Winter Recap

Although I am sitting here working mid-mountain at Arapahoe Basin with it finally snowing outside, I think the winter is officially over for me. I will get a couple hour ride break, but the car is packed and at 4pm I clock out and Dave Fusilli and I will start the fun cross country drive to the east coast. After spending a couple of days visiting the family, we will roll down to Asheville, NC and start the summer paddling road trip. Plenty of kayaking photos will follow because that is probably what you are wanting to see if you are looking at a kayaking blog, but for now here are some pictures from my 08/09 winter season. Here in Summit County it was not a season with epic snowfall, but everyday cannot be a cliff-dropping powder day, so we found plenty of other adventures to entertain ourselves.

Mark Cohen and Dave Fusilli scouting their lines in Taos, NM

Jahvee and Dave doing snowmobile shuttling on Cottonwood Pass

Early season while most resorts only had a handful of runs open we spent a beautiful day here snowboarding powder.

Dave hiking up the ridge to ride Loveland Pass

Loveland Pass

Skiing Loveland

Dave at Loveland

Dave scouting where to set up camp near Agate Creek on Monarch Pass.

Dave digging a tent pit at our campspot for the night.

I wish we had video footage of us trying to avoid constant post-holing by waddling around on our cross country skiis to gather firewood, etc.

Thanks to being surrounded by plenty of dead wood, here is our campfire, which without would have led to a longer, colder night.

Sunset Ridge, Crested Butte

Maia and Dave cross country skiing up Cottonwood Pass.

Maia is founder of an outdoor advenure company based out of NYC. Check out the website http://www.urbanescapesnyc.com/. It's pretty impressive to see what she has put together in less than a year.

Dave emerging from our camp spot on Cottonwood Pass into 8" of fresh snow. It might look like he is coming out of a rabbit hole, but it's a pretty cool spot inside. We at like kings and I spent most of the night trying to figure out how to keep cool.

Dave skiing back down Cottonwood Pass

Rough ascent to the ski hills at Beaver Creek

Trying to become a better jib monkey at Beaver Creek

Dave powder skiing (yes really!!) at Beaver Creek

Try to spot Dave boofing

Big smile!

There is my winter in short.

Wear your kayaking thick skins to keep you warm in the snow, but try to wash them a couple of times prior or else you will smell like a dirty kayaker and that certainly is NOT steezy.