Bright and early on Friday, Feb 15, we got on board our 7am flights to Denver for our weekend in Vail. I had a rough flight that was very delayed which resulted in basically a 13-hour travel day when I finally arrived!
Wanted to make it an early night that night because of our very early flights, and because we wanted to get on the mountain and get a full day in. But on our shuttle bus back to the hotel from Vail Village, we met the fabulous Tina and Todd, a really fun couple also from Southern California. With their help, we persuaded Joe, our shuttle bus driver, to stop at the liquor store and get some beers! We relaxed w/ a few beers in the hotel but still went to bed pretty early.
Saturday: Today we hit the hill by 10am. It was a beautiful sunny day, and the snow was in great condition - although a little icy at first it softened as the day progressed.
We took a few mellow runs to warm up, and began making our way over towards the section above Vail Village. After a few hours on the runs around Chair 11 and Chair 4, we took a lunch break and I ended up meeting with James, my friend from college and current Vail Mountain employee. He was great to ride with - as a snowboard instructor, he helped me a lot with some turn techniques. It’s like a free lesson! 
I also like riding with him because he flies down the mountain with great style, and it was really fun and challenging to follow his lines as we carved huge S’s over in the China Bowl. I was stoked to ride with someone better than me, cuz like I always say it makes me step up my game. He even said I had improved drastically since my last trip to Vail last March.
We stayed out till the mountain closed that day! For apres ski we hit Garfinkel’s in Lionshead Village for a few pitchers of Blue Moon and some chili fries (so healthy!)
That night, we were surprised to learn that DJ Z-Trip, the mashup dj who mixes in fun stuff like “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” with Tribe Called Quest, and just kills it on the turntables, was playing in a small bar that night about 5 miles outside of Vail. I had seen him perform in front of thousands at New Years Eve Giant Maximus, and now he was playing to a 400-person club in Avon, CO? We promptly made plans to head over there, and rode with Jonathan from Hummer Taxis of Vail - he kept us very entertained about single life in Vail and offered us healthy advice such as “keep your legs closed” - um, thanks… Anyways, we got to the Agave bar in 15 minutes, and found a table to use as our home base. Z-Trip came on at 11 after DJ Troublemaker, and got the crowd moving.
We danced like crazy till we had to leave. We had such a great time! Had Jonathan pick us up again before the bars closed, so we were back to the hotel by about 1:30am.
Sunday we got up late and aimed for a half-day because we were tired from the Z-Trip show and plus it was snowing so we figured the visibility would be crap. By 11ish it was only snowing intermittently so we got our afternoon tix and headed up to Lionshead after our breakfast of Snack Wraps from McDonald’s. Bad mistake! I ended up getting what I thought was food poisoning from (I think) a packet of mayonnaise that I ate with my Micky D’s, and was doubled over with stomach cramps the entire afternoon. I couldn’t even ride that day… bummer! I took one run and then had to go lie down in the Eagles Nest lodge, and finally made my way back to the hotel where I spent the rest of the afternoon in bed. The other two stayed out and rode the Chair 26 side of Vail all afternoon; they had a good day hitting the Bwana run a few times.
With the help of some Gas-X my stomach pains went away by 6pm and I felt much better. We booked reservations at Terra Bistro and enjoyed a wonderful dinner and some awesome wine (K Syrah, out of Walla Walla Washington of all places!)
After dinner it was back to the Red Lion where it was definitely the mountain town ratio in full effect - probably 8 guys to 1 girl. As I learned in the Virgin Islands though, “the odds are good but the goods are odd.” So true. Lotsa randoms out there and I even witnessed quite a few cougar women. Fun though! We found Antonio, a guy we met at Z-Trip, and hung with him and his friend Nate. I also met a lot of new Hotties on the Hill, who I’ll be posting over the next few days.
Red Lion closes at midnight every night, because they want the drunks out of their bar according to our waitress, so next we headed to Samana. I hung out with some fun guys from Dallas who promised me they’d meet me at 8:30am for a morning of riding before I had to go to the airport. After some dancing, we closed that bar too, and I took the “drunk bus” (nickname for the free city bus in Vail) back to the hotel, with the help of new friends Taylor and Dave.
Monday - I got up at 7am to finish packing my suitcase and get ready to take the 8am hotel shuttle. I was at Lionshead buying my ticket and waiting at 8:30 for those Dallas guys! They ended up flaking out, so I rode the entire morning by myself. I spent the bulk of the day over in the back bowls - hitting China and Teacup over and over. There was about 8″ of new powder from Sunday’s snow showers in many sections of the bowls.
Not hard to find untouched runs! I am not that used to riding in powder, so my first run down a super thick powder section had me falling 3 times in a row. If I was a skier I probably would have yard-saled. But then I got the hang of it again, and was cruising with the bright the blue sky above me just floating through the powder with wide and fast turns. I found a cool tree section and powered through right under the Orient Express chairlift. Watch this YouTube video I took going thru the tree section, complete with a fall caught on tape… haha!
The snow was thick and deep but not heavy, it was cold so it didn’t melt and have a chance to ice up; it stayed flaky and soft! It was a great morning, and totally worth being so tired! I definitely made up for not riding on Sunday. Explored the back side more than I ever had, but I still didn’t make it to Blue Sky as there wasn’t enough time. It was so empty, hardly anybody was riding/skiing that day! I had to cut the day short and meet the girls at noon so we could drive back to Denver and catch our flights home.
We’re all exhausted but agree it was an amazing weekend, and we are going to make it an annual thing! Maybe next time we’ll actually get you-know-who on a few runs
View more pics on our Flickr page.
Jessie and I are headed up to Mammoth again this weekend (March 1-2) for a last-minute trip. We just decided on Tuesday night that it was time to hit the mountain again, since Mammoth has recently received another 20+ inches of snow!
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