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!

Shaun White Secret Halfpipe: New Trick Video

You may have seen the link to the web site for Project X, the secret half pipe that Red Bull built for Shaun White. Pretty sweet deal if you ask me. Well, as advertised, I am providing the first notice about the project. There is new footage about the training and Shaun’s new tricks. At first I thought, “a foam pit, seriously,” but, then again, he has to be in perfect health for Vancouver.

I recommend taking a peek. It must be nice to have that half pipe all to yourself, but I also really like to look at the surrounding area. Silverton, Colorado seems like a sick place to go snowboarding.

New Toy For The Winter

Yesterday I finally ordered a point and shoot camera. I had one way back, almost 10 years ago, with a measly 3 megapixels (possibly less). I own a Nikon D50 DSLR, but find it way too bulky to bring around on a daily basis or out snowboarding. Occasionally I will bring it on really good days, but still find it annoying when I want to hit a rail, I have to hand it off. It’s not exactly made for the outdoors either. At 6 megapixels, it does take awesome shots because of the lens.

I’ve had some gift cards I’ve been collecting (Visa, AMEX, etc) to put towards the camera. Unfortunately I could not find a good camera shop local and my local Best Buy didn’t even have what I wanted in stock. I wanted it prior to my upcoming weekend adventure in Boston, so I went online. I found it for a good price at Adorama.com. The annoying part was getting my gift cards converted to their gift cards since literally no one accepts split payments online or over the phone. I bought separate gift cards to Adorama with my Visa/Amex gift cards and was finally able to buy the camera.

Olympus Stylus Tough 6000

Even better is that I ordered it last night, just before 5pm. I chose 2-3 day shipping for less than $4 and it was delivered today! It’s because I live only like 2 hours from NYC, but still, props to Adorama for getting it to me so quick.

It’s awesome. I needed something that could handle my clumsiness. It’s shockproof, waterproof, freezeproof and I was told crushproof up to 120lbs. I couldn’t verify the crushproof spec anywhere online, but a BestBuy employee told me that. If it’s true great, if not I’m okay with it. I wonder if Olympus keeps that out of the marketing to get you to buy the next model up…hmmm?

I initially wanted orange, but had such a hard time finding it, I settled for blue. I figured that if I did drop it in the snow, it’s easier to locate than white or yellow. Though I plan on rigging a leash of some sort to my snow pants so I can’t lose it, kind of like those things that no one attaches to their boots and bindings

Having a nice, new portable point and shoot means I will also be taking more pictures and actually using them on the blog! Woohoo! So maybe these things will be a bit more interesting. Now I am currently waiting for the battery to fully charge so I can play with my new toy and once I get to know it better, I’ll put up a review for those interested in it as a future purchase.

Bigfoot Needs A Snowboard

I am the one that friends go to when they need gear. 1, because I usually have a much better idea about what they need and what’s out there and 2, I get good deals.

I already helped with the boot selection, but now I’m involved in a possible snowboard purchase. Since the boot size is like a 12 or 13, I’m on the lookout for a wide board for everything and not too stiff, you know…just right.

I have a few in mind already. K2 Format, Forum Recon, Burton Bullet and possibly the Ride Fleetwood though I think that may be a bit too stiff.

I’m still researching, but I found some decent boards on evogear.com. I’m even looking locally on like craigslist since this is not a priority purchase as he is first a skier.

If anyone has some favorite wide rides, let me know. I’d appreciate the help!

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