6:30 - alarm goes off....fuck, is it really that early? Yes, it is - after fours hours of sleep, it's time to get up, and head out for what could be a great powder day.

However, when i went to bed, things werent looking so great - the rain that was supposed to have started around 2pm had taken hours, and there wasnt that much snow in boulder, contrary to the 5-8 inches predicted....But it was snowing outside at 7, so fuck the report.

I headed outside to meet my companions for the day - SkierJulie and her friend Jen. We got into the "dyke-mobile" (a very nice subaru Forester) and headed up towards the I-70 corridor.  Minutes into the journey, Julie had the bright idea to call road conditions and snow report - it was still snowing. We watched as her facial expression slowly turned to sadness - Loveland pass was closed, and so was I-70 at Georgetown (for you out of staters, that is a really bad thing).  We resolved to keep driving, hoping by the time we got there everything would have opened....and if not, we'd find a way to have a good time in the freshly fallen snow.

As we made our way up to and on I-70, we began to notice something rather strange on a powder day - the roads were empty.

As we gained altitude, we were more and more grateful to have a subaru. We passed car after car after truck that were pulled over on the side of the road, no longer having any traction....but we did =)

As we neared Georgetown, we came across a cop blocking the freeway, forcing us to get off. As we passed him, we asked if it was closed, he responded with a sly grin - "Yep, everything is closed, no skiing for you today!"....no wonder people think cops are dicks...

So we got off at Clear County...or something along those lines, and followed a car that was taking a road parallel to I-70. When we got to the next onramp, there was really nothing to stop us from getting back on....so, we did.  We drove until we got to downeyville, and decided to take a rest stop.

check dem rimz!

check out the k2 line up on the rack...

Whislt the ladies went and used the bathroom after some posing next to the car, i ventured with my seth's into a store to do some binding fixing. This would be the downfall of my day...well, part of it: I just got new boots, and the shell size was smaller than my last pair, so i had to adjust the bindings...and salomon bindings are pieces of poop.

Anyway, after the brief stop, we proceeded on to Berthoud Pass - the only place we could access =(... this turned out to be fun, but a mistake at the same time.... As we drove up, we realized there were really cool spots off the switchbacks where we could ride down, be picked up, and drive back up and do it again... Julie and I got to do the first lap. The first switchback went down fine, except for the whole not riding powder for a while...

can you tell were stoked?

me in the "marshmellow" coat...

i...cant...move...wtf?

But that buttery feeling in my legs quickly vanished as i gained confidence, and on our second lap, i decided to try to get some air. Jen was a bit sketchy in her instructions, which was no fault of hers...we shoulda scoped it out before...but anyway, since i wasnt sure about the landing, i let Julie go first. As she skied under the little knoll i planned to go into orbit off of (sarcasm...) all the fuckin snow on the landing slid out, leaving a VERY slight cover on top of the ground and what i would find out were pointy rocks. So, after Jen and Julie attempting to explain to me that the landing was "hella" sketch, i dropped...aired, looked down and saw rocks...as soon as i touched ground i leaned way back, hoping to ride out the rocks...but of course my toe-piece released (thanks salomon), sending me careening sideways into one rather sharp rock. I came to a rest buried under my slough, and couldnt really move...

my landing is where it looks like a slab cut loose...yeah.

pre-death...

So, after finding my lost ski, and digging myself out, with no help from Jen or Julie (meanies.) we realized maybe Berthoud Pass wasnt such a good idea after all due to lack of coverage, and isntead made our way to Arapahoe Basin. By the time we got there, we still though Loveland Pass was closed, so we settled for A-Basin, hoping that we would maybe see a truck or car going up or coming down from the Pass....after 5 runs of messing around, Julie spotted a car, which sent us on a bee-line back to the car, and up the pass. When we got there, it was apparent it had been open for a while, and that the road signs just hadnt been updated...great. We got out of the car, and went for a lap....by the time we got to the top, my four hours of sleep caught up with me, and i had to call it a day. So instead i had a fucking great time (no sarcasm, seriously - forester+snow=fun) driving Jen and Julie back up the pass after their runs, at the same time getting some great driving-in-snow experience. This continued for a while, till it was about 5, and i had the idea to try to do a sunset shoot. We were down at loveland ski area, so we basically had to book it back up the pass to get the right lighting...sadly, we missed the shot, but i still got some cool stuff of Jen and Julie on Julie's camera, which means i cant really share that part =(

After the sunset, we drove back to boulder for a rail sesh - more on this later.

thats all for now, i need to go do some work and smoke some weed.

peace out newschoolers, hope your season starts out as well as mine.