More snow

Ringo flew into town Sunday night with the hopes of getting in a Monday morning bike ride, but it was raining pretty good when he landed. Then we woke in the morning to find this...and it is almost May. What the heck.

So, on the theme of snow, I thought I would post up some pics from a few weeks ago, probably the last powder day of the season for me. There are only 3 places still open. This was A-Basin on April 17. They had so much snow up there, they closed the interstate down just after we left and didn't open it til noon the next day. There was about 3' of snow in the foothills. Pam carried the camera most of the day, so there aren't any pics of her. Jay and Nick were there too, but we split up at the parking lot and we never saw each other til the parking lot at the end of the day.

Trip to Colorado Springs

After selling my old Blur LT last month, I finally got a new one. I test rode about 6 bikes and finally came back to what I knew I would probably end up with after all, the new version of the Blur LT. The bike feels super comfortable for my type of riding and super tight, especially after my old worn out bike. The bike feels perfect to me, so I don't even notice the frame much, but what I do notice the most is the wheels. I finally have a nice wheel set, Mavic 819 laced to Hadley hubs. They are so light, I can just roll forever. Pam kept pedalling along and I could just pump the bike and coast with ease. It was a sweet discovery. I finally realized how Devin was able to just coast when I had to pedal so much on our old rides. He had a pretty good secret that he wasn't even trying to keep secret, I was just to cheap to invest in it then. The next thing that I loved about the bike...was the adjustable height seat post. It was super sweet, totally worth the extra weight.

Me and Pam headed down to Colorado Springs to say with Deb and Pat. We were able to get a 2 hour ride on Friday and Saturday, and an hour in on Sunday. It was a great weekend.
Pam at Palmer Park.


Testing out my wheel build on a small drop.

Finding the flow of the trail side features.

Saturday we woke up to a misty 37 degree morning. After stalling around as much as possible, we headed up to Waldo Canyon. It was a bit warmer by then and not misting anymore, but it was pretty foggy.

Riding in the clouds.

I had to borrow a sweet hat from Deb to keep my head warm. I was expecting warm and sunny all weekend. I definitely found something otherwise.

Pam dressed for warmth.

Lost in the clouds.

The fire danger in Colorado is either High or Extreme, even in the rain they still seem to rank it as High.

Sunday we snuck in an hour at Mt. Hermon before the rain started falling.

Brownie Points.

I have been putting some time in over at Pam's house. I finally finsished painting her room and got the carpet installed. Then I rototilled her garden to boot. Note to self, next time get a bigger rototiller.
Before.
After.

Madness.

Check out this video. Crazy.

Too much fun

I guess it has been a while since I have posted here. Most of you have probably given up even checking in. Well, here is a brief update on what I have been doing over the last month.

I spent a few days working. We had to cut these 400 pound stones into smaller pieces that we could use as window sills on the outside of the house. It was kind of a pain in the butt. Here is Jerry doing the cutting.

Here are two windows done and two more to the left yet to be done.

The front side done, we had a few more to do on the house after these, then grout them in place.

I did some cooking for Pam. Here are some sweet steaks off the grill.

Then, of course I did lots of skiing. Here is Pam in her new ski jacket at Beaver Creek.

Here is me in my new ski jacket. I wasn't able to have so glorious of a picture taken of me.

Pam in the trees at Vail.

Pam trying to ski over rocks at A-basin. She came completely out of her ski on this one.
Sweet powder day.


Gaper Day at A-Basin. April !st. I was wearing my jacket from high school.
More gapers in costume.

Then family came to visit. Lane celebrating his 7th birthday.
He got a compound bow. Pretty sweet gift.
And a sling-shot. I wish I was so lucky when I was 7.



Claire had to have 4 baby teeth pulled to make room for her big ones.

I also spent a week in Michigan with the family. Here is my youngest sister, Christina.
I got another birthday cake. I had 4 cakes in all for this past birthday. This is my mom and dad.
Pam got to play some Wii. She is working on her ski jumping on the Wii Fit.


And now, I am helping Pam fix up her room. We ripped out her carpet and here is new pad going in. Last night we were painting the ceiling.

Now, I am headed out for a bike ride when Pam gets off of work, then more painting. Whew!

Traveling...again.

I know it has been a while since I have last updated this blog. I have been running around, Wyoming, Rocky Mts, and Denver. Then I had a few days of work, concrete work, but still not a job yet. Now I just finished packing my bags for a week in Michigan with the family. I will have a bit to catch up on when I get back.

B-day ski weekend in Telluride

For my birthday, Pam, Wayne, and myself headed down to Ridgway, CO to stay with Jasmin and Levi and use there place as basecamp for a weekend of skiing at Telluride. Just for the record, that place has the most awesome views of any ski resort I have been to, it is surrounded by huge mountains on all sides.
Pam.

Me and Pam doing a token pose for Wayne.



Me making some tele turns, probably getting ready to crash soon.


View from Jaws, over looking Telluride.

Pam, after she lost her way on Crystal. This slope is about 45 degrees with some tuff snow to get a footing on in places.




Pam stuck in a tree on Crystal from matt wiz on Vimeo.

Me, on the same slope as Pam, hanging upside down with my foot caught in a tree. I couldn't get out, Pam had to hike up and release my boot from the binding to set me free. I didn't think I was going to stop sliding. I tried to grab a tree as I passed but missed. I came to terms with sliding all the way to the bottom and bouncing off all the moguls on the way, but then I got lucky...well, I think this was luck.
We didn't know it at the time, but at the top of this run, Wayne dropped his phone out of a hole in his pocket, and on the next run down to look for it, we found it all the way at the bottom where it flattens out. He thought he saw something dark moving through the snow when he was up there, lucky for him we figured it out pretty quickly after that.
On top there were parasailers...

And hang gliders.

Pam, Wayne, Levi, and Jaz.

Wayne, on the first run of our second day, tearing down La Rosa, another 45 degree slope next to Crystal. You can hear his snow chunks hitting my poles.


Wayne on La Rosa from matt wiz on Vimeo.

After Wayne found his phone at the bottom, I caught Pam coming down.

Pam on Crystal from matt wiz on Vimeo.

Pam tearing up the wide open spaces.

Pam in revelation bowl from matt wiz on Vimeo.

Pam and Waying making thier way back down to the bottom at the end of the day. A few days prior to us coming there, it actually rained at the lower elevations there, and this run was nothing but ice, you can hear them sliding all the way down.

Pam and Wayne on ice skiing into Coonskin from matt wiz on Vimeo.