More on Colorado

So I made my first trip up to Colorado in the summer of 2002. I was invited to part take in an interstate U-19 rugby challenge representing Texas. We drove up to Denver and spent our time on the rugby field and I didnt even catch a sign of the rockies. Christmas of 2002 dawned upon me and it had been 2 years since I'd been home to Africa. That summer my Dad, Simon and Beth had gone back to Zim and so I was inspired to save for my own trip home. I began working in the spring at a BBQ restaurant, saving as much as I could to put it toward a trip home the following Xmas. As December 2003 approached, I realized I would be short. I decided that I had to do something that break as sitting still in Austin wasn't working for me and after a year of saving I had to do something.

Here are 2 pictures of the Continental Divide (we rode it down in January 2006 for the first times):

I applied to work at Keystone Ski Resort. The HR lady sent me an email telling me I had a job, so I bought my ticket and the day after my final exams I flew up to Denver. I got a resort bus to Keystone and I went directly to HR. I filled out my paperwork and went to try and get a room. Well, the housing office wouldnt let me get hold a room for my future roommate, Ryan, and they were closing before Ryan got in. Luckily I introduced myself to a South African girl who was kind enough to put me up for the night (beats sleeping in the snow). Ryan showed up that night and he went and got a hotel room since there wasnt much space left at the girl's place. The next day we got our housing sorted out soon after Ryan did his paperwork. I then decided to go find out about my job. I walked over to where I was told I'd start, and the employees looked at me blankly saying there was no way they were hiring as they were already overstaffed. I went back to HR nervous that I was out of a job, and further more had just spent $400 on travelling and paid $500 on housing. The day ended ambiguous as to whether I had a job, and whether or not I would have to change my flight plans. Luckily the next day things turned around and the manager at the restaurant cleared things up and I had a job, a schedule and I was now ready to think about why I'd come to Colorado.

That night I booked a snowboarding lesson for the following day. This being the third time I'd seen snow, and the first time I spent more than a day in it, I was quite out of place on the mountain. Lacking the apparel I took what I could get, which included a cheap second hand jacket, waterproof neon purple pants and some crappy gloves.

The bunny hill tore me apart. I had no idea what to do on a snowboard. I was nervous about crashing, and moved slower than a snail. Incidentally - the worst mistake you can ever make when snowboarding.

My roommates and suitemates got off of work that evening and they wanted me to hit up the big slope. Being persuaded that the only difference between a green and a bunny slope was the length of the run I agreed. However, we somehow wound up on a blue and I returned home that night with a third ass cheek protruding from the left front side of my thigh in the color of my pants and numbed only by the tequila shots we drank that night. A week must have gone by, and I couldnt carve on both edges. I could stop on a dime, go fast on each side, but the rolling ankles was not coming to me. Finally we took a day off of Keystone and road Breckenridge and it came to me. By the end of the Christmas I had developed my riding to the point where I was beginning to ride black moguls, had descended my first bowls at Keystone and could ride without falling provided I wasnt trying anything new.

This picture of Ryan is overlooking Keystone's South bowl. Note: IT IS VITAL TO MAKE SURE YOUR SNOWBOARD IS SECURE AS SEEN IN THE PICTURE. We saw some hippie rider lay his board down, walk away a little and then turn to see his board slowly, VERY SLOWLY, gather some motion. Despite his attempt to get to his board in time it descended half way down the mountain before it stopped. 2nd Point to heed, despite what you may think, no matter how flat you lay/dive you will not move like a snowboard. (This guy tried and pretty much belly flopped into the powder)

I had enjoyed Keystone so much that I planned my return for Spring Break. Dustin, Jessica and one of Jessica's friends drove up to Keystone. The weather was warming up by the time we got there, and my first day on the slopes it was so warm I went out with only a t-shirt on. I managed to get a couple of hours of work in at the restaurant and was rewarded by a fat check and a free ski pass!

Every Christmas of my college career was then spent in Colorado. The following Christmas, my girlfriend at the time - Jessica, came up and skiied with me for a week. Terrie, Chloe, Daniel, and Kari all came to visit too and stayed even after a horrendous trip up in which their car was totalled in a collision with an 18 wheeler! Nobody was hurt which was an astonishing relief! The good thing was that they all stayed and enjoyed the slopes which one would think may have been the last thing on one's mind, but turned out a good distraction from such a frightening experience! My last day of my third season out at Keystone was the best ride I think I've ever had. Ryan and I snuck under the ropes (Ski patrol hadnt even gone down it) and hiked back up through waist high snow. The picture I'm including shows how deep the snow was where we could climb out of the snow enough to put our boards on. The lifts had closed and we feared we were going to run out of time to get to where we could ride back down. When we did ride down, although we've both laid fresh tracks many a time before, this was by far the sweetest powder I've yet to shred.

Then, the following Christmas, I returned to Keystone for the fourth and final time during college. Ryan and I got a place in Tenderfoot again, and both had our girlfriends come to visit, Jessica and Terrie. (Terrie and Ryan dating now, a year since they had met in the same place!).

A few days before Jessica arrived I developed an excrutiatingly painful illness. I contracted strepp and soon after broke out in ulcers all over my tongue, gums and throat due to a viral infection. I couldnt go to work, nor go skiing with Jess and spent most of my time trying to recover in bed or on the couch. Jess was incredibly sweet about me being incapable of showing her around and having a good time like I had planned. However, our long distance relationship with her being in France had made things difficult for us and we decided to take a break when she left for the following semester in Paris again. Ironically within a day of Jess leaving I had virtually recovered and spent my first days on the slopes really that season. I had worked alot at the beginning trying to plan on time off with jess, and when I ended up sick, the result was a very short amount of time spent snowboarding that season compared to the rest. Ryan and my jumping had improved and we had conquered most of the intermediate rails and boxes in the parks. The highlight of the season was the development of solidly landing 360s and our ridiculous hike up to the top of continental divide which is unpatrolled land which we descended down twice.

Here are some of the pictures from my most recent season.
Throwing down a 3.

Ryan kicked up too much doing a 3!!!!

Final relief

For the first time in my American academic history, I had only 3 final exams to worry about. Despite this, I had one of the most hectic weeks I can recall with 3 final projects due around that time, relatives in from England, best friends leaving the country for good, friends graduating and moving away from Austin and I hadnt even packed for Colorado. Did I forget to mention I had noticed a problem with my power-steering fluid leaking? A quote from a local mechanic was in the magnitude of $800 plus. Before a 1600 mile road trip to Keystone, CO this was the last thing I needed.

The Friday after my last exam, I woke up early and Andy Gush (my partner for one of my projects) and I consumed several bars of dark chocolate and a hefty bag of chocolate covered espresso beans. Needless to say at 7pm that night we had almost completed the project we began that morning after only 1 or 2 water/bathroom breaks... I packed that night and the next morning and Saturday night at around 5pm Gabe, Giselle, Loren and I began our journey to CO.
Unfortunately at about 4am when we reached TexLine unexpected weather conditions had propogated spawning in my frequent disgruntled cell phone calls to Gabe whenever we had enough bars on the phone. We finally pulled over and Gabe almost wiped out on the ice getting out of his truck. Finally I think he realised the predicament we were in. We put our feet up for a couple of hours and let the sun come up and begin melting the ice before we soldiered on at about 30mph. Turned over vehicles, collisions with emergency vehicles and a "war-torn" SUV that must have exploded in an accident lay strewn about the New Mexico stretch of the trip. At about 10am we entered CO. Conditions improved, but after we entered the rockies themselves blizzards threw down inches of snow relentlessly while CO drivers appeared quite unaware of these absolutely mental conditions. The total drive time alone went from a predicted 16 hours to an absurd 29 hours, not including the time I was awake on Saturday before we left Austin! I think I had been awake a total of 48 hours by the time my eyes finally closed.