderful vacation, and everything I needed to really have it feel like a vacation. A sunny beach doesn't do that anymore, and luckily, almost every single thing there in Colorado was a complete change from what it is over here.
Instead of everything being completely flat, there are hills and mountain ranges everywhere you look. Instead of blocks of housing, the streets are actually curved and have proper streetnames (instead of 8th, 9th or 10th Street). The weather was freezing and there was snow all over, instead of the sweaty weather with sun every minute. I spent my time off, accompanied by girls only (and Bart, of course), instead of the other housemates and people dropping by, who are guys 90% of the time.

On day one, we left from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Airport (FLL) at 6:15, meaning we had to get up early enough to actually catch that flight. I had closed the day before, but was surprisingly awake and remained in that state throughout the day. We had one stop to make on our way to Denver, which was in Houston. Everything on the way to Houston was easy, seeing the sun rise on the way there, and having a pleasant trip. Had an hour to wait at the airport, and boarded the next plane. While making our way to take-off, we stop and wait for a short period of time. After that stop we are told that we are going back to the gate to have engineers check on the plane. We are told to wait for 15 minutes. For another 30. Then asked to leave the plane. While at the gate again, we are told we would be getting an update within the hour. After that hour, another hour before they know something. Then they knew they had to be looking for another plane (I saw 6, just looking out the window, but apparently they were no good to us). We were waiting for a plane from L.A. to land so they could prepare that for our flight instead. Total delay on Houston; 6,5 hours! On our way to Denver again. When landed there, we were quick to pick up our luggage and made our way to the CME (Colorado Mountain Express) desk quickly. Marieke had arranged this for us already, with her employee/contacts discount. We were able to get on a bus straight away, and it basically left when we got in. Packed in warm clothing we drove through dark mountains for little over 2 hours (sun went down after leaving Denver) and we were picked up by Kiki, Marieke and Fleur at the Vail Transportation Center. Went to celebrate their housemate's (New Zealand's own Juliet) birthday in town at a restaurant that was all too tropical for the surroundings. Employees in Hawaii shirts and ocean-like carpet on the floor. Had a good meal though, and had a little piece of cake for the birthday celebration.
Found our place in the loft of the apartment, which was a good sleeping place, if it wasn't for that staircase (getting back to that later).

Day two found us waking up at 6:30, to go and arrange our snowboards and other gear around 7:30. All this was arranged with the down payment of a sturdy supply of beer. Ready to go, we went by home again to pick up some final items, and we went with the bus, which stops across the street, to have it take us to Beaver Creek Village, from which we departed up the hill, after using our discount coupons for the lift tickets (normally 92 a day, now 45). Kiki and Fleur were with us, and we went up the mountain, going all the way up to the top, going down a few times and taking that Cinch Express lift up every time again. I got the feel of it quite quick, despite my small amount of experience. Apparently I did better than everyone expected me to do, having only a bit of indoor experience, never being down a real mountain in real snow before. Had our lunch at Spruce Saddle, a (green certified, being the only one in a ski-area) restaurant. It was located between the initial lift we took from Beaver Creek, the Centennial Express and Cinch. We also had to go find Bart once, by the way. We sent him down a black slope and Kiki and I would go take it easy for me instead. However, Bart's slope didn't quite end where we hoped it did, and Kiki went in pursuit mode and talked to him. I went down a nice blue slope there, trying to get to where they were. Kiki found Bart and arrangements were made. Took a few slopes down the other way, and found ourselves in Bachelor Gulch for the rest of the day. One of the slopes goes by Kiki's work in that same village. Later that day we had Marieke join us, but I didn't get a chance to board with her just yet as I made a pretty nasty fall when I was going down with one of my highest speeds of the day. It all felt really good, going down, and I had my confidence with me. At one point, I had a sentence going through my head (I don't know if it was from a song or anything) and the next thing I know is that I use my board to slow myself down. I was lying flat on my back for a minute, trying to get everything straight again, and I went down with broken confidence and a few sore spots. These kind of things don't help the mental state and I just didn't dare to do certain things anymore, making boarding far from comfortable, so that's when I called it a day. They went up for a few more runs, as I waited down at McCoy's restaurant in Beaver Creek again. Marieke went back to work (just boarding during your break, how cool is that?) and Fleur and I had some Starbucks while Bart and Kiki did some runs again. At the end of the day, the three of them went back up for some final action.

Saturday was action in Vail! One of the most famous winter sport places in the States, Vail provided us with big slopes, more beautiful people and the same great weather as the day before. In Vail, the mountain has a double use, as you can use the front side, and the back bowls. These are, as the name suggests, bowl shaped runs down, everything starting from all sides, and ending in a distinct point down the pointing, coming together. We started off with some rides on the front side, as the Back Bowls are usually blue and black slopes (medium to difficult). On our first time down the Back Bowls we used one of the catwalks to get down, very flat paved roads that go throughout the landscape getting you from A to B as well. These roads should be fun, but they're not. Not if you've got my beginner skills of going fast straight. Apart from not being able to steer well when there's no speed, I also had problems maintaining any speed at all, causing me to stop at certain points of the trail. That particular (called; Sleepytime, no kidding) trail took a lot, and I mean a lot of energy out of me. Luckily, like after each and after slope, there's a lift going up which allowed me to recover a little bit. Going down the Chopstix in China Bowl, making me practice those straight speeds and having a huge amount of fun while doing so (without falling) was not worth the Sleepytime ride, but it made for at least some of it. Lunch up on the mountaintop at Two Elk Restaurant (were 5 drinks, 5 cookies and a sandwich will get you to 58 bucks - without employee discount, that is). Did one or two more Bowl runs down and went to the front of the mountain again, finishing up the day.

Day 3 of snowboarding (day 4 of the vacation) brought us, early in the morning, to Vail again. Having sworn to not do anymore catwalks today, we still went to the Back Bowls. Found another catwalk down instead (which was better) and did more Chopstix runs down. Again, went to Two Elk to replenish energy, and had a great day there. Made our way up to another peak and went down Cloud Nine. The best slope I've gone down in all these days. On the top of that slope, the paths were surrounded by trees, and you could take about 5 directions because of all the groups of trees standing on the slope. Was a great sight, great feeling and made for a lot of fun, twisting and turning your way down. The second part of that slope was a steep kind of catwalk. Quickly going, neatly paved and broad enough for all kinds of traffic to go through. Had a great day in Vail, the last day with all of the girls. Or any of the girls, actually, since every single one of them had to work on monday. When we got home, we did some quick groceries, and Bart went to play Pancake Chef.

Day four found us back in Beaver Creek, were Bart and I took the same elevator up as the first day (Centennial), after we got another set of comped passes for 45$ each (instead of the 92 in Beaver Creek a day, or 97 in Vail, where we also got one free day, and one 45$ pass).
Did about four runs on the newly groomed way down from Cinch, as there were hardly any people on the slopes at the time, and they provide for a good warm-up. Did a small piece of black slope there, but had to really keep my brakes on there. After the fourth run we took a left, and followed the slopes and lifts we needed to get to Bachelor Gulch. Before we got there, we had another catwalk to take, and yes, it was a really bad one. Took the Bachelor Gulch Express there, up the mountain, and stayed left as much as we could, following SMS instructions from Kiki, who wanted to welcome us to her work with some hot drinks (coffee for Bart and Hot Chocolate for me). Her work was conveniently located straight off one of the slopes, allowing her to literally snowboard to work if she wanted to. Rested up, enjoyed the hospitality and the nice interior of the place, and went back snowboarding. We spent the day with earphones in one ear, having music downhill. A nice selection of It Dies Today, Lostprophets and Silent Descent being my soundtrack of the slopes. Around 2PM, going downhill, I made a weird fall on one of the blue slopes around Bachelor Gulch, during which I hurt myself quite bad (I think I might have fallen on my phone, which in turn bruised my ribs). I told Bart that was the end of my day, after I had remained in the snow for a minute. Took our time to make it back to Beaver Creek again, and I went to wait at McCoy's again, while Bart took his time for final runs down the mountain. That night it was pizza time at a place called Pazzo's. Which, truly, made the best pizza I've eaten (on a little sidenote, I hardly ever ate it before I got to the States).
After that we went for a little drink in ice cold Vail (it could get down to -5/10 Celsius, or 10 Fahrenheit if you want). During our stay in one of the bars, we were presented with two printed photos in magnetic holders. They are now placed on our fridge for everyone to enjoy. The photos are also up at this photobook you all know so well by now.

Day 6 found us picked up around 11AM by the CME again, taking us to Denver airport for a non-delay flight to Fort Lauderdale, stopping at Dallas this time around. Landed 20 minutes earlier than planned, around 11:20, and had Georgi pick us up.
Great vacation, great experiences, and absolutely amazing hosting from the girls over there. Everything was arranged, everything had a discount, and they were stunning company (and guides) over there. We joked about going there again before the season ends. If work didn't require all the time, and if I had the money, I probably would. They might be coming over to get some beach feeling with us in May instead, so we'll see.

One of my favorite tracks going downhill; Lostprophets - To Hell We Ride