Mountain Sound

So Allison and I just returned from a very much needed vacation.  We decided to forgo going home for Christmas to visit family and friends because it is always hard to decide how to divvy up our time and we usually feel that we just disappoint those we love because we are not able to spend more time with them.  Instead we used our hard-earned non-existent cash to go to Breckenridge, CO and these are the things I learned from our vacation (good ol’ list style). 

·      I really love skiing.  I know this is kind of a ‘no duh’ statement but I realized just how much I have missed it while out there and this just reinforced how badly I want to get back to Minnesota for residency so that I can go more often.  Also living in Arizona for the last 2 years may have been one of the worst ideas of my life (this was also just reinforced).

·      I am incredibly out of “skiing shape.”  You may be thinking, ‘well of course you are Justin, I’ve been watching you balloon to close to 200 lbs the past couple of years.’  Well to that I know and over the past couple of months I had been working really hard on it.  I actually was up to biking 75-100 miles a week and I wasn’t having any problems with endurance.  What I kept running in to was that within an hour of skiing my feet would start cramping horribly and I would have to take a break or ski a run with my boots undone.  This lead to me researching this problem and finding strengthening exercises for my feet.  Hopefully next year when I get to go skiing again I will not have this problem.

·      I need to go skiing with my old HS friends more.  I love my wife dearly and I love spending time with her more than anything but unfortunately at this time she is not at the skill level to try any run on the hill.

·      That being said I really think it would be awesome next year or the year after to get a group of friends together to go out west to go skiing.  We could either get a couple hotel rooms or better yet rent a bigger condo or house.  It would be an awesome time to go skiing (or snowboarding if you wanted to be that way) with my friends and to spend the nights drinking and going out on the time with them.

·      Breckenridge, CO is an amazing little ski town.  There is a ton of restaurants, bars and things to do.  They also have a really good bus network that is free and once you get to downtown most of the things are walkable. 

·      Breckenridge is really up there.  They actually have the highest chairlift in North America and for the first time in my life I actually felt the effects of the thin air. 

·      I need new skis.  My lil Atomics are amazing to turn on a dime with and can hold an edge like none other but they really sink when I get in to any snow that is more than an inch deep.   Also I am having issues with my bindings.  It seems that my forward release on my left ski is jacked.  I tried turning the DIN up to 12 on it and I was still releasing once I put a couple pounds of forward lean on them.  If you have any suggestions on how to repair them (without buying new bindings) I would love to know. 

·      I also need a new ski bag.  I really want to find one that has a hard cover or bottom.  I had a really hard time lugging mine around the airport with skis on one end and dirty clothes on the other. 

·      Lastly, I have a new 10 year goal.  In 10 years I will have either purchased, in the process of purchasing or building a ski home.  Right now I have 5 places that I would really consider.  Aspen, Vail, Breckenridge, Sun Valley and Park City.  If I had to pick right now I think I would go with Breckenridge but I know that I may just have rose-tinted goggles on right now since I just had an amazing time there.  I do know a few things though it will have to have at least 2 bedrooms (probably more like 4) so that we can have guests and it also must have a hot tub.  I used to think that I would need it to be a condo since I really want a pool as well but after not entering the pool last week I know that is not a must anymore.  I also figured out that it doesn't have to be ski in/ski out (making the condo even less needed) and that I would have no problem driving 2-3 miles to get to the hill.