lost bags, epic snowboarding and riding cats at vail..
So I’m back from my Christmas in Vail trip, and oh what a blast it was.. In the few days right before I get to Vail, it’s just my luck that a HUGE storm blew through Denver, dropping 3 feet of snow on the mile-high city, closing the airport (which is known for its ability to deal with inclement weather).. But, lucky for me, my flight went without a hitch.. SFO-DEN actually landed early, and I caught my connection to Eagle in plenty of time. The drive from Denver to Eagle is only about 3 hours, but when I was looking for plane tix, it wasn’t that much more to just hop the 26 minute flight. And I was upgraded to first class… So, it sounded like a great plan… except that my bag didn’t arrive. Ugh. I arrived at like 10pm, so they said that my bag should arrive by noon the next day, but for that night, I was SOL. Crap. I joined Kathee and her friends at Garfinkel’s for a drink, where luckily, I saw that they sold t-shirts, so I was able to procure myself a Garf’s t-shirt to at least sleep in for the night.. Thank goodness I had my big winter coat cuz it was 1 degree out when I landed.
The next day I tried contacting United (and got their call-center somewhere in India, which is actually my first time dealing with an Indian call center..) — anyway, United had no idea where my bag was, so I was forced to buy some new gear and rent a snowboard in order to ride that first day, which was AWESOME since they got an additional 8 inches of fresh powder that morning… wahoo.. So, I looked a little goofy riding in my big non-snowboardy city coat and rented board.. as Elena explained it, I was a snowboarding contradiction — I looked like a goofy first-timer tourist, but I was able to snowboard.. My slopestyle didn’t match my riding.. I guess that’s a compliment. In any case, I’m hoping that United will recoup at least a portion of the money for gear and rental that I was forced to shell out because of their pooeyness.
So after that day of epic snowboarding, we drove over to the Super Walmart where I was soo excited to buy myself some new underwear and maybe some sort of cheap Walmart clothing.. but, it was Christmas Eve, and they closed early. Ugh. We ran over to the supermarket, which was still open, where I was faced by a dilemma. Hooray, the supermarket had some clothes. But the only thing they had was a Denver Broncos sweatshirt and sweatpants. Ugh. I can’t do that. The Broncos caused so much pain and anguish to this lil’ Cleveland Browns fan, that I actually decided that I’d rather just go snowboarding another day in my jeans and button down than wear the blue and orange.
Luckily for me, at that moment, I got a phone call telling me that my bag had arrived. Phew. Crisis averted.
Anyway… The next two days of snowboarding were equally epic. Vail is a magnificent mountain. The snow was plush, and the trails through the trees were sooooo awesome.. Vail is huge.. Just one of the peaks would be comparable to one of the mountains in Tahoe, and they have like six or seven of them or something. I guess it IS the biggest ski resort in the nation.
One of Kathee’s friends, Amanda, drives a cat for Vail (she’s the crew lead, actually), and… I got to go along with her for a bit. How awesome is that? I hope she didn’t think I was too goofy for being so giddy whilst I tagged along, but it was really, really cool going along with her as she groomed the mountain.
She leads a team of like 7 cats as they drive in formation, grooming as they go.. Since Vail grooms 24 hours a day, and they don’t close the slopes when they do, they have to constantly sound the siren and shoo skiers and boarders away. Anyway, it’s pretty damn cool sitting in the cat as they drive headfirst down a black diamond. Woo.
So yah, that was pretty damn cool. Oh, and to top it all off, I saw some wicked aspens. Aspens are the coolest trees evar.
That is all. Vail. Cool. Yah.
Hope you all had a Merry Christmas or Hanukah or Festivus or whatever..
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