berthoud pass

Yesterday FH and I went skiing at Berthoud Pass. We got a late start which ended up being good because there was no traffic and hardly any people out.

Skins on the bottom of my skis. I actually managed to get them on by myself, in a snow storm, without getting them stuck to everything.

 As we approached the first run (1.5 mile hike up, 1.5 mile ski down) a guy with an inflatable orange stick figure stopped us. He said he was working with a company called Team Spinhead and he thought we looked "colorful and fun". He asked if it was okay to take a picture of us to use on the company Christmas card. I said "is it okay if I'm jewish?" He looked a little nervous and said "well, we aren't going to put any religious stuff on the card". Then I was like "kidding!" but he might have been too busy falling into a snow hole to have heard me.

He had FH and I ski toward him and the inflatable stick figure. Then he had us ski away (I was told not to ski too close to FH because I was screwing up the spacing). At some point a husky ran up and joined us (we never did find out who the owner was but the dog followed us on our run up and down the mountain). The guy was like "fantastic! this is great! perfect!" Supposedly he's going to email us a copy of the picture.

FH took this pic at the top of the first run we did. This shows my ski with the binding loose in case you found my earlier explanation confusing.

I haven't gotten fat. It was really fucking cold out. The red arrow shows where the binding is loose (it gets fixed to the ski for down hill skiing). You can also see the skin on my ski. It peels off like a sticker for down hill skiing.

Then we crossed the road and did another 3 mile run. That run was harder and it was obvious that avalanche conditions were bad. There were air pockets in the snow around trees and when I fell into a hole taking my skis off I could see the layers of sublimated snow. But, the run was okay and we made it back to the truck without injury.

Taking my boots off in the snow storm. Best. Boots. Ever. They're Black Diamond and even an idiot like me can get them on and off with no problems.