Last Day of Shred.

I realize this is a little overdue but I've been pretty busy doing some final projects and papers for classes, but I first wanted to say Happy Easter to everyone, and let you know about the fun and excitement of the last day the Steamboat mountain was open.

For my friends and I, the end of the riding season was more of an event than just the one day. We decided to ride everyday as much as possible for the last week of the mountain, starting on Monday. We would get up for some breakfast and head to the mountain until we absolutely had to leave, and then barely make it to class.

We did this Monday through Saturday this past week, but were unfortunetly unable to do it as extreme on Sunday. Even though it was the last day of riding for the season, mother nature decided to rain for most of the morning. My friend Nate and I did not get to the mountain until around 11:30, and even then it was still raining a bit. Luckily that didn't stop us from taking as many park runs in the phenominal slush conditions as possible.

Unfortunetly, the mountain closed at 3 that day, but at 1 was a personally favorite event of mine known as the pond skim. I unfortunetly did not enter since there was a $10 entrance fee (although considering the grand prize was a season pass for next year I probably shoud have), but I was able to get a decent view for a good part of the action.

Sorry that these pictures aren't actually that good, but hopefully they give you a little idea of what the pond skim was all about and how popular an event it was.

In order to win, the contestants had to win over the crowd, making for some sick outfits, including bikini girls, suit and tie (the wearer of which I think was running for some sort of office in Steamboat because he had Vote Quimby signs), and various capes and superheroes. The winner of this grand event was actually a pair of skiers named Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, who were dressed up in baggy, crazy patterned clothes with a hula-hoop inside to make them look fat. Their total prize was the season pass and a gift bag, so they'll have to somehow figure out how to share the pass.

Even though I didn't enter the pond skim, my friends and I were able to have some watery fun on our own. At the bottom and to the right of the bunny hill, we found a what we referred to as "The Natural Pond Skim", which simply means there was a big puddle and we would bomb down the bunny hill and skim across it. At one pond some fellow skimmers put a pole jam, which is simply a pole at a slight angle, sticking out of the water for people to hop off, making our pond skim way better than Steamboat's in my opinion.

But after quite a few more excellent park slush runs, including getting last call on the main park lift which I thought was pretty cool, we bid farewell to the Steamboat mountain. I feel it was a little bigger deal for my friends Nate and Jeff considering that they won't be back to Steamboat next year, but I couldn't help feeling good about getting my first season in Colorado under my belt. Also, thinking about it now, it's probably best that the mountain will be closed for the last weeks of school, making it easier to focus on finals and such.

But now I am off to another wing night, which will be one of the last 3 before the end of the semester, so hopefully everyone had a good Easter and that this blog gave you yet another reason to come out to Colorado Mountain College Alpine Campus. Peace.