Snowboard Season

In December I was faced with a challenge more harrowing than any I’ve encountered before: Trying to teach my girlfriend how to ski.

Not only had I not stepped foot on skis since I switched to snowboarding at seven; but, the lesson we had planned for her to take in preparation was cancelled due to the delay in snow this season. She was going in with ZERO experience.

The trip began with a 3:30 AM departure as Madison and I piled into the car and picked up our friends Matt and Amanda who were joining us on the adventure. After an uneventful four hour drive we checked in to our AirBnB and headed to the lifts.

Then the real fun began. After a fun hour-long snafu at the ticket office, Madison and I made our way to the magic carpet.

And she wasn’t bad!

Luckily we had Matt to give a few basic pointers, but after only few runs down the carpet, she was completely in control and ready to go for the first lift. By the end of the day she even made it down a blue!

The second day we got to the slopes only to encounter the LONGEST lines I’d ever seen at Whistler. It was going to be a two hour wait to get onto the mountain. We went to the hot tub instead. 100% the right choice.

The rest of the trip turned more into a chill couples trip with drinking games, good food, and better company. We ended Sunday with an easy and early drive back to Seattle (with the required stop at Tim Hortons of course)

After a wonderful Christmas back home with father/son bike rides, an unsuccessful beer mile, and some great California sun, I was back in Seattle and ready for the next ski trip!

I jumped on my flight and after a quick stopover in Arizona I had made it to Santa Fe! After getting my rental car, I made the obligatory stop at the highest rated Mexican place in town (infinitely better than Seattle) and drove the two hours up to Taos. My buddy Ryan (from the Half Ironman) was out of town and kindly let me stay at his place only 30 minutes from the mountain!

The mountain itself had just gotten a ton of snow a week before and was fairly empty. It was a blast. A similar size to Stevens with better boot pack terrain. I flew down the mountain and got to explore all the open areas.

Day 2 was looking just as good until it was cut short with a sore throat, stuffy nose, and headache.

Shit.

Madison called me with the same symptoms… Double shit.

I pushed back my plan drive to Colorado, took a day and recovered at Ryan’s apartment while Madison got Covid tested out in Seattle.

It fortunately came back negative. I went and took a PCR test to be sure, results were confirmed, and the trip continued to Eagle, Colorado!

2nd: Breckinridge: Bad conditions one day… pow day the next! The best snow day of the trip. I built up the courage to hit the insane 1200 vertical ft. T-Bar and managed to do it twice without needing to bail. The Horseshoe bowl it led to has to be one of my favorite runs ever. Chair 6 also had amazing runs, great snow, and no lines. Headed out to Denver after to stay with my college friend Jack Barch and his wife Abby.

3rd: Keystone: I started the day with a Mezcal Hot Chocolate and I’ve never been more disappointed by something in my entire life. Luckily, unlike the mountain the day was all uphill from there. The snowboarding was amazing. I explored all over the mountain and was able to find some good snow that wasn’t skied out. For the first time ever I went over 30k vert in a day and loved the longer runs and quick lifts. After snowboarding I drove out to Breck Brewing and caught up with Mary, an old elementary school classmate of mine, then chilled with Jack and his dog to end the night.

5th: Beaver Creek: The best pure boarding day of the trip. Hit my top ever speed of 58 mph and did over 35k of vert. Beaver Creek had amazing long runs, no lines, and a fresh free cookie to end the day. Not much more you can ask for. I ended the day by meeting up with my high school classmate Elaine and her boyfriend for dinner and then went for drinks at a Ping Pong bar with Jack and another of our Michigan friends Lucas. Hands down the best day of the whole trip.

6th: Vail (again): Since the first experience at Vail wasn’t as good as I had hoped, I decided to double up on my last day and hit it again. The weather was infinitely better; but, all the new snow was skied out at this point with multiple sections showing exposed dirt. Outside of the conditions, it was insane how huge Vail was, but I felt like I hit a majority of the lifts between the two days. The day ended with a thank you dinner for Jack and Abby and some games.

Matt, Nathan, and I woke up early Friday and headed to our stopover in Salt Lake. Molly, a friend from college, also had the same connecting flight and we all met up just before our departure. The flight to Jackson was quick and after an hour we were walking in Wyoming. My high school friend Niki landed at the same time and the five of us grabbed our bags and crammed ourselves into the slightly too small rental car for the drive to the AirBnB. Molly was an absolute trooper going into the very back and getting piled with luggage.

Jack (from the last ski trip) had arrived earlier that day and welcomed us to the AirBnB with beer. The trip had officially commenced!

That night we went grocery and liquor shopping, figured out rooms, and had a few drinks to introduce everyone before hitting the hay.

Saturday was absolutely epic. The six of us all cruised together in the morning exploring a ton of the mountain. Jackson Hole has a gondola that gets you nearly 2500 feet of vert with some amazing runs and then the epic sky tram which takes you up to the top of Corbet’s Coulair (and the Waffle Shack). We hit both multiple times. Other than less than ideal snow cover in places, the mountain was great for not getting fresh snow in over a month.

At four, we regrouped, drove back to the AirBnB, and decided on going out for the night. We walked to a cool Tapas place where Jack ordered six bottles of wine, and followed it with a trip to Cowboy Bar. Long story short: Leprechaun, I love you Madison, Sheraton, Was it a taxi? Gremlin.

It was a rough night.

Ouch. Sunday morning I woke up with a bad hangover; but toughed it out and made it with the rest of the squad to the mountain. The day itself was as good as I could’ve hoped for given the pounding headache and nausea and fortunately we took a long stop at the waffle hut to recover. After snowboarding and a quick stop at McDonalds on the way back, we watched the Olympics and picked up Shalini (a Microsoft friend) who was flying in that night.

Monday, half the house was working from home so I decided to take a recovery day to explore the town of Jackson. After a slow morning, Matt, Nathan, Shalini and I went out to lunch at Roadhouse Brewing before stopping by Jackson Drug Store for some classic old fashioned milkshakes. When Jack, Niki, and Molly got back from the mountain we watched Gnar and the Olympics; finishing the night with some games.

Then Tuesday. The big day. After two days without good snowboarding I was feeling anxious about getting my money’s worth at Jackson. I was going to send it. Matt and I hit the mountain that morning and we flew down some runs (with one unseen lip causing both of us to crash hard) and managed to crank out over 20k vert before he left at noon. I decided to go all in and see how much I could do in a day without stopping, ending with a total of 54k feet.

My legs were shot. My feet hurt. Exhaustion was setting in.

I was fucking elated.

We regrouped below and headed back to the AirBnB with a quick stop at Moo’s Ice Cream on the way. And holy shit, if you are ever in Jackson, please treat yourself. It may be the best ice cream I’ve ever had.

The last night was bittersweet as Jack was going to be heading back to Denver and the rest of us had to be up at 4AM to drive to Big Sky. We all called it a relatively early night after packing, cleaning, and saying our goodbye’s.

The night before we left, Matt had picked up another rental car so we wouldn’t have to all climb into that undersized rental car. After a long, dark, 3-hour drive we made it to the mountain!

And what a wild mountain it was. They had heated seats in bubble lifts. Boogie as hell (and they still nickle and dimed you!- the tallest lift was an additional $70 charge). Matt, Nathan, and I hit the mountain and explored as much as we could (even sharing a lift with a mono-skier) before Matt had to leave for his flight. It was a solid day, and while the snow wasn’t quite as good as Jackson Hole it still had some fun runs and rhythm sections through the trees.

At four, Nathan and I snowboarded to our AirBnB and checked in while the girls brought the car. We settled in, had some leftovers for dinner, chilled in the hot tub, and watched the olympics. Late that night two of Niki’s friends (Garrett and Marc) came and joined… right during Nathan Chen’s gold medal winning performance. The final person: Michelle (a college friend of mine) ended up missing her flight and got rescheduled to the next day.

Thursday started off great as I got out for almost the first lift to go explore the mountain. I checked out all the major areas that we had skipped the first day, and after a lot of solo adventuring regrouped with the squad at lunch. After three group runs I headed back to the AirBnB to meet up with Nathan who had stayed to pick up Michelle from the airport. The three of us then went out and got a few last runs in before the lifts closed.

Now that we finally had all of us together, we decided to go out to eat at a BBQ place that Marc had been to before and highly recommended – Riverhouse BBQ. After an hour wait cramped in a corner of the bar watching the incredible Men’s halfpipe final (link if you haven’t watched it) we were treated to BBQ so good that even our vegetarian friend had it!

On Friday conditions were bad, and I was feeling pretty sore so I decided to take the morning to catch up on my documenting. At three, Nathan and I headed out for some free – post lift check runs. Once everyone got back, the night was focused on drinking games being run by our gamemaster – Nathan (if you know, you know). Side shows included the improvised pull up bar, the hot tub, and the common distraction of the trip: The Olympics. The highlight of the night however, was being joined by a new member: Molly’s stuffed buffalo Joel. Who went on to survive several assassinations attempts by Nathan over the course of the trip.

Saturday began with Nathan, Michelle, Shalini, and I deciding that we were going to try to hit every lift we could on the mountain. It was epic and we got pretty damn close to finishing. We shredded all the way past closing and ended up missing the last lift back up to our AirBnB. Fortunately, the lift operator was in good spirits and gave us a toe back up on his snowmobile. 10/10 would do it again.

That night Marc’s friend Kim came through to the AirBnB and we all went out to dinner in Big Sky. After three restaurants turned us away due to capacity issues we ended up settling on a random sports bar in town. Our waitress was extremely no nonsense and made the whole experience of dinner better. Afterwards we headed back, chilled one last time in the hot tub, and cleaned up a little bit for check out the next morning.

Our last day we finished cleaning up the AirBnB and packing the cars before heading out one last time. The highlight of the last day was definitely grabbing an m&m cookie at a yurt on the mountain. So good. Soon enough we were back in the car for the worst drive of the trip. We crammed in all of our snowboarding gear and luggage and made our way into Bozeman for our flights the next day.

But first the Super bowl! We went out in town, grabbed some drinks, and I made some money with the blue gatorade being dumped. We celebrated with a couple more drink stops in town before finally calling it a night, a week, and a trip.