Just got back from Steamboat. Got there around 3 on Wed. Met one of Jeff's friends there and messed around on the sleds for a few hours. We stayed at his place in Steamboat. Thursday was like a blizzard so it was pretty dangerous to be in the backcountry. We basically stayed in a field right near the parking lot. Some guys from the house met us out there in the afternoon and one of them unfortunately did some small damage to Gomez's sled. The damage isn't that bad. Friday we skied the boat. It was pretty crowded because of the holidays and they didn't accept my Steamboat Card which sucks to pay full price for a lift ticket. We had a great day, found some secret stashes of powder.

It's new years eve and I was suppose to go see a friend in Breckinridge but I just woke up from a nap and am so tired. Ohh well.

The next few days I plan on making some adjustments to the van. Jeff has been crying about his sleeping situation so I am making him a bed.

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!!! We decided to come back to Jeff's house today. The places we were planning on going the next few days didn't have that much snow. So here is an update of the last few days.

Wednesday we took our time getting ready and enjoyed hotel life. We went back up to Crested Butte to do some snowmobileing. Some locals asked if we wanted to join them on a simple loop and we decided to go with them. The next thing I know we are dropping in off of a steep cat track and crossing rivers into huge powder hills. Nevertheless I found myself digging the sled out of the snow the entire time. That pretty much ended our day pretty quickly and we packed it up early and headed to Telluride.

We spent the night on the side of the street in downtown Telluride. Very nice RICH town. We couldn't run the generator hence no heat. All the pics below are from Telluride, they haven't gotten that much snow lately and is probably the only reason why we had the patience to set up some pics. We skied a half a day at Telluride and that night camped out in the public parking in downtown (which happen to be where one of the ski lifts is located). Friday we headed to Silverton.

Silverton, population of 250, was probably one of the coolest towns we visited. You can snowmobile right through the town. We found a hotel that was pet friently, Canyon View Inn, for $50 per night. Funny the owner is from Booton, NJ. We did some laundry on friday afternoon and basically just started to prepare for the next day.

Silverton Mountain has one double chair lift, no lodge (OK there is tent), no running water, no facilities (OK there is an outhouse). Lift tickets are $100 per day and we took 4 runs. All runs are guided and require about 15-20 min hikes. You have to carry a shovel, beacon and probe in order to ski the mountain. In 4 runs we skied almost 10k vertical feet (never skied that amount anywhere in the East). Lets just say it was amazing. Some of the deepest powder I have ever skied. We skied with a total of 8 people includeing our guide. The other people in our group were real cool and friendly (had a little crush on the daughter) and good skiers/snowboarders. Silverton Mountain is a must if you want to experience TRUE backcoutry skiing.

Today (Sunday, Christmas) we snowmobiled right from town and spent almost 2 hours riding trails around the town of Silverton. Real cool technical trails alongside old mining shafts and abandoned homes. We drope into Durango, realized that there was not much to it and decided to head back to Nederland.

We plan on leaving in the the next few days for Steamboat. The boat has been getting pounded with a ton of snow.

Extremly tired and happy to spend the night in my bed. Happy Holidays!

I had trouble uploading pics of jeff last night. We were so tired, we went to bed before 8:30. It's 6:30 am onWed the 21st. I don't know what the game plan for today is but my body is killing me. We are so glad we found a hotel. I think the next 2 nights will be spent camping again.

It's day four of our trip and tonight we decided to get a hotel and finally get a nice shower. The Days Inn in Gunnison, CO allows pets. Saturday we got a late morning start and headed to do some sledskiing at Vail Pass. It was snowing and visability was very bad. At one point I lost sight of Jeff and it took us a while to find each other. We headed to an area known for sledskiing. The top of the bowl was pretty windblown but the bottom was EPIC. We took a few great powder runs. Ended the night with a nice steak dinner and camped at Vail Pass.

Sunday it was still snowing and we were going to sledski Vail Pass again but decided that conditions were to dangerous and didn't want to drive to Crested Butte at night. We couldn't find any place to camp in town so we headed about 10 miles toward Gunnison.

Monday was probably one of the best ski days I have ever had. We were probably one of the first dozen chairs up the mountian and skied untracked powder under the lift. In some places the snow was over 12 inches but averaged almost 8 inches of fresh snow.

Tuesday (Today) it was bight and sunny. Still some fresh snow and we headed to some of the more "secret stash" areas of the mountain. We got the inside look becuase we fed all the parking attandants lunch on Monday. They still haven't charged us for parking yet. We skiied the morning and were completely beat. Since it's my birthday we decided to get a Hotel for the first time and finally have a hot shower. We just got back from another steak dinner and will probably be asleep by 8:30. Below are some pics that we took today.

Tomorrow depending on the conditions we will either take out the sleds or hit the mountain again. Next stop Telluride.

This Saturday I leave for my much anticipated ski/sled trip. I've been spending a lot of time getting all our gear (Sleds, trailer, van, camping, ski, etc) together. The trip we are taking is going to be amazing. Here is our schedule:

Sat 17th: Leave in the AM for Vail Pass to do sledskiing. Camp that night somewhere around there.
Sun 18th: Drive to Crested Butte. Camp in the Parking Lot
Mon 19th: Ski Crested Butte. Camp in the Parking Lot of a Local Bar. Maybe a hotel
Tue:20th (Happy Birthday to Me): Sledski around Crested Butte. Probably get a hotel
Wed 21st: Ski Crested Butte
Thur 22nd: Drive to Telluride
Fri 23rd: Ski Telluride. Drive to Silverton that evening
Sat 24th: Ski Silverton. This place only takes 80 Skiers per day
Sun 25th: Sledski around Silverton
Mon 26th: Ski Purgatory
Tue 27th: Ski Durango
Wed 28th: Sledski Pagosa
Thur 29th: Ski Wolf Creek
Fri 30th: Sledski Somewhere i can't remember the name
Sat 31st (New Years Eve) Ski Brekinridge and hang out with my friend from Hartwick
Sun 1st: Head back to Nederland.

Should be pretty exciting. We will probably camp 2 days and then get a hotel. Pretty Much play it by ear and see how we feel.

Hopefully Gomez and I will have the patience to take some pics. We are taking a lot with us including three dogs (Tiger, Chewy and Jesse)

So far Tiger loves the freedom of the outdoors. This has been the longest he has ever gone without being on a leash.

Come January I will start to look for some work.

Last night we got a few inches of snow. Eldora reported 4 inches and i got there by 9:30. It was a little on the cold side and windy but the conditions were excellent. I took a run in the glades and hit some really nice powder and also on the side of the slopes the snow was real nice. 5 runs and home playing with the dogs by noon.

I think it's time for me to get some BIG MOUNTAIN skis. I am thinking of getting a pair of Solomon Pocket Rockets but right now I shouldn't be spending any money.

Great Customer Service!!!!

Last winter I bought an Avalanche Beacon on Ebay. I used it once at Steamboat. Last thursday night we were packing for my trip and I couldn't get the beacon to turn on. The on/off switch completely broke off (thank god not during any critical times) I called Backcountry Access who happen to be located in Boulder and I went to their offices and dropped off the beacon. Before the end of the day the lady called me up and told me they would replace the beacon and to come and get it when I am ready. Feels nice because these things are not cheap.

On the flip side, my NAV system from Magellan that I bought off of ebay is not working. I called Magellan and they told me they cannot fix my Roadmate 700 unless I have the receipt. They can't confirm that it is under warranty by me providing the serial number. What kind of BS is that. $600 dollars down the drain.

It was a great weekend. Friday started off rough as we didn't know if the snowmobile was going to be fixed in time. I had a part overnited to them but on Friday morning it didn't arrive. TnT was very helpful and we decided to "borrow" the part from another sled in their shop. I picked up Gomez at 2pm and we met his friend, Jaime at the Deli arround the corner. Jaime has his own sled, a 2000 Yamaha Mountain Max 700 (very similar to my sled). We headed back up to TNT in WY and picked up the sled at 5pm. I don't even want to tell you what the repair bill was. Let's just say the free T-Shirt they gave me was DAMM expensive.

We headed toward Centennial in the Snowy Range. It was about 35 min from TNT and we ended up parking at the Snowy Range ski area parking lot. We unloaded our camping gear, let the dogs out, cracked a beer and started cooking. All the sudden a snow cat comes out of the woods heading right at us. Of course Gomez gets a little nervous. It happen to be the owner of the ski area and he was going to plow the parking lot. He said he didn't mind if we camped there that night and he also let us sled out right from his parking lot in the morning.

Next day was beutiful. We headed about 20 miles into the mountains found some fresh powder fields and started ripping powder turns on the sleds. It was pretty easy to pick up and we could pretty much lean our shoulders into the snow. We had luch at the ski area, played with the dogs, relaxd and headed out for another ride. THough out the day my sled hit a top speed of a little over 70 miles per hour. Gomez's was a little faster.

We ended the day around 4. All three of us completely beat. Drove back to Boulder and of course one of the tires on the trailer BLOWs. Jaime was ahead of us and the tire iron we had wouldn't fit so he had to backtrack to us. It wasn't the easiest tire change in the world but we finally got it done and got back to Nederland at 10pm. By 10:30 i was in bed.

Sunday morning by 10:15am we are at a nice breakfast place eating Sausage Biscuits and Gravy (yummy) by 11:15am we are on the slope of Eldora. Took 6 runs, legs burning, body hurting from yesterday and headed back to home. Spent the rest of the day just organizing for our BIG trip in a week.

So again an awesome weekend. Sleds are awesome, weather couldn't have been better. Sleeping in the van was better as we added some extra blackets to the floor and rearranged the heater.

Can't wait for next week. This 2 week trip is going to be sick. Stay tuned. Hopefully we will have the patience to take our time and snap some nice photos.

Below are some pics of Jaime (Gomez's friend) messing around in a powder field.



Gomez after he wiped out.

Chewy cooling down after playing catch

Tiger is turning into a mountain dog
We camped out in the parking lot of the Snowy Range ski area. It was opening day for them.

WOW is it cold outside. Got up at about 8:30 and was on the lift by 9:30. I wanted to get there a little earlier but of course i slept in. Took 6 runs and was back playing with the dogs before noon.

Today i realized why i moved out here. It snowed all day yesterday and most of the night. There was almost 6 inches of fresh snow. I skied Eldora again and every run i was makeing fresh turs. The mountain was empty and Eldora opened up a few more trails.

Can you see my tracks?

Tracks on the far right are mine
End of the slope but still plenty of fresh snow
It's pretty cold out and the dogs love the bath in the sun

It's was COLD outside.... but well worth it.

It's a heart attack.

Let me tell you what I ate this weekend. A day in the life with Gomez.
Friday Dinner - Pulled Pork Sandwhich
Saturday Breakfast - A shit load of sausage and an egg and cheese omlette.
Saturday Lunch Snack - Bacon
Saturday Lunch - Pulled Pork Sandwhich
Saturday Dinner - Chicken Wings
Sunday Lunch - Chicken Wings
Sunday Dinner - T-Bone Steak

How long before my heart stops working?

Headed back to CO in the afternoon. Tiger had shotgun.

Chewy was driving.
Actually the dogs were completly worn out.

Saturday ended pretty quickly because of an unforseen accident with some concrete blocks discguised to look like a snow drift. So we hung out at camp for a while. Gomez cooked bacon for a snack on the Coleman stove.

Friday I picked Gomez up at work at 2:30. We headed to TnT motorsports in Laramie WY to pick up the Sleds. We got there at about 5pm and headed into the mountains to spend night in the van. We found a parking lot with about 6 inches of fresh snow. Parked next to a street light which happen to be next to a porta potti. We set up camp which included: microwave, TV, space heater & Pulled pork sandwhiches.

Went skiing on Thursday at Eldora. There was about 3-4 inches of fresh powder. I got there early to get my season ticket. It's great because it is only a 15 min drive from Gomez's. I took 6 runs and my feet were killing me because my new boots are not broken in yet and I needed to get the snowmobile trailer in working condition. Friday we headed to the Snowy Range mountaints in WY to do some snowmobiling.

There was a pretty large storm in Nebraska and Iowa. It delayed me one day. I arrived at Gomez's on Tuesday, November 29th in the evening. Here are some pics on Wed morning.

Some Gas Station in the middle of nowhere

Departure day. Sunday November 27th. Driving along Route 80 to Boulder, CO

Here are some pics of the van on delivery right before Thanksgiving

I found the van in San Gabriel, CA. It's a 2000 Ford E350 V8 Quigley 4x4 Van. It came with an Andrian Steel Interior Kit, Pioneer XM Radio, New Shocks, New Tires and maintained excellent.