Rating the ski slopes...

At this point of the ski season, I think its time to look back and give a midterm report on Colorado Skiing, including the overall slope rankings. In case you may have forgotten the Colorado Ski Pass that Sarah and I purchased gives us access to 5 mountains: Vail, Beaver Creek, Keystone, Arapahoe Basin, and Breckenridge.

5) Beaver Creak (Zero Times) - The trail map actually looks pretty cool and I'm sure we'll make there at some point, but the problem is that's 3o miles further than any of the other resorts. Its very tough to stay on I-70 for another 30 miles when you already been on the same road for 70 miles.

4) Vail (One Time) - It gets a lot of hype, but after our one visit I'm not sure exactly why. They don't give you free parking, you have to park on the side of the road rather far away. Then, instead of a direct bus (a la Breck) you stop at like 8 different condo areas before you actually get to the resort. Then, you have to walk through a bunch of shops and restaurants just to finally get to what you came for -- skiing. The snow is the same, I don't think Vail gets different snow from all the other resorts that are less than 10 miles away. The trail map is frankly the most confusing I've seen -- its a bit strange to me when a green trail turns into a black half way through. The other issue is that Sarah and I, while we've gotten a lot better, still aren't experts by any stretch. Everything seemed a little bit tougher at Vail-- the greens we went on looked pretty much the same as blues at other resorts. Despite all that bitchin, we're going to give Vail another shot, probably sometime this week.

3) Arapahoe Basin (Two Times) - Certainly the smallest of any of the resorts, and without all the bells and whistles (no fancy restaurants or amenities). However, its actually a pretty good fit for day-trip skiing. We usually don't ski more than 4.5 hours in a day, so how many different trails can you really do in that amount of time anyway. Plus its the only one where, especially if you get there early, you can park right next to the first lift -- no shuttles needed. Its skiing at its most basic, but sometimes that's all you need to have a good time.


Clear Day at A-Basin

2) Keystone (Three Times) - This was a tough choice between 2 and 3, but Keystone edged out A-basin. Its got a pretty simple layout, with most of the slopes on one, gigantic peak. I describe it as a spaghetti plate of trails that gives you endless combinations of slopes to ride down from top to bottom. Its also the closest of any of the slopes which of course makes it appealing to the weekend warrior (as they call skiers like Sarah and I). We have had some run ins with moguls there, but overall its been a lot of fun.

1) Breckenridge (Six Times) - For skiers at our level, I can't think of a better place. Relatively easy to get around for its size, great variety in slopes, big enough that even when its crowded it doesn't feel crowded, and of course it was our first experience with Colorado skiing. Our affinity for Breck is partly due to the fact that we know it much better than any of the other places (although there are still many slopes that I haven't yet hit). We know exactly where we're going and exactly what to expect on most of the slopes no matter what the conditions. Breck has good trails to warm up on, good trails to have fun skiing through trees, and pleny of challenging trails as well.


View of Breck from Keystone

Mind Games...

I have re-learned the effects of confidence and mental outlook in a number of different areas recently...

1) Skiing (its been a few entries since I've mentioned skiing) - As I believe I've gotten better this season from going skiing at least once a week since Thanksgiving, its amazing how much the mental mindset it starting to come into play. I've started going a lot faster and on more difficult terrain than I usually do, but for whatever reason I had a bad day skiing about two weeks ago. I haven't fallen too many times this season, but on that day I had my worst fall of yet. I was going fast and somehow my skis got crossed, and I immediately hit the ground hard. I wasn't injured, but it certainly shook my confidence a little bit. Later that day, that little chink in my confidence coupled with my legs starting to get tired, caused my whole skiing to go down the toilet. My balance was off, I couldn't turn, I fell some more, and in general it wasn't very fun. My next time out, it still carried over -- I was really cautious all day and I think I was letting my mind play tricks on me a little bit by overthinking what I was doing. It reminded me of this book I read in college that talks about trusting Self 2 (unconscience thoughts/actions) instead of Self 1 (conscience thoughts) in sports. The basic theory is that in most sports activities, if consciously thinking doesn't help that much if at all, your best comes out when you get to the point where you can just react. Fortunately by the time Sarah and I went this weekend my confidence has returned and I was trusting my instincts more -- which made for much more fun skiing.

2) Volleyball -- We started another volleyball season (in a different league) and we have had quite a contrast in our first two games. In the first game, to be blunt, we played a team that just plain sucked. Most times the opposing team could barely get the ball over the net, so the level of competition was considerably out of whack. After it was obvious that we should have no trouble finishing off this team, it was amazing how quickly I mentally checked-out. For our whole team, we really were (excuse the sports cliche) playing down to the competition. I was missing serves and spikes that I'd normally hit, and without the usual adrenilane rush I wasn't even hustling. We won all three games, but they actually started to come close in the last game because of our sloppiness. Our game last Thursday, was the complete opposite. We played great and the other team was really good. We won 2 out of 3 close games, and there were several intense rallies. The sloppiness from last week was gone in an instant, just based on how much better the other team was.

3) Football Prediction - Apparently my mental outlook for my prognostications last week was a little off. I was 1-2 (I'm still counting my Denver over Carolina Super Bowl pick, it would have been right had things gone differently), missing both games on Sunday. My theory on this is that Football games are much more random than anyone in sports would ever admit. Certainly there are some teams that are clearly better than others, but it most cases I'd say a win or loss is at least 20% luck. Case in point with turnovers, probably one of the biggest indicators of a team's success besides points scored. A week ago, the Broncos beat a good New England team, mainly because of 5 New England turnovers, 3 of which were fumbles that could have been recovered by either team depending upon which way they bounced. The luck went Denver's way and they collected all three fumbles. On the other hand, yesterday the Broncos couldn't get a break and lost two key fumbles. When you combine turnovers, with the randomness of refs (especially this playoff season), and many other factors...I didn't make poor football picks, I just got unlucky.

Football Fever...

I must admit, although I've always been a big football fan, I can't remember a football seaon that I've been more emotionally involved in than this year's playoffs and bowl season (and those who know me well know that I don't get emotional about many things, especially disney movies). Since we got back to the Rockies after Christmas, I actually watched most of over 10 games in the past few weeks:

First the Bowl Season
1) Virginia/Minnesota - Even though I can't remember the name of the bowl, it was still nice to see UVA win
2) Virginia Tech/Louisville - Missed the Vick cheap shot, which would have been the highlight for me :(
3) Notre Dame/Ohio State - Its just fun to watch Notre Dame lose, since they were given a BCS slot just because they are Notre Dame
3) Penn State/Florida State - How is it that Flordia State can never recruit a decent kicker? 3 missed FGs and an extra point!?!
4) Texas/USC - One of the greatest college football games I've ever seen. And it was really nice to see Texas pull it out in the end. It was certainly obvious that USC hadn't lost in years by the post-game comments: "We are the better team, they just made a few more plays than us" - Matt Leinert

And then I get hit with the NFL playoffs, which have had my two teams (Washington and Denver), and a surprising number of exciting games. Although the Redskins are my original team, I have to admit that they haven't provided much in terms of excitement (I mean that offense is painful to watch), and I've been really jumping on the Broncos bandwagon. Denver is certainly more of a sports town than DC, and with all the excitement around here I'm certainly coming down with some Broncos fever (luckily no rash yet)

Here's my playoff watch list:
5) Washington/Tampa Bay - An ugly game, but the 'skins do have a good defense
6) Pittsburg/Cincinnati - Sans Carson Palmer (out on the second play), Cinci had no chance
7) Washington/Seattle - I thought the Redskins may pull out another ugly one, but man that offense sucks
8) Denver/New England - What a game, the world champs get shut down by 5 turnovers
9) Pittsburg/Indy - So I only heard this one on the radio on the way back from the slopes (more on this later)
10) Carolina/Chicago - The Thomas Jones UVA connection had me rooting for Da'Bears, but alas there defense fell apart

To illustrate my emotional attachment this year, I'll recount two plays that were so incredibly bizarre and stupid, I was stupified.

#1 - Denver leading 10-6 over the Pats in the 3rd quarter, its 3rd and goal from about the 10. Brady is pressured, throws to the end zone, and CHAMP BAILEY INTERCEPTS THE BALL. He takes off, dodges a few tacklers, and races past everyone with a pack with blockers. But WAIT, after running 90 yards he pulls up to a slow jog and then BAM he is pumeled by a Pats player at the one yard line. There are two things that annoyed the f--- out of me on this play. Although Champ said he ran out of gas, he is an all-pro NFL cornerback. Are you telling me that he can't run a 100 yard dash without pulling up!?! The New England TIGHT END who weighs 60 pounds more than you ran the whole length of the field just fine! Secondly, what the f--- were the blockers doing, one of which was looking at the sideline (did he think a fan was going to jump out and tackle Champ)? This was not a pacing exercise, you're supposed to see the opposing team members and BLOCK THEM.

#2 - Pittsburg is leading Indy by 3 with just over 1 minute left (Denver would get another home playoff game if Pittsburg wins). The Steelers just sacked Manning on 4th down on their own 2 yard line. Indy still had all their time outs left, so I agree they had to run a play to try and get the touchdown. They hand the ball off to Jerome Bettis, and instead of perhaps holding two hands over the ball, OR even holding the ball close to your body, I'll just leave my right arm hanging out there in front of someone else's helment and BAM...fumble and Indy's running it back. Good think Big Ben R, made an incredible tackle, and the Indy kicker choked on the field goal. Sarah was having a relaxing nap on our way home from the ski slopes when suddenly she is rudely awakened to my screams of agony when I hear that Bettis fumbles.

OK, I've calmed down now...thanks for letting me get that off my chest ;)

I'm looking foward to the games this weekend and I've even got a few picks for my faithful readers:

AFC/NFC Championship Games:
Broncos 27 - Steelers 17
Carolina 30 - Seattle 21

Super Bowl :
Broncos 33 - Carolina - 31

We'll check back next week to see how I did...

Ullr Fest...

So, I had to pass along this article that I read in yesterday's Denver Post on Ullr Fest. In case you don't know, Ullr is the Norse god of snow (duh!). In the 60's, the town of Breckenridge decided it would be a good idea to get wasted on an annual basis and they needed a good reason; hence a fake festival. And while, I appreciate the uniqueness of this particular celebration, I was even more entertained by two of the best stories about people drunk off their ass that I've heard in years (Note: as I've gotten older and married, I don't hear these types of stories with as much regularity). Here's a gist of the two stories from the Denver Post article a few days ago on Ullr fest - with a few comments from yours truly.

#1) In 1985, a guy [you just don't hear too many great druken female stories] caught his trousers on fire and then dove into the nearby Blue River to extinguish the flames. Which would have been a great idea in June... but it was January, the Blue River was frozen solid and the man ended up with still smoldering pants and a big lump on his head from hitting the ice [only when you're drunk can you almost get the right idea, but miss that one minor detail]. Friends rolled him in snow to put out the trouser fire, and the party went on [who lets a simple trouser fire stop a decades old celebration to drinking?]

#2) A year earlier, another guy with a head full of beer passed out in the parking lot near the bonfire. When his brain's neurons began firing again after midnight, the temperature had plunged to 15 degrees below zero, and he realized his face was frozen to the parking lot [Note: Always go for the bathroom floor when passing out]. After being alerted to the screams, the Fire Department arrived and freed the man's head with a combination of warm water and a chisel [is this something covered in the standard training for Breckenridge's fire department? I'd like to think so, because that would be cool.]

Sarah and I might make it up for some of the festivies this weekend (unfortunately, the bon fire is during the week), and of course I'll keep my eye out for anybody frozen to inanimate objects.