Colorado and Vermont Adventures 2010!

I’ve been so busy lately that I haven’t had time to just relax. With my day job, side work and weekend adventures I really can’t believe it’s November. This coming winter I plan on really cutting back on my work load (my side work at least) and enjoying what is supposed to be a good winter (I had snow on my car this morning!). Colorado got a head start on that this season, and with the storm that hit last week some resorts are even opening early. One that comes to mind is Keystone (November 5th, I believe) and Winter Park (hint, hint) is opening November 18th!

I’m extremely jealous of the big dumping they got, but I am also very excited. I am officially booked to be on a flight to Denver in early February! I am going to be in the Rockies for 7 days with my BF. The plan is to visit Winter Park for a few days to ride, ski (yes, he’s a skier too) and snowmobile. Then we plan on heading down to the Loveland area to ride for 3 days. I’m hoping to hit Loveland for 2 days and maybe A-basin for 1.

Now what I have left to do is book the car, the hotel and lift tickets. It doesn’t seem like a lot, but for someone on a budget that search is exhausting. Hopefully once the season picks up though, Liftopia.com will offer some great deals for Winter Park if I can’t get a sweet package from the lodging. Wish me luck with this stuff and if you have any suggestions, I’m open!

Planning A Trip To Colorado!

I stumbled upon some great flight deals to Colorado this winter from my area and things may be working out me! Flights will be booked first but, still debating on the time on which to go. There will be lots of skiing/riding (yes, I’m bringing a skier along), but we also want to do some unguided snowmobiling. This is the part where I’m torn about the amount of snow. Shayboarder was kind enough to give me plenty of tips and info already on some places to stay, in and around Loveland, things that could go wrong and types of riding at each.

Ideally I’d like to stay a few nights in 2 different places, and since we want to do snowmobiling, I’m thinking even Winter Park for 3 nights and then head down and stay around Georgetown, CO to ride Loveland and maybe A-Basin. I think staying the first few nights in a village might be good in case there is a major storm to avoid getting stranded on I-70. I’m sure I’ll wait till it’s closer to the trip to book anything and I’ll be watching the weather closely.

It’s probably going to be around early to mid-January (I just can’t wait till March, and the flight times didn’t work for us). Hopefully booking the tickets Thursday! Then I have a bunch to do: car, lodging, lift tickets, etc. I get some discounts through AASI on car rentals, but I found some awesome deals already. And I’ll be checking out Liftopia.com for discounted tickets, but there doesn’t seem to be a lot of deals since it’s still early in the season.

If anyone has some favorite spots or recommends a certain snowmobile rental company, let me know!

SOOO EXCITED

Oktoberfest, Bindings And Memory Mishaps

So this weekend I headed up to Hunter for Oktoberfest. This was the second weekend in a row they’ve held one, but Saturday was the best day for me to meet some friends there. They were coming in from Boston and I haven’t seen them in a long time. The drive up was about 2 hours give or take with the traffic. Hunter always has big festivals (Irish Fest, Beer and Wine Fest) and they had a lot of vendors (inside and out). The main beer tent was outside and had a few good Oktoberfest selections (Spaten, Dunkel etc.) and then some standards (Bud and Bud Light). It was more of a chill in the air then I expected so we limited our time outside except to hit up the vendors and food stands (sausage and peppers mmm). The inside bar was stocked and the lodge was crowded, but not so bad you couldn’t move around. One of my friends bought a glass boot to drink out of and many others had large mugs/steins. I stuck with a trusty plastic cup

Lucky for me Hunter also had a Swap and Sell going on downstairs as well as some great sales in their gear stores. I was looking around, not really seeing much and hanging out with friends until I spotted a box. It was a box for Rome Madisons, from last season. I moved swiftly, beer in hand to discover it was empty. Lucky for me I could still read at that point and quickly spotted the bindings mounted on a Rome Lo-Fi hanging from the ceiling. I dragged and employee to the window and said I want them. He then tried to sell me the whole combo, but I already bought one board and the park board is not in my budget yet (and it probably wouldn’t be the Lo-Fi either). I did however get the bindings and a free hat for $105, so I thought I did alright. I’m very new to this negotiating thing.

I kinda got a look from my friends when they found me at the counter buying stuff already. The “we’ve been in the store 5 minutes and you’re already dropping money on snowboard gear you crazy b*tch” look. It wasn’t a completely impulsive buy as those who have been here before know I’ve wanted them for a while. The impulsive thing would have been to buy the Lo-Fi too.

Aside from that, the rest of the day went pretty well considering when I got there friends of friends stuttered their name and almost fell over when being introduced (which is always a good sign). We left Hunter around 5:30p to head on a quick beer run and back to a friends’ cabin and their friends’ cabin. There was all around good times had with beer, food and a night in the hot tub.

The only mishap from the whole weekend is the camera situation. Now I intended on bringing my nice Nikon DSLR, but I of course forgot to head home to grab it. Said other people brought some hand held point and shoots but either forgot the memory cards or the memory card adapters. So they were at least better off than me. My two friends specifically rushed to buy a new camera (after the previous one was stolen) for this weekend and forgot to take the memory card out of the package. All in all, I think we had about 10-15 pictures between us. Maybe I can get my hands on some.

Best Riding In A Long Time In The Adirondacks

I ditched instructing at the mountain this past weekend for a short trip to the Adirondacks. Despite a delay for the bad road conditions (I drive an Intrepid until I can get an AWD), I got up there in once piece. I was meeting up with someone and went to a small hill called Royal Mountain, which is located right at the base of the Adirondacks in Fulton County, NY, only open on the weekends. It has less than 10 trails, but longer runs than the ones I’m used to cruising at Mt. Peter. They are just the right length for a little leg burn and keep it interesting. Royal has a few glades that I didn’t venture in for fear of my board, though I would have liked to try them. By the time I got there the powder was piled high and I had forgotten what it felt like to ride in it. I was knee deep in some spots and enjoying the quiet runs. We were riding with a local who gave us some background on the mountain and the rest of the area which is always nice. By the end of the day I was exhausted (hey, it’s only the start of the season) and I headed into the bar.

Day 2, Sunday, we were supposed to head up to Gore Mountain, in the heart of the Adirondacks, but with the second storm, it was too long a drive and the conditions were to good to pass up 15 minutes away. We also went sideways down a hill on the way there, so 2 1/2 hours wasn’t that enticing for a big mountain ride. The place was even less crowded the second day, probably less than 200 people and the powder was a little more packed than the previous day. Nice for cruising and it snowed all day! I was excited, but I was exhausted. Riding in powder is more effort than groomers.

I was a little disappointed for not getting to Gore, but I can’t really complain. With my AASI discount I got lift tickets, both days, for $17 apiece. So overall, a nice weekend and a new mountain!

East Coast Mountain Openings for Skiing/Snowboarding

So of the mountains I continually check up on and like to go to, here are some openings. I’m so glad that I don’t have to wait till January to go snowboarding, what a drag that is. And though I could have gone riding this weekend if I was paying attention, I did absolutely nothing, but I haven’t tuned my ride yet, so it’s ok. This weekend I plan to be on snow.

Killington VT opened November 19th!
Windham Mtn opened November 19th for the weekend and will re-open Wed, for the season.
Hunter Mountain opened November 22nd!
Mount Snow, VT opened November 22nd!
Smuggler’s Notch VT Oopening set for November 28th
Belleayre Mountain opening set for November 28th
Mount Peter, NY plans to open late Nov/early Dec.
Mountain Creek is set to open December 6th

Any favs or local hills you have news on? Leave it with us, I’d love to know everything that’s going on on the East Coast.