Sub-Arctic Weather

It was 18 below this morning - record breaking low for Denver. In fact, the seat of my car was actually frozen when I went to start it this morning.

This weekend was definitely awesome. Friday night I rode at Keystone for a few hours, met up with Ryan and a friend, then went up to Winter Park for the night. Saturday morning was welcomed with 6-7 inches of fresh powder and over 40 open trails. I was really pumped to get my skis back on and really rip down the mountain. We hit the slopes for about 3 hours before meeting with Kate, Rae, Sarah and Jeremy and then put in another 3 hours of intense tree and bump skiing.

Afterwards, I was supposed to head back to Denver for a Christmas party at my friend Ashley's, but Kate talked me into staying up to enjoy the 6-7 inches of predicted snow for Sunday morning. I figured out earlier this season that it's not very much fun to ski/ride hungover, so we decided to spend only two drinks worth of time at Coffee and Tea and just one drink at ski patrol party before calling it a night.

Sunday was definitely the hi-light of the entire weekend. We made it over to the mountain around 830 to get some breakfast and found my buddy Mike (Jesus) reading a book in Moffat Market. Mike has lived up at Winter Park for about 4 seasons now and knows almost every inch of the mountain - he's also the best back-country snowboarder I've ever met or seen. He rips through the trees faster than most skiers (which is very rare) and can ride bumps like it's his job. Apparently his class didn't make it up the mountain last night, so he had the entire day off to ride with us.

The three of us headed up the main lift and noticed that ski patrol had just opened up the Challenger Lift; giving us easy access to about 10 untouched trails. We made a b-line straight to the new snow and enjoyed first tracks in about 2 feet of powder down some of my favorite runs on the Mary Jane side of the mountain. We skied for about 3 hours on nothing but untracked trails before Kate and I had to head back over to the Winter Park side for a level 2 certification clinic.

Mary Jane - Winter Park is divided up into 4 different peaks: Winter Park, Parsenne Bowl, Mary Jane and Vasquez. The Mary Jane side is probably one of the most well-known peaks in the U.S. because of it's plethora of gnarly bump runs. It got its name from a lady named Mary Jane who used to sleep with the loggers on the mountain in exchange for plots of land. Eventually she owned majority of the mountain, hence its name.

Level 2 Certification - With ski and snowboard instructing, you can get nationally certified as a professional instructor by taking exams. Last year I completed my level 1 Certification which allows me to teach more advanced skiers (levels 4 and 5) and gives me a pretty hefty pay raise. Level 1 Certification is ridiculously easy to achieve as long as you are half-way decent at the sport. Level 2 is a completely different story. It involves a really intense on the snow skills test (you need to pretty much master skiing on bumps) and a movement analysis test on a paper. The movement analysis test encompasses what muscles make you do the most precise and minuscule movements while skiing. It's quite challenging and will unfortunately "gasp" require studying!

Now the benefits of achieving this is that Level 2 "certs" can teach any level of skier (level 7 and below), receive a larger raise and most importantly, the level 2 certification is equivalent to an international level 1 which would allow me to teach skiing in any country across the globe (France!!!!). Ski instructors overseas get paid up to 20 Euros an hours (about $30) and freaking live overseas of course. So I don't think I need to give any more details as to why this might interest me.

After the long day of skiing I met up with some friends at Coffee and Tea for a drink before heading down the mountains. I know I explained before that none of my international friends would be returning (to work) this season, but I've actually met quite a few really cool new employees. One dude that I met is actually from Gaylord Michigan and water skis all the time on Lake Otsego - what a small world.

Last but definitely not least - Al made it into Denver last night. I can't wait for break to start in 2 days!!!