23 Apr 2010 - Skiing at the Basin

we are under a "winter storm watch" since yesterday afternoon thru Sat. Today, I went skiing at A-Basin. They had 5" yesterday and another 5" inches last night. Snowed while I was there. Snow was good but the visibility was pretty bad. Fell three times immediately after getting off lift because I could not tell which way I was skiing. Finally after I got further down the mountain and closer to the trees I could get some definition. Decided to ski the bottom portion of the mountain. I left around noon and the parking lots were full. Lots of locals skiing today.

02 Apr 2010 - Spring Continues

Last night we had another spring snow storm which dumped 11" of fresh powder at Vail. This morning I was able to get over the pass to Vail and enjoy the skiing. Last Sat. we had 8" of snow on our deck, two days later I rode my bike to the Dillon Resevoir and now back skiing again. This is a photo taken while skiing in the trees in Game Creek Bowl at Vail.

1 Mar 2010 - Ling Family

Feb 16, 2010, Peter and Judy Ling from Harpenden, UK with their three sons, Ollie (19), Jason (21),Danial (23) came to visit us for a week. They were here 9 years ago and stayed at our place in the Wilderness. We were concerned this time there would not be good snow but the Snow Gods started dumping snow on our resorts over President weekend and did not stop until the morning that the Lings had to fly back to the UK.

When they arrived on Tuesday evening, we headed off to the Virgin Islands ski rental to get equipment. We started skied, Wed, Thur, Fri. Went to Breck on Sat. Skied Sunday and Monday. Ollie basically skied from the opening until closing each day except for one rest day. Others started a little later each day but ended up being the last ones off of the slopes each day around 4PM.

On Monday, Feb 22nd, we celebrated Peter's birthday. Our friends, Gary & Melody, Dave & Marilyn, and Ken & Mary stopped by for the celebration.

Helen first met Peter will doing a JD Edwards project in India. Peter worked for JD Edwards out of London. When we were in London in 2007, we would take the train up to Harpenden to visit Peter and his family. In 1979, while Rick was working in the UK, he lived in Harpenden. On our recent trip to Botswana, we met another couple, Rob and Elaine, from Harpenden. Small world.

06 Jan 2009 - Bad Ski Day

This is when you wished you didn't go skiing today. This actually happened on Jan 2nd at Vail. Other than being embarrassed and probably a frozen rear end, it was reported that he was ok. There a bunch of photos on the web taken by skier with their cell phones.

13 May 2008 - Two Lucky Skiers

Last Friday we had another late snow storm which dropped about 6-8" of snow at our house. By Sunday, most of the snow had disappeared from our yard and the temperature was around 60. During this time of the year and just after a late snow storm is when some locals hike (snowshoe) to the top of our mountains and take advantage of the new fresh snow.

About 2:30PM on Sunday, I looked across the valley at Red Mountain and thought I could see where some people had skied down the mountain. Once I got out our binoculars, I could see where people had hiked to the top and could see the perfect zipper turns as they descended down the mountain. I then noticed that an avalanche had occurred in a very steep area. I got my camera with a zoom lens and took several photos of the mountain and the avalanche area. I uploaded them on to my computer where I could further zoom in and was able to determine that two people had entered this steep chute on the top.

If you click on the photo you should be able to view a larger image where you can see that one person apparently started the avalanche and was able to ski out of it at the bottom right. The other person must have waited at the top until the avalanche stopped and then skied down the left side to the bottom of the avalanche area. Local mountains skiing is very extreme and there is also danger of starting an avalanche. There are two very lucky Summit County Skier that made it out alive.

Below are the other photos I took of Sunday's Red Mountain Skiing Activities. Click on each image bring up the larger image where you can see the tracks on the mountain.

25 Mar 2008 - Kevin Coleman

Congratulations to Kevin Coleman for placing 4th in Colorado High School State Alpine All-State at Steamboat Springs, Feb. 21-22, 2008. Kevin is a senior at Summit High School and the son of our friends Don and Linda (Prymak) Coleman. Kevin has taken the great skiing abilities of the Coleman and Prymak families to a new level. Summit County High place #1 in state for both the boys and girls, Alpine and Nordic skiing this year.

Congratulation also to Brian Coleman, Kevin's younger brother, who in the 6th grade, placed 16th in the State Middle School Finals. In a couple years, look for Brian to move the Coleman's to new skiing level.