"The faster you ski, the less time you are in danger" - Author Unknown
Today (Friday) is a great day. Our group is ready for what challenges the mountain brings. Any sluggishness from the night before is shaken off and adrenaline will soon take over. We wake to some good breakfast preparations by Pat. The guy can cook a scrambled egg with the best of them. He also had coffee brewing. Though I heard he can piece together a Macchiato and/or Latte with grace, my purchase at the grocery store was the formidable Starbucks rival Maxwell House. Even though I do not drink it, the guys appreciated Pat's unselfishness.
If you remember from an earlier blog the Richio's are NEVER late so even though the group of guys will tell you I held up the morning departure process it's just not true. Maybe. Anyway we did get out of the condo around 9am (mountain opens at 8:30am). Oh, here is another key thing to shoot for when you go on a ski trip. Get the "ski in, ski out" option. This option implies that your condo is on a trail that leads directly to a lift instead of leaving a condo and having to walk far or deal with s shuttle/van/bus. It can save hours. The convenience factor, especially after the last run of the day, is significant. So we were on the gondola a little after 9am and our morning runs, though a little rusty for the camera, we're nice to take. Get the legs loose and establish some sort of a rhythm. By afternoon, the camera came out and took some of the following clips:
1) Early afternoon run. In this clip, with jacket color in parentheses, are Tim(black), KC (blue/white mix), Pat(green) and Jon(brown...or "burnt orange" as he would prefer). They show up in the video in that order. Steve was missing because he had some phone call business to take care of in the condo. Pat gets close at the end http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRPIubf00j8
2) Lift. Trying to say hi to the gang. Sound is a little blurred because camera is in a waterproof casing unit. You can vaguely make out the lift behind us (occupied by Jon, KC and Tim) waving....and making some sort of Indian call noise. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYnVdzMe-1g
3) Back country trail. I take a digger. There is no shame in this as soon as I realized there was a rock that I thankfully cleared. Tim and Jon are up top. I've also learned how to work some audio into the video. This will be nice for future videos, if I do it correctly that is. Here you go http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtcLAayKbn0
So there it is. Day 1 on the trails is in the archives. We return to the condo to meet and greet our 7th member of the trip, Chris C. He flew in today. I do not have footage of his arrival as he got into the condo while we were skiing. Sorry Rino.
With all 7 guys finally together we turn our attention to the "apres ski" part of the day. Apres ski, by the way means "after skiing" and it is a popular phrase in France. Also has gained attention as yet another theme of our trip. Here's my take on it. It has become a popular phrase here in the US. Why, I am not sure, but it has. To me, although it is inclusive of the cold drink that I desire after I get off the mountain, it also refers to those whose interest in snow sports is mainly confined to image. I suppose it is all part of the scene at any mountain, but the phrase "apres ski" seems to lend more to the image piece than the "give me a beer, my body is in pain" part of the day. By the way, there are not too many better ways to enjoy a cold drink (even in cold weather) than after a good day on the mountain. Anyway, the "after skiing" location for us was called Slopeside Grill. I included a picture of it above. Nice place; literally right off the mountain trail and close to our condo. I think we did a good job supporting the Colorado economy by selecting Coors Light and Fat Tire (a CO brewed beer) as our first few beers of choice. We made some friends. It seems that people are interested in our accents at first. They hear something from our group and say "Are you guys from Boston?" Now, lets break this down. Pat's from Minnesota, Tim from NY, Chris from Connecticut, KC from Ohio, Jon and Steve from Mass and I'm from Maine. All in all we do not represent a Boston accent too well which makes the conversation about this topic funny. Although we all like to hold onto our roots, we have all been in the Boston area for 10+ years and I think people may be onto something. In this particular instance there were two girls who picked out our accents. One girl had gone to schools in NY and Mass (Holy Cross) and I think they appreciated our company. Her boyfriend and other friends, who were in attendance, did not. Not our fault as we constantly reminded her that she was holding her boyfriends now warmer drinks. Pretty comical. Slopeside was fun, tiredness set in and a return to the condo quickly happened. Not before we met a New England family whose son was sporting a Tom Brady jersey. The boy wanted to be on tv so with his parents approval we gave him the next best thing....a spot on the blog. Sorry it is dark. Try and focus on when he is asked "Is Tom Brady the best Quarterback?" His reaction is comical....especially to his Dad http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EbWBTaGcLs
Good night from Steamboat.
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