about two hours later and checked into our condo. allyson and marc were already settled in and recovering from an afternoon of boarding at arapahoe-basin, the nearest mountain still open for business this late in the season (unfortunately, keystone lay quiet and dry right outside our back door). the four of us headed into dillon to have dinner at dam brewery (great beer, sub par food) and clinked glasses in celebration of marc’s birthday as well as our “meeting in the middle.”
the following day was a riot.
we were all up early to drive over to breckinridge, one of the most popular mountain/ resort areas in colorado. when we scheduled our trip, we were under the impression that breck would be closed for the season and that’s why we set up camp at keystone. word spread fast that breck was sitll open and ally and marc jumped at the chance to get at the runs. after a short drive, there it was: live and crawling with what appeared to be ant-size athletes. we geared up, hopped on the gondola, and then excitedly parted ways when we reached the top. dan and i went off to get rental equipment and take a class.
(with marc and allyson in the gondola at breck)
unfortunately, dan and i had purchased our lift tickets as a package with our condo, and our voucher wasn’t transferable to breck. they tried pulling strings but couldn’t make it work, so instead of paying for new lift tickets and a class (all the while losing the cash we paid for the a-basin tickets) we decided to return my equipment, head back down the mountain, and drive back to a-basin, where we could use the voucher. i felt awful leaving ally and marc, but i knew they were having a great time and we could meet up again after we were all done.
a-basin turned out to be perfect for us—a little quaint and more low-key than the previous mountain. apparently, it’s known for being one of the highest ski-able terrains with a tailgate atmosphere at the base to boot. i rented a board again and we started trying things out. first we focused on standing up, and slowly drifting along the slope of the base. the first time i moved, slowly cruising about fifty yards, i didn’t fall! dan did just as well, so the only time we hit the ground was when we had to stop. that seemed to be the tricky part. next, we hit the magic carpet ride (molly’s magic carpet lift), a slope for children with a slow moving ramp to the top. we each made a couple of runs with panicky i-need-to-stop-wipe-outs at the bottom. ;)
with the sun starting to burn my cheeks, i retired to the bar while dan moved on to conquer the adult bunny slope, the molly hogan, complete with a lift that he surprisingly successfully maneuvered on and off of. (the day before we had watched uTube videos with ryan and laughed at all the uncoordinated people who fall as soon as they get off-ha!) later, when he found me at the bar, he was bright red, sweating profusely, and had a giant grin. he made four runs, finishing off the last with a face-plant into the snow. for our first outing, we weren’t great, but we were very proud of each other for trying!
cruise control from Dan and Leah Herzing on Vimeo.
(dan's first try...wait for the stop!)leah at the magic carpet ride from Dan and Leah Herzing on Vimeo. (listen to my coach!)
we spent our evening with marc and allyson in breckinridge, sharing stories, photos, and video over beers at ull sports grill. another bar followed that one, until we were starving and took over a sleepy pizza restaurant and ate everything we could get our hands on…!
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