Skiing Adventures with our Syncro in the Rocky Mountains
Our Syncro Westy was returned to us in early February, after being in the shop since just before Christmas. It was in the shop for body work caused by an accident that was my fault. Luckily, no one was hurt and the damage was minor. The morning after we got it back, my awesome friend Ryan Moore and I packed it up and headed on a hut trip near Aspen, Colorado.
The next weekend was one of the most popular skiing holidays: Presidents' Day Weekend. We packed up the kids and drove
our Ski Bus to Crested Butte. I took my guitar and Trish took her banjo (we both started taking weekly lessons at
the beginning of the year). Our drive was smooth and our weekend was fabulous.
Saturday was Valentine's Day and I surprised Trish with a photo shoot of our family. I'd secretly hired Alison White to take our pictures and we met with her to talk about what we wanted on Saturday morning. After a fun consultation, we ventured to the mountain, picking up James Ward along the way. We skied a few runs together, stopped at the Ice Bar for a car bomb, then whisked off to our photo shoot.
We are extremely pleased with the results. Thanks Alison!
The next weekend, Trish and I packed up and headed to our Ski Shack in Winter Park. We stayed up late that Friday night, preparing chili and other fixins for a fun tailgate on Saturday. We didn't get much sleep, but we were in "C Lot" by 7:30 and on the lifts shortly after they opened. It was a powder day, and the runs were great. We met up with friends at our van around noon and enjoyed some tasty chili and cold beverages.
The last weekend in February, we met Trish's brother (also named Matt) in Vail. He was on a ski trip with a number of friends and Trish drove up to ski with him on Saturday morning. The kids and I slept in a bit and arrived at Copper just in time for free parking near the lifts. We skied all afternoon, then met up with Trish and Matt for some cocktails, then dinner. That night, we did some winter camping in the van.
The final weekend in my 5-weekends-in-a-row of skiing was a wonderful trip to Telluride. The kids had Thursday and
Friday off of school last week, so we loaded up and drove to Telluride on Thursday. It took us most of the day
to get there (7.5 hours), but the weather was beautiful and the roads were dry. Our van was too tall for our
hotel's garage, so we had excellent parking spots all weekend.
This was the breakout weekend for Jack. Abbie's been skiing awesome all year and Jack's been pretty timid (lots of turns, going slow). There was something about our first day at Telluride that inspired him, because he loved their double blacks. We skied lots of steep runs, did laps on the terrain parks and flew down the mountain on blues. Telluride had a Spring Break atmosphere and our ski-in/ski-out accommodations didn't hurt. It was a glorious weekend. Trish and I were both very proud of the kids and how fast and fearless they've become on skis.
I'm extremely happy with our Syncro's performance and its new H6 (Subaru Outback) engine. It's been averaging 20mpg, most likely because I drive 55mph in the slow lanes up the passes. I figure we drove it just over 2000 miles on our 5-ski-weekends-in-5-weeks adventure. We thoroughly enjoyed skiing at Crested Butte, tailgating with powder at Mary Jane and shredding the double blacks at Telluride. I know we'll be back to all of them, some sooner than later.
In fact, I'll be meeting a few
friends at Mary Jane this morning to attempt 30,000 vertical feet in one day. It'll be my 36th day of skiing this
year. Happy Friday! Life is Good. 