MY STORY

On January 20th 2010 I departed for my Colorado adventure. Final destination is Telluride, CO. My previous employer closed our Boston office on October 31, 2009 and this seemed to be the most opportune time to do something different. My inspirations are two things really. They are both movies. First is "Into the Wild", a movie about a person who leaves his life behind to pursue a life in the Alaskan wilderness and along the way he meets people that shape his life. The second movie is "The Bucket List", a movie about two terminally ill men who escape a cancer ward with a wish list of to-do's before they die. The #1 item on the wish list is "Witness something truly majestic". My adventures are not exactly similar to these movies, but underlying themes and life changing perspectives are. As far as the location, I thank my sister for that. She lived in the beautiful & remote town of Telluride for five years and met Paul there. Their 1997 wedding was in Telluride (Trout Lake). Telluride is nestled in the dramatic Rocky Mountains of Southwest Colorado.

BLOG 101

If you are new to blogs so am I. Here is an intro. The home page http://mycoloradoadventure.blogspot.com/ has all the posts (the write ups) in order and they work so that most recent is at top of the order. i.e. Day 1, my first post/write-up, is on the bottom page of all the posts/write-ups. On the left side of the blog site there is a "Blog Archive" section where you can navigate to pick and choose year, month and then specific daily posts/write-ups. I wanted to share this in the event you are new to blogs.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Day 14 - 2/2/10 - Steamboat Mountain







“You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having both at once.” - Robert A. Heinlein





Today is Tuesday February 2nd 2010 and it is the day the remainder of the gang from Boston leaves. This is my short tribute to them.

When I found this quote it did not take me long to think about how it applied to my day. Surely ripping down a mountain is not peaceful in any way, shape or form. Maybe if you are the only one in a field of powder, but even that is rigorous, intense work that is more a rush than peace. Throw in people cutting you off and a snowmobile (or Snow Cat) racing up the mountain, while you avoid it skiing down, and obtaining peace going down a trail is near impossible. But everyone who has skied (or snowboards like me) has found peace on a mountain. And if you haven't, then you probably did not overcome the many reasons why people do not ski i.e. cold weather, too much equipment, dangerous, too expensive, etc. I almost gave it up because no ski boot seemed to fit me when I was younger....always seemed to cut circulation off to my feet. Anyway, the peace I found today was mainly related to the departure of the group from Boston. I found peace because they left me to ride up on the chair lifts by myself. Assuming an uninterrupted and smooth lift ride, it is you, the fresh air, and on a clear day, an amazing view. It was peaceful. For the freedom part, this is how I look at it. While the chairlift has peacefulness to it, it does not have the freedom element. How can being seated with a bar holding you in place be symbolic of freedom? Freedom on a mountain is the ability to lose yourself in a run down the mountain. It's the rush of racing down a mountain with the wind in your face. Or, going through an open field of fresh powder. Either course includes an element of feeling free and alive. If you think about it, in 3o minutes you can take chairlift up a mountain and ski down a mountain. Both will provide you with emotions that are on opposite ends of the spectrum. Pretty cool.

The Tribute

I wish this tribute could be a little more action packed, but quite simply I did not have the energy and the legs were a little tired. One of the toughest things being on this trip is to motivate yourself when it's just you. It's kind of the same as getting the self motivation to go to the gym, but it's a lot different when you are traveling around and your typical conveniences in your routine life do not exist. And unless you are a wanderer, everyone has a routine. Some are just more accessible, more convenient and less time consuming than others i.e. single vs family or city living vs mountain living. Couple the self motivation issue with the fact that my closest connection to home (my group of friends) just departed and you can see why the energy level could be lacking.

Let's focus on the positive. We had a great 4/5 days, some fun nights and good video footage to capture it all. If Robert A. Heinlein (my quote of the day) is suggesting you cannot have peace and freedom at the exact same moment, then I agree with him. If he is referring to not having both in the same day, then I disagree. The above picture of my last ride does it near perfect justice; today I was on the mountain and there were not many people around me. I was on my own, no one to talk to.......and I had both peace and freedom. Here is my tribute*


*As I have mentioned before, music defines my life. My tribute video has two songs that have figuratively carried me out to Colorado. The intro background music is Eddie Vedder's "Rise" from the sound track Into the Wild (a best selling book and motion picture) that has inspired my adventure. Though the song is partially cut off in my video, I've copied the song lyrics below. I'd like to thank Matt Goodwin (LG), my Babson friend, for introducing the second song to me a short while ago. It is called "Kings and Queens" and the band is 30 Seconds to Mars. Goody, we have always been great at introducing new music to each other. You have the upper hand now. The music of "Kings and Queens" gives me more life right now than any other one.

Lyrics to "Rise" by Eddie Vedder
Such is the way of the world
You can never know
Just where to put all your faith
And how will it grow

Gonna rise up
Burning back holes in dark memories
Gonna rise up
Turning mistakes into gold

Such is the passage of time
Too fast to fold
And suddenly swallowed by signs
Low and behold

Gonna rise up
Find my direction magnetically
Gonna rise up
Throw down my ace in the hole

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