Pretty day at A-Basin

Pretty Day

Flower Skis

Today headed to A-Basin for a nice ski day. Decided to buy a pair of "park" skis - double as back-country skis. They are a bit girly in looks. The pic doesn't even show the tails of these skis which get even better. Thankfully they are typically covered in snow so the graphics aren't so visible. And thankfully more I'm a half-ways decent skier to be able to wear these things and not feel too bad :)

The day was really nice. East Wall traverse opened up. So my 2nd run down that's what it was. An army of skiers were making the long traverse to make some fresh tracks! Wee hee!!! :) Only hit one rock on the way down. Many were buried.

Mostly played in the powder today getting the feel for the skis and learning not to die with them. It's like skiing with snowboards on my feet. Interesting getting them up on edge. Towards the end of the day I was feeling fairly comfortable. Took them in the park at the end of the day working up getting air. My Nordica's are way more manueverable - for me - especially in the trees. Can't easily just muscle these planks around. The float pretty well. Cross over crud and powder. Started getting used to running bumps with them at the end of the day. Currently they are center mounted for the park - found it made them nose-dive a bit on the steep powder runs. May switch to a more traditional mount.

They are most fun hucking off of things and getting air. I may start getting addicted to this. Wanted to put AT bindings on them.

Starting to play skiing switch. Good stuff :)

Reminder from Mom

It's a journey, not a race. :)

A good thing to remember.

Thanks :)

WI Thanksgiving Trip

Headed back to WI for a pre-Thanksgiving trip so decided I'd post a few pics. Reminds me of when we were all kids. And WI still gets snow! ;) I think a fun time was had by all.

Camping, hiking, and biking

Four other trips and outings for this summer included a fun, girl hike on the Sourdough trail in RMNP with my friend Karen - an attempt at the Little Matterhorn, a trip to Buena Vista where I got to enjoy a cool, flower and aspen tree ride on Kenosha Pass, hike beautiful Mt. Missouri, enjoy some rainy tent camping, followed by a foggy, mystical attempt up the climber's route on Mt. Massive. Last weekend - another rainy weekend, had an awesome fall-like bike ride with a new friend Shane up Dadd Gulch complete with topo map exploring and views of snowy peaks! And this week spotting a young bear happily scratching his back against a telephone pole not far from where I live. Another trip to Leadville hiking Mt. Massive, enjoying a moonlight and headlamp lit hike to treeline where the morning sunlight started taking over.

And this week - preparing for school Monday. Working on my downstairs bathroom. Not wanting the summer to be over. Looking forward to our WWR team bbq Saturday. One more race to be had.

I would *still* like to make it up Long's Peak this summer/fall. Would still like to get up on top of the Little Matterhorn. Want to enjoy more camping. Pups and I want to swim. If only there were more days. Once again, how a good summer should be - wanting more :)

Aaron and I got in our year long quest to make a trip to Water World where we had an awesome day sliding down way too crazy slides and I satisfied my screaming quota for the year. Getting that tickling stomach feeling sliding over the edge. And enjoying a nice dinner in Denver at the Paramount Cafe.

Looking forward to a visit from my friend Boris over Labor Day, if he can make it out.

Making new friends and contemplating life directions. A nice summer.

Stuffs

WWR Race - 2008!

It's been quite a while since I've shared anything online. This summer has really been good, but busy and still going. For the most part, this summer has been really enjoyable, getting to enjoy parts of Colorado - just being outdoors. And appreciate the hills just outside my door. And getting connected with people who live nearby.

One event that was really fun for me this year was the Wild West Relay running race from here to Steamboat Springs. I'd done this race last year, but this year, for whatever reason was really great and fun. We had a 12 person team, once again organized by Jason Welch. He's such a great, positive guy and puts in a lot of effort to get enthusiastic runners on the team and organize everything down to 3 ring binders filled with useful race info and spreadsheets so we can track all our times.

This year we rented two large vans for our team. There are 6 people per van. The runners cycle through one van running 6 legs of varying distances, and then you meet up at a van exchange point, and the next van of runners takes over. This happens 3 times throughout the race, so each runner runs 3 legs over the course of 24 hrs. There are 6 person teams as well, which would take much more training and planning as you're running a heck of a lot more and down time is nearly non-existent.

The running this year was good - pace-wise for me, similar to last year. In parts a little faster, on one leg a wee (very wee) bit slower.

The cool part was the team dynamics. Going into the race this year, I have to admit I was a bit reluctant. I knew I had fun last year, but this year between injuries and knowing it's going to eat up an entire weekend (starting Friday), and not feeling super close to any of the team members, I had mixed feelings. But, injuries, last minute seem to stabilize for the better and things were on. And looking back, I'm very happy they did. It was definitely one of the highlights for my summer.

In our van, we had Phil Yastrow (energetic, positive guy from work who has a fondness for anagrams - and high school - and came up with our team name, "Combatant Foot Still Sore," and made us cool team hats to explain the name), Kristin Smith (aka, Syd who's a strong runner - and mom and ran our longest van leg), Mike (Avago customer from L.A. - and super fast marathon runner - who joined our race, thanks to Phil, not yet knowing anyone on the team, combining it with an Avago visit. Gutsy guy), Adam (aka "Sandbagger" who really doesn't know how fast he runs and always smashes his predicted race times), and Troy (Adam's longtime college friend who would prefer to be camping alongside everyone else but active sprinkler systems seem to have differing ideas), and me (aka KD who was thankful when leg 2 was over and even more thankful to have gotten some sleep, happening to miss the sprinklers, making my unhappy stomach feel better).

We ran hard, there were many stories to be had. Late night spaghetti eaten, scary bugs investigated, personal habits known. Phil was quite nearly swallowed alive by mosquitoes, although we didn't let on to the extent of his predicament - thanks to Kristin, we were able to aid with bug repellent wipes - what appeared to be hairy legs, were really mosquitoes - yikes! Adam had to run w/o water - from our team - b/c I misjudged how long it would take to get to him - and he ran *really* fast. Mike ran so fast his warm-up runs could have taken him all the way to Steamboat and back.

Van #2 had an equally fun time and group. We got to hang out amidst wild flowers and pine trees cheering Jason on as his approached Rabbit Ears pass.

Our van arrived in Steamboat first, where we appreciated showers (and a swimming pool) complements of Phil's condo connections, followed by a tasty breakfast. And finally waited to cheer the rest of our team on!

I think our team finished 42nd out of 128 teams, not bad. Best part was the bonding and hanging out during the weekend. The running hurt, as usual. Had a nice, relaxed drive home. Was kinda sad to be leaving the group! How a good time should be :)