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.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Day 25 & 26 - 2/13 - 2/14/10 - Telluride, CO















"The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention." ~Oscar Wilde

Days 25 & 26 - Volunteer Work (pictured above)

This weekend marks the dates of 2/13 and 2/14 2010. The weekend was full of a new experience for me. As I mentioned on Day 23 (Thursday 2/11) I met Justin (Chandler) during indoor soccer. Justin is the Executive Director of Telluride Ski and Snowboard Club (TSSC). TSSC is a non-for-profit organization whose mission is to instill and nurture a passion for all snow sports along with developing character, discipline and desire, which encourages young athletes to reach their highest potential. That is their actual mission statement and here is their web site http://www.tssc.org/. TSSC was who I volunteered with this weekend. While many people called it "volunteer work" I will suggest that this was a unique opportunity for me to be a part of a team that brought order to an Alpine Racing event i.e. I was on a mountain, I got a sunburn (a bad one) and this really was not work! I want to thank Justin for giving me the opportunity to be this close to the action as well as meet another great set of people (volunteers, coaches and racers) in Telluride. This weekends event was the USCSA (United States Collegiate Ski and Snowboard Association) Men's and Women's GS (Giant Slalom) Race. These guys can explain it (and anything really) better than me http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gs_skiing

Day 25 (Saturday) was Day 1 (of 2) of the USCSA College Race. I've made the wise decision to NOT take video and pictures. I figured it would be in the best interests of my "work" reputation to focus on the tasks at hand, learn the process and meet the people. I met lots of people today. Donna and Ray were the two people who headed up different areas of the race that I was exposed to. Donna was in charge of the starting gate area and Ray was in charge of the Gatekeepers. I'll explain. At the starting gate 4-5 people keep track of 1) official start times (electronic), 2) unofficial star times (manual), 3) ensuring racers are in order and at the start gate in time, and 4) informing the rest of the staff, via radio, of any changes. Changes could be a no show, a racer being late and thus changing the order, etc. They do other things as well, but that is the jist. Donna was really nice and she sets a high bar for running a good operation. The folks at the start gate were welcoming and funny (during down times). We had a good time. Further form the start are the Gatekeepers. The "Gatekeeper" job includes monitoring a given section of the course to be sure each racer passes though the gate correctly. Gates are essentially the flags that the racers have to pass through. On the course today the gates are alternating sets (a set being two flags about 10 years apart) of red and blue gates. The gates alternate in a "S" shape to make the racer weave back and forth. For the racers it is balance, power, speed and focus. I gained a whole new level of appreciation for these athletes. Especially the ones screaming in pain as they come down the course with their muscles burning from repeatedly digging into the turns at high speeds.

By Day 26 (Sunday) I could have worked for the Apline skiing events in this winter's Vancouver Olympics. I had been trained by the TSSC pros of Telluride and I was ready to be on my own. Today I was a Gatekeeper. I was in charge of gates #13 through #16 and I had to watch as 55-75 racers (per heat) come through my assigned gates every 20-30 seconds. You actually need to stay focused just because of the repetitive nature of 75 racers coming through per heat. Women go first and then minutes after the Men start. There is a heat in the morning and one in the afternoon. The more I watch and get to see these athletes the more I appreciate what they are doing. And the top racers....let's just say I was shocked at the speed and balance of their runs. It was impressive. Today I also met some of the coaches. One coach in particular was Chris Grover, from the Purgatory Ski Team (of Durango Mountain Resort). Chris attended the Killington Mountain School (in Vermont) and has been in the Telluride ski area for 8 years. Chris was an Apline racer himself so his take on all the racers was cool. Chris was the women's official for the race and he was also kind enough to shoot some video of what Gatekeeping responsibility is like. Thanks to Chris for videoing and best of luck to his team the rest of the season. Couple quick hits on the video:
  1. With the first few racers, note the platform I am standing on. I had to dig this in the snow because the slope was steep and hard to stand on regularly.
  2. I did not include music because I wanted people to hear some of Chris' coaching. You can hear him say "Downhill ski, downhill ski, downhill ski.." It was cool for me to hear the coaching lingo.
  3. At the end of the video is a clip of the men's fastest racer of the day. He flew.
  4. Though she did not make the video (because I was in awe) the top women's racer (from New York) was unbelievable to watch come down the mountain. Her center of gravity was low and strong. I can't tell you how fast she was going, but she was whipping down the mountain, hitting every gate and blowing away most women (and men!) in her times.
  5. Here is the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnLiXlp9uy8
And finally, Happy Valentine's Day to everyone. Hope everyone has a great day with your loved ones. Good night from Telluride.
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