With Warm Weather Comes The Adventures.

My friends recently realized that in a mere two weeks, after two incredible years here in Steamboat Springs, we will be going our separate ways. I feel very fortunate that I'll still be getting to live with Corey and Bacon, but two of my best friends, Tyler and Crip Nasty, won't be joining us. Tyler will be going to school in Seattle, WA, and Crip will be staying here for another year. But anyway, after realizing this, we decided it was time to enjoy the weather and our last couple weeks together.

After going through some options about what we could do on a lovely Sunday afternoon, we decided on a bike/longboard cruise on the sidewalk along the Yampa river. Unfortunately, even though he was going to come, Crip couldn't make it, although he did go on a hike of Fish Creek Falls with his Mom who is visiting, so I'm sure he had a solid Sunday afternoon as well.
So Tyler, Corey, and I started out from Corey's house and caught the path on the far east side of Steamboat by Walton Creek Rd. The path took us under US 40 and met up with the river just past The Ponds condos. We cruised along this path for quite a ways until we came upon a mini dirt jumps track for bikes, so we had to stop. But of course I forgot a camera and my video camera, so this lovely picture at the track is courtesy of my camera phone.



After the dirt jump track, we continued down the path. Our next step after another good 10 minutes of cruising was a couple of pavilions along the river. We took a nice breather here in addition to testing how cold the river was. One of the things none of us have done was raft down the Yampa River, so we were talking about accomplishing this later on this week.

We continued on, making our next stop all the way on the other side of town from where we started at the Howelson Hill skate park to see who was there skating. None of us had our decks but we chilled for minute before continuing on. Our next destination was Backdoor Sports, a place I feel like I've been quite a bit this year. Our reason for this visit was to talk to them about renting a raft for our adventure. They said they did not rent rafts but they had quite a few kayaks. We realized it would be even cooler to kayak the Yampa, so got even more excited.

After Backdoor Sports, it was time to grub. We headed to Little Toots Park by the Steamboat Library and went to town on our homemade wraps with all kinds of sandwich meats in them. While there, we just couldn't help but snag these pictures on these crazy statue, kind of chair things with Corey's better phone camera. Enjoy.


Typical Tyler Tillman.


Myself.


Sir Corey Berning.

After the grub session, it was into town. We stopped by the shop Nine 7 Zero (basically a DC store since they only sell DC gear) off Lincoln Ave. to visit our buddy Joel who you might remember from a couple Big Mac Monday's awhile back. As it turns out, he was very down with a kayak adventure, but couldn't do it on Monday like we originally planned. Plus, Bacon has been on Canyon Orientation this whole weekend and didn't get back until Monday, so to include those two, we pushed the date to Wednesday. So from Nine 7 Zero, we headed back to Backdoor Sports to see if they could reserve the kayaks for us. Unfortunately they said they couldn't, but the girl working was pretty positive there would be plenty available on Wednesday, so we are set to go. I will do my best to take pictures and videos of the trip, but I'm not an experience kayaker, so there probably won't be any videos of the actual kayak since I'd rather not get my video camera wet.

From Backdoor Sports, we cruised to the music store All That Jazz to kill some time before I was going to catch the Yellow Line bus back up to school. While there, we found that Matisyahu has a new album out and it just so happens to be awesome, so I HIGHLY recommend picking up a copy. I then parted ways with Tyler and Corey after an awesome day and headed to the bus stop.

I was lucky enough to be picked up by my friend Caiti after not much time at all at the bus stop, and made it back to the dorms safe, sound, and exhausted. Today was spent finishing up a speech, a little skating, but mostly getting more and more excited about our kayak adventure. But until then, hopefully this blog gave a glimpse at what can be done on a beautiful spring day here Ski Town USA. Peace.

Student Recognition Dinner.

Saturday night was the first ever Alpine Campus Student Recognition Dinner put on but the student government (SGA) here in Steamboat. Myself and fellow blogger Bobbie Jo Thoman had the pleasure of being honored with an Award of Excellence, as well as I was inducted into the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society. Even our Glenwood co-worker Dylan Derryberry was visiting this past weekend and attended with us.

The evening started at 6:30pm with a welcome from Dr. Peter Perhac, Vice-President and CEO of the Alpine Campus. That was followed by a delicious catered Dinner from Fireside Catering. After that was the Phi Theta Kappa induction ceremony, which Corey was kind enough to film for me. Each student was able to bring a guest, so I figured I'd hook a friend up with a free, delicious dinner. But anyway, the following is the footage from the induction ceremony.

Following that was the announcement of the new SGA members as well as the President and Vice President, so congratulations to Jorge and Katie for their win. Then was the Student Recognition Awards where Bobbie Jo and I got our certificates. In order to receive one of these awards, you have to be nominated by a faculty member, so I'd like to give a MASSIVE thank you to Mike Martin and Tim Widmer for nominating me. They were definitely my favorite teacher's here and I will for sure miss them next year in Utah.

Afterwards was the recognition of the student athletes, where our friend Vince gave a great toast to Terry, the ski team coach here at Alpine Campus. I had the pleasure of meeting and working with Terry when I volunteered at the ski races here in town, and also hearing my roommate talk about him, I couldn't agree more with Vince, so here is the video Corey took of his toast.

Lastly was the presentation of the SGAELA (sorry I have no clue what those letters stand for) Scholarship, which went to newly elected SGA President Jorge, so congratulations to him again.

So thank you to the Steamboat Community Center for hosting this, as well as to Fireside for catering. Thank you also to all the faculty who helped organize it and to Fred Hampel and Kate Barnett who are the Alpine Campus Phi Theta Kappa Advisors. It was a great evening and I feel very lucky to have received these honors. Peace.

Luau.

The other night, the Colorado Mountain College Alpine Campus RHA was kind enough to host a free and delicious luau dinner for all CMC students at Cantina Restaurant off Lincoln Ave. in between 8th and 9th St.

The evening started off with a trip to the post office. I mailed out my application for a scholarship to Salt Lake Community College. I have to give a HUGE thanks here to Ski and Snowboard Business Professors Mike Martin and Tim Widmer for hooking me up with awesome letters of recommendation for this scholarship, so now we'll just have to wait and see how it turns out.

From there we headed Cantina right at 5pm when the dinner started because we were starving and stoked for some Mexican food. Unfortunately, when we got there, there was already a very long line of students apparently more hungry and excited than we were. Cantina had set out a buffet of salad and chicken and beef tacos, both hard and soft shell, with all the fixings needed for some delicious tacos. While everyone was eating, they even had one of their employees singing and playing guitar, so it was dinner and a show. Throughout the evening, they also had a raffle for bags of food and candy, things everyone needs in their dorm room.

So thanks to CMC for the awesome event and thanks to Cantina for the excellent food. For those of you coming out here next year, they've done an event like this both years I've been hear so I'm sure there'll be another one for you next year. Peace.

Big Mac Monday #8: A Wrap On Mt. Werner

Yesterday, Sunday the 11th, was my last day ever riding Steamboat Springs. Mt. Werner is officially closed for the season and I will be heading to Salt Lake City next year.

The season ended in style with a couple powder days, followed by the warmest, slushiest days I have ever ridden. The following Big Mac Monday is a mash up of some footage my friends and I have taken over the past week, including some older footage I forgot about as well as a couple shots of my Minnesota friends and their first experience with powder. The last part of the video is footage from Steamboat's annual pond skim. Unfortunately, Corey and I were unable to enter the contest because as it turns out, there were only 50 spots and we went to sign up too late, so we'll just have to find a pond skim next year in Utah.

There may actually be more snow filled Big Mac Mondays if I head to Copper this weekend for their closing, or even poach Steamboat since they leave a bunch of park features up for awhile, but if things don't work out, then I hope you enjoy this final snow edition of Big Mac Monday. Peace.

I GOT MY IPOD BACK!

By some miracle, I am currently listening to my iPod as I write this blog. In case you haven't read my last blog, I lost my iPod riding powder the other day, but it was miraculously returned to me.

I had given up hope on finding it and was currently thinking about how I would get all 5000 songs back that I had lost, when I got a call from the lost and found at the mountain with the good news. Luckily, I was already out and about in town with Corey and Crip so we were able to cruise right over to the mountain to pick it up. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it on the counter, and after proving that I was who I said I was, it was mine again.

Thankfully they took down the guys information who turned it in so I can get him some sort of thank you gift. It's not everyday that someone would return an iPod instead of just keeping it, so I owe this good samaritan a great deal of gratitude.

Afterwards, we hung outside at Corey's on this beautiful spring day, then headed to see Clash of the Titans (which was awesome). Afterwards, I headed back to the dorms to take care of some homework before tomorrow so we could enter Steamboat's Springalicious pond skim contest. It's only $10 to enter and winner gets a free season pass next year. Even though I won't be coming back next year, I figured it would be super fun to do it anyway, plus I could always sell the pass or something.

Corey, Tyler, Chuck, and myself are all entering and Crip has graciously agreed to record the whole thing, so look for a blog about that coming in the near future. Peace.

A Warning to Powder Enthusiasts.

ZIP. YOUR. POCKETS... let me explain.

Earlier this week on Tuesday and Wednesday, it PUKED snow. None of us here at the Alpine Campus could believe the monstrosity of these recent spring storms.

I was lucky enough to get out and ride on Tuesday with Corey, Bacon, and my friend Mariah in some of the deepest powder I have ever seen. We ended up cruising all over the mountain, with Mariah showing us some of her favorite tree runs that I have never been on before and that ended up being awesome and still untouched even at 3pm.

It continued snowing through the night and ended up dumping around 10 inches on the top of the mountain, making for another crazy powder day. We started the day on my favorite run Hot Cakes down to the Morningside lift on the backside of the mountain. We had planned to take that lift up and hike even higher to the out of bounds runs, but as we were riding up the lift, we noticed that directly to the right of the lift was untouched deep fresh powder, so needless to say, we rode it.

On the second time through, I had paused my iPod on the lift and forgot to play it again on the run. I also realized when we got on the lift that I had forgot to zip the pocket my iPod was in... and that it had fallen out. I legitimately almost cried when I realized it was gone. About 3/4 of my music is not on my computer and I lost about 4200 songs. We took a couple other runs before I decided I couldn't live with myself if I didn't at least try to find it, so I headed back to Morningside and took the same run a couple more times. Unfortunately I realized there was no hope since there was about 2 ft. of powder on the run, so I sucked it up and gave up the search.

I still love powder and will always ride it but I just wanted to warn the world about what could happen if you do something as simple as forget to zip a pocket, so hopefully this will save someone out there the trouble of losing their stuff. Peace.

Almost Avoided Dorm Disease: Balancing Health and Riding.

With only a little over a month left of school, I thought for sure I could last the rest of the year without getting sick... but I was wrong. I actually posted a blog last year called "Dorm Disease" when I had a bad cold and case of pink eye. Thankfully this time around I only have a cold, but it's not fun nonetheless.

The illness started coming around right after spring break. It was very mild then and I mistakenly ignored it. After stressing a bit about the Academy Snowboard Scholarship I recently applied for, as well as a 7 minute speech and Legal Environment of Business test, the cold made its presence known. So much so that I had decided to cancel plans to go on an adventure in Boulder with some friends the weekend before my MN friends came out, which I was not happy about.

Now the reason for this blog isn't for me to whine about being sick, but I thought I could offer some advice on ways to fight dorm sickness and well as boredom, along with some ways to hopefully avoid it.

I hate to say it, but a lot of time while you're sick is spent in the dorms, which means one needs to entertain themselves the best they can. The best way to pass the time as I'm sure I've recommended before somewhere in this blog is to watch The Office. The Office is by far my favorite show ever and I have definitely spent quite a bit of time watching it over these past few days. Movies are also a very solid way to relax and try to kill a cold.

The other day, I watched A River Runs Through It, a movie based on the memoirs of Norman Maclean. It stars Craig Sheffer and Brad Pitt and is the story of Norman (Sheffer) and his brother Paul (Pitt) and their lives as Norman pursues a career as an english professor and Paul becomes a journalist but also gets into trouble with drinking and gambling. It was a really good movie and I would definitely recommend. The next movie not so much.

Later in the afternoon I watched the movie Eagle vs. Shark. A short summary from IMBD says "Eagle vs Shark is the tale of two socially awkward misfits and the strange ways they try to find love; through revenge on high-school bullies, burgers, and video games." Sounds like it could be funny enough but as it turns out, it was just super weird and awkward. Normally I like that type of humor, such as The Office, but this movie was just weird. It actually won a few Indie movie awards, but I just wasn't feeling it.

Lastly, movie night was finished up with 50 First Dates. Starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore, this movie is hilarious and is the story of Lucy, who can't make any new memories, and Henry, the guy who tries to get her to love him everyday. Definitely worth seeing.

However, after that relaxing weekend was when my friends came to town on their spring break. Don't get me wrong, I'm super happy they came and had a great time, but entertaining friends for a few days isn't quite the best way to get healthy. We were lucky enough to get an epic powder day the last day they were here, so that was awesome.

While here, my friend PJ told me of his dream to do a little backcountry hiking and riding one day, so I looked at him and said, "We can make that happen." A good portion of the rest of the night was figuring out how to make that happen. We compiled a list of things we would need, including many of the things I knew were required from my avalanche safety class such as a beacon, probe, and shovel.

Luckily for me, between my friends Chuck and Derek, we ended up with two probes, two shovels, a beacon, and a nice backpack. All that we needed now was one more beacon, one more pack, and two pairs of snow shoes. The next morning we rented the snow shoes and beacon from Backdoor Sports here in town and borrowed my roommates hiking backpack. After checking the avalanche report and seeing that it was only moderate risk, we set out for Rabbit Ears Pass to find the right spot.

After driving only about 10 minutes, we found a great looking spot for the hike. We unloaded all out gear, made sure we had everything, and began the trek. I will admit the snow was not the best since it had been very warm recently, but we were both excited nonetheless. Unfortunately for me, this is where my sickness decided to poke its head out.

The night before we had all stayed up pretty late hanging out and reminiscing, so for starters there was a lack of sleep. On top of that, I felt the beginnings of an ear infection coming on, so my head was not feeling the best. Finally, doing some strenuous hiking in increasingly higher altitude all caught up to me. We reached a point where we could ride down the backside of what we had just hiked, so we decided to take a break. Here is where I began feeling increasingly light headed and nauseous. After eating a bit of a sandwich I bought and drinking some Gatorade, my body gave up and I vomitted it right back up.

As awful as this was I definitely felt better, but no where near good enough to continue hiking. I apologized to PJ and felt really bad about ruining his first backcountry experience, but thankfully he was cool about it and was just stoked to be there. Once my head was feeling good, we rode back down from where we came and called up our other friends to pick us up. Overall I think PJ enjoyed, I guess he'll just have to visit me next year in Utah and we'll go for round 2.

So that's been my life for the past week or so, a blur friends, homework, and congestion. All the advice I can really offer is eat healthy and if you feel a sickness coming on, take care of it right quick because you do not want it sticking around for as long as mine has. Peace.

Big Mac Monday The Seventh: Locals Rail Jam Edition

Hello everyone. Sorry for my absence but things have been a bit hectic recently. On top of being quite sick for the past week, I have been tied down by trying to balance homework, classes, and having more friends from MN in town for their spring break. I plan on writing a bit about the time they were here, as well as how to avoid being sick so you don't find yourself in the situation of trying to feel better while entertaining guests, but for now, I wanted to fill you in on an event on the mountain as part of Steamboat's "Springalicious" last week open.

On Saturday this past weekend, Steamboat hosted a rail jam on the mountain for any local riders to come compete in. A whole slew of people came out including some CMC students. The set up was nothing like what they've had here at Steamboat in their park during the regular season as you will see from the video. The contest was a jam format with both guys and girls snowboarders and skiers. I thought the style of judging with only one bracket with everyone in it was kind of weird, but there were some sick tricks thrown down nonetheless, so without further ado, here is this weeks Big Mac Monday: Rail Jam Edition.