I’m eagerly waiting for that snow to start falling. Meanwhile, I’ve been making the best of living in Colorado. Last weekend was my very first camping trip in the Rocky Mountains. It was an amazing experience. I spent two nights in Camp Hale with a really nice group of people. Most of my camping experience is in Texas. Camping in Colorado is a lot different. I couldn’t find a cactus anywhere! No scorpions, snakes, or even brambles either. I did find waterfalls and breath taking mountain views. We did mad libs, had a light saber battle, bounced up a jeep trail, cooked all kinds of food, and played with fire. Good times… good peeps…
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I received and interesting phone call yesterday. Someone from Snow Magazine found some of my posts regarding the Bearfire Resort project and hunted me down. I have noticed in the past few weeks, a lot of traffic hitting my site is coming via google searches for information on the resort. All this buzz makes it feel that much more “real”. If I were still down in Texas, I’d go out, find the site where they’re building, and snag some photos. Anyway, I’m excited to see if I get quoted in print. Come to think of it, I’m not entirely sure she ever asked for my real name. Furthermore, she didn’t really ask me anything that I hadn’t already discussed here on the site. Still, I was stoked to get the call.
Texas Snowpark
So I was at the office talking about my goal of 100 days. I mentioned the Pucon trip and said I wasn’t sure if I should count it towards my goal. My co-worker replies, “of course you should!” And thus it was so! I am now counting it towards the season. Hey, lets face it, 100 days is a lofty goal – I’m going to need all the help I can get.
We just got the first touch of snow here in Colorado recently. We had a storm blow through about a week ago that dropped a light dusting in some of the higher parts of the mountains. We’ve still got around 3 months before resorts really start to open up with good snow. However, I’ve been getting some information on places to ride early. I hear Berthoud Pass gets some of the first snow. It’s the pass full of switchbacks between I70 and Winter Park. Hopefully, I can get a few early days in there.
56 Days in 07/08
This video came from Jayne on DallasSnowboarder.com. She is the bikini clad girl snowboarding in the video itself. I cut a small video after almost every trip I go on – but this time she beat me to it. I might still roll one of my own sometime, but for now I’ll be sharing the one above. The only adventure she didn’t touch on was the fire in our room! Otherwise, it’s a good overview of our trip in general. Enjoy the video. If you just have to know more, Jayne also posted a trip report.
SnowTripping, Trip Video Montages, Videos
Today is our last day in Chile. It’s been fun. We waited until today to attempt an accent to the top of the volcano. About an hour and a half from the rim, we had to stop and ride down. The clouds just wouldn’t break and with snow setting in – the conditions were too dangerous. It was still an adventure. Maybe one day we’ll make it back to hike the volcano again.
One our way down, Jason got a great shot of Jeff popping off of a little snow cover barn. All in all, we got a some really neat photos and videos from the trip. The little digital recorder I brought along wasn’t so great. I’ll do a full review later, but the main problem was poor vibration reduction technology.
We’re off the check out the club on our last night here. More stories to come.
SnowTripping
So far, the trip’s been a crazy adventure. We had troubles and tribulations with our travel, but we arrived here with all of our gear. Our first day of boarding found us on hard pack snow that was ice in the morning but softer in the afternoon. We rode off piste on terrain I’ve never experienced before. The resort is low tech. Watch out for chair lifts on your way down or you’ll run into one swinging low. The view from the volcano is a ‘top of the world’ type experience with mountains, lakes, and other volcanoes all around.
Our room caught fire at the end of our first day. The hotel moved us to a different condo and cleaned all our belongings from the smoke damage. During our down day yesterday, we made our way out to Termas Geometricas. In short, we found a mystical experience. The scene was complete with ice cold waterfalls and streams, steaming pools of scalding hot water, rock overhangs with thick moss and lush vegetation hanging down, pillows of snow on top of red huts, and the most elegantly constructed system of bridges, decks and buildings. We jumped from the hot tubs into the ice cold streams and found ourselves comfortable sitting in wet swim wear in the open air at zero degrees celsius.
Today is another down day. A big rain storm blew in with lots of wind. We’re hopeful that it’s snowing up on the volcano Vallarrica. Tomorrow is supposed to be clear and sunny so it could be a good day. Here’s hoping for a little powder.
SnowTripping
Well, I think I have all of my gear packed up and ready to go. I always forget something and I’m not sure really what to expect. I started off thinking I would fill a suit case, but I squeezed enough into the board back to get the rest into my pack. I think it will be easier to move around airports with my pack on rather than dragging a suit case in addition to the board bag.
I took back the camera I bought for the trip and will hopefully pick up some other alternative before tomorrow. I have no idea where to park my truck for the Denver airport. Oh, this will be fun. I’m sure it will all come together – it always has in the past.
Leave Denver tomorrow at 5, land in Dallas. Leave Dallas around 9, land in Santiago Saturday morning. Leave Santiago at 9:45 on a puddle jumper to Temuco. Grab a rental SUV and drive out to Pucon. From there, hope that Jayne knows where the condo is!
I think I should pick up and extra Gameboy DS game before I go.
Oh yes, and for the record, that sticker on my bag came out of an old Keoki CD I found while I was unpacking.
SnowTripping