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.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Day 67 - 3/27/10 - Two Feet In Telluride






"A lot of people are tired around here, but I'm not sure they're ready to lie down, stretch out and fall asleep." - Jim Jones






Today is Saturday March 27th 2010. The picture of me above is toward the end of the day. My hair is a little messy and I am tired. I also look old, but we will not get into that...not a fan. Anyway, Telluride received 22 inches of snow in a 24 hour period from yesterday to today. A near two feet of snow and it was the best day of the ski season here.

My heart was racing today. For the first time this adventure I had this sense of urgency to do as much as I can in as little time as possible. The mountain closes in one week on April 4th. I kept thinking to myself 'hit the sides of the trails, get into the trees and get to the hikes first.' Basically all of those thoughts have fresh powder in mind. I know it seems greedy, but untouched powder on a mountain (especially in the East) is hard to find.

All the excitement came to a halt when my favorite area of the mountain was closed off. How could they have Prospect Bowl closed off? The answer is because 22 inches of snow causes avalanche concerns everywhere on the Mountain. Prospect Bowl has great terrain and it is the only way you can get to the best hikes (Black Iron Bowl, Palmyra Peak). The trouble is that Prospect Bowl is a bowl and avalanches pour into it. I had no idea what to do. Go elsewhere on the mountain or wait it out? I can be a determined and intense person, but since my adventure began my intensity seemed to disappear. It was back today. Along with a hundred or so other eager people, I committed and waited it out. After one hour, at about 1pm in the afternoon, Prospect Bowl opened and a mad rush ensued down a winding trail and toward the lifts. I was one of the first to the lifts, first to the hiking trails, and for today, I was the first to Genevieve:


I hope you enjoyed the video. At the end of the video I was a little out of breath and excited, but for good reason. That final run felt like my snowboard was floating in calm water. The depth of the powder acts as a natural means to slow you down (vs packed powder) so going straight was encouraged. As you saw, when you do turn, there is so much snow that it would displace into the air. It was a lot of fun. I remember the first time I heard the song in the video. It was for a Rhapsody commercial in 2009. Here it is - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkffgF0txQA. After I saw that commercial for the first time I quickly retrieved the song in Itunes. Two weeks of overkill later, it sat dormant in my Itunes. A friend from Babson, Dena Ventura, and I exchanged some emails recently and her latest reply said "if you haven't checked out "Sweet Disposition" by The Temper Trap you should...would go awesome with a video of you snowboarding". Well Dena, all the credit for this selection goes to you. Thank you.

The ski season is coming to an end and my quote of the day says it best. People are tired, but there will be no sleep in Telluride. For tomorrow, and the next seven days, will keep people awake, lively and wanting more days like this one. Good night from Telluride and I hope you are well.
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