snow day

Yesterday we got the notification from ASD (aspen school district) that school was canceled due to snow.  While at the time there wasn't that much on the ground I think they had enough snow days saved up to give the kids a day off.  And what do Aspen kids do with a snow day---sleep late and then play on their screens.  I couldn't rally anyone to go skiing.  Not my kids, not my kids friends.  No one.

My son is working his way through mastering the guitar for all of Boston's first album.  My daughter read and went to hockey (son had a Big Air class).  But no one went skiing.

Well except for me.  After doing a bit of work in the AM I hit the slopes around noon.  With a decent amount of fresh snow I went right to the top to ski various aspects of hanging valley.  While it was cold up top and I took a couple of crappy lines through baby ruth to start, the snow was great so I kept lapping.  On my second to last run the high alpine lift stopped 50 feet from the top.  As anyone who has been there knows that is a cold spot.  How cold?  Well the thermometer on the lift house showed a bit under 10 degrees and I would guess gusts of wind up to 30 mph (that is about -40F with the wind chill).  After about 5 minutes of freezing my butt off the lift started up again.  I had a GREAT run through the glades and went to go do it again.

Big mistake.  The next ride up high alpine the lift stopped.  For 30 minutes.  How do I know how long I was swinging in the wind--luckily I was much lower down this time and was able to listen to music playing from the speakers at Gwen's.  After 9 songs they re-started the lift which I am guessing was 30 minutes but there was no way I was taking my gloves off to check my watch.  At 1/4 speed.  Still being lower down was much more sheltered.  The guys near the top must have been dying.  And when I got off the lift I was greeted by ski patrol handing out coupons for $10.  I shoved the coupon in my glove to see if it warmed up my fingers--it didn't.  A quick run through the glades and down the hill and I was home walking the dogs and shaking like I had St. Vitus Dance.

As I sat in the hot tub post dog walk I started to think maybe the local kids knew what they were doing.