11/26/09

Day 2

Conditions: Michigan conditions: man-made and icy
Location: Vail, CO

Happy Thanksgiving! We hit Vail early anticipating bigger crowds than yesterday. We got there early enough to hit some killer groomers, but it got crowded fast.

We rode up the gondola with a pretentious skier who articulated his hope that Alta never allows snowboarders. When Dirk asked him why, the skier claimed that Taos allowed boarders, and the mountain changed. Dirk pressed him further, asking how the mountain changed – we were sure he would mention park punks or something. To our amazement he went through an elaborate theory about how snowboarders have the (magical) power to change the fall line of an entire mountain so that it’s wavy versus straight up-and-down. We sat there in puzzled silence. I would like to take this opportunity to put forth several, logical rebuttals to this ridiculous theory. (No, I didn’t bring these up at the time.)

1. If riders or skiiers had the power to change the fall line of a mountain in one year (erode it significantly), we would not be allowed to have ski resorts in National Forests. Many resorts are in National Parks or State Forests.
2. Since the mountain itself isn’t eroding, the snow distribution must be making different fall lines. Likely, the snow making crew is to blame for uneven areas or wavy patterns made during the early season, snow making push.
3. Allowing boarders brought more families back to Taos. Families tend to stop a lot, especially in main areas. If anything is changing the fall line, it’s probably these large groups repeatedly stopping in certain spots of the hill. This has little to do with snowboarders.
4. Finally, do people of other races, genders, ethnicities, and sexual orientations also have the power to change a fall line…or is this discriminatory theory specific to us one-plankers?

Highlight:

- Getting out early before the crowds.

Lowlight:

- When the crowds came, it was like bumper cars out there as everyone was funneled into the same death traverse back to the bottom of Lion’s Head: the only section of the mountain that was open.

Après Ski:

We watched the fourth quarter of the Lion’s annual Thanksgiving Day loss. Then we grabbed a few beers and headed to the hot tub for some relaxation. We capped off the night with a great Thanksgiving dinner at Vin 48 in Avon, CO.


Coming back from the hot tub. Yes, it was that warm.

Days to go: 48