Well yesterday we got back from the Rutz Colorado Family Ski Trip. It was a week of skiing and family. Read more for the blow by blow. We are getting all the pictures together and I will post a few.Fri. Apr 4
After cleaning the house I picked up Eli and Bridgit and we headed to MKAT’s to load up and were on the road by 5pm

Sat. Apr 5
Arrive in Denver and meet Eric (Bridgit’s brother) and his old friend John at Udi’s for some food. We then headed out to Summit County and decided that it was getting too late (and expensive) to ski a half day, so we decided to ski Loveland pass which was my first powder experience. We got to the bottom of the pass and decided to ski all the way to A-Basin which didn’t end up being much fun because the powder and flatness slowed us down and we had to do some skating.

We got loaded up and got to our condo for some dinner and rest.

Sun. Apr 6
We decided to ski Keystone because it was where we were staying and it would be less hassle getting on the slopes. The weather was OK and we did some great skiing. I have subscribed to the Bridgit Ski School (which means keeping up with her older brothers) and they took me down a steep, long hill with big bumps. Having only had a small introduction to moguls in the past it really kicked my ass. The exertion combined with the altitude gave me some altitude sickness and I felt miserable the rest of the afternoon and evening.

Mon. Apr 7
We skied A-Basin, which is a really cool place. For some reason The Basin has this stigma of being extreme and a crazy place to ski. It is actually a nice place. Apparently it’s mostly locals that ski there. From the front side you can see Loveland pass and on the side is the east wall which is hike in skiing and is pretty intimidating to look at. A-Basin is also a mecca for Telemark Skiers so Bridgit’s brother Eric fit right in.

While we were getting ready to hit the slopes I overheard one of the wonderful employees telling some Boarders that if they wanted to ski the back bowl they had better hurry because some weather was moving in. Weather is a concern here more so then most places because ABasin is at a higher elevation then everywhere else (It also allows people to ski well into June). We got up to mid mountain and John decided that the weather was too bad and not worth it so he went in the lodge there. Barb, Eric, Dan, and I decided to go up to the top and see how things were. As we were going up the lift to the top it was amazing. There was a time where you couldn’t see anything except the chair in front and in back. Everything else was just white. Coming down was cold (20′s) and windy. My beard turned into a sheet of solid ice. We followed lifts and fences back down to mid mountain. You couldn’t really tell where down the hill was and just had to follow the skis and whatever came under your feet. By lunch time it was beautiful and sunny. We had a great day skiing.

Tues. Apr 8
Dan was working at Vail for the second half of the week, but only in the afternoon on Tuesday, so we skied Vail on Tuesday and were able to use his room as a base. Bridgit and then Betsy watched the kids and we ate lunch there. Vail is HUGE. On the back bowls I was in powder like I had never seen before. The releases on my bindings were too loose, so my skis popped off all the time and caused me to fall. At lunch I tightened them up and skied the same hill without loosing them once. The day was warm and sunny. I ended up skiing with Eric and John most of the day and we did some fun stuff.

Wed. Apr 9
Our day off. We went to Boulder and then down to Denver to meet up with everyone at the Denver REI Flagship store to meet Eric’s lady friend Carole. After that we met up with some old friends Erin and Erich for lunch.

Thurs. Apr 10
Another day at Keystone. This time the weather was not perfect. Not as bad as it had been at ABasin, but cold and blowy.

Fri. Apr 11
Overnight we got about 7 inches of fresh powder and we really wanted to ski ABasin. Loveland Pass was closed in the morning.The weather reports made it sound like it might be bad, but things looked OK in the morning so we headed to the Basin. It turned out to be a wonderful day. We got to see avalanches being set off. It was pretty cool.

Sat. Apr 12
Bridgit, Eli, Dan, Betsy, and I headed out early to meet Erin and Erich for breakfast in Denver and we had a wonderful meal. Then Bridgit and I caught up with them half way across Kansas to continue to the long trip home.

Sun. Apr 13
We got back to our house around 12:30 in the afternoon to unpack and unwind after a great trip.

We had a great time skiing on Saturday. There was about few inches of powder on the cars in the morning and it seemed like there was more on the mountain. Temps were in the 28-30 range most of the day and the morning was sunny and clear, it started snowing and blowing in the afternoon but it was still fun even though the visibility was spotty at times.

Bridgit thought it was the best MI snow she had ever skied. Our group started heading in for the day around 3 but Bridgit and I kept skiing until 4 or so. Bridgit spent a bit of the day skiing with little T, so she was still rearing to go and I managed to keep up with her (good thing she was skiing for two). She figured that she wouldn’t be on the slopes much or any in CO so she had better make the most of it. I decided to start tackling moguls in the morning before I got too wore out to do them, and wow do they work your legs. I think I am starting to get the hang of them, but I had some problems controlling my speed when it was steep or icy in between the bumps. I will still need to work on them more before I take on Pallavicini. Bridgit and John keep telling me that I need to work on keeping shoulders pointing down hill and when I really work at it it feels right, but it isn’t natural yet.

Alex has come leaps and bounds since last year. He has started skiing blacks now, but it was hard to keep him away from the “freestyle” course they had set up. It was a terrain park they had set up for Boardercross. It had starting gates and a number of berm/jump things set up and he had a blast skiing it over and over and over.

That night Pat told Bridgit that Katie said “no blacks and no moguls” but it was too late. Except for when she was with Theresa (4yo) she was skiing mostly/all blacks. She only did mogul runs when she was going to be going what she called “Tom speed”, which I think means really really fast . I figure that June-Bug will have the feel of skiing down now so that will make things easier.

The next morning we woke up and it was -4 without the windchill and it was blowing in the 30mph range. Nobody thought that skiing would be fun. We had some fun white-out conditions on the drive home and we couldn’t even see Boyne Mtn. when we drove past it. We also got stuck behind an accident for an hour on I-75 and managed to get the other car warned and routed around it.

I am feeling pumped about CO and more ready now.