What a fantastic ending to the season. Truly a locals blessing. Most of the tourist gone and tons of snow. This is what a foot of untouched powder looks like. Freshies all day long...locals only...one of the best days of the year. Highlands Bowl. I had a personal challenge going with the bowl. In the beginning of the season I tried hiking the bowl, it took me 45min and I didn't even make it to the top. So in the last weeks of the season I gave it another shot. This time I was able to make it to the top in 27min. This is the most extreme inbounds skiing in North America. Awesome steeps along with awesome views. Just some pics from inside the bowl.   One of the best experiences of my life. Challenge Aspen hosted the 17th annual Disabled Veterans Association Winter Sports Clinic. There were over 800 people in Aspen for a week of various outdoor events.
We had 160 adaptive instructors that came in from all over the country. Basically we took anyone who wanted to try and ski out on the slopes regardless of their ability limitations. We each had four clients over the week and did two half day lessons each. It was a grueling schedule that seemed to never end. Each day started at 7:30 with two half day lessons. At the end of each day was a mandatory instructors meeting followed by the consumption of an instructors keg. Then we all went out to dinner and mustered the strength to attend a party they had every single night. It appears as if no expense was spared. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner was free for all instructors and any restaurant in Snowmass Village. All out of town instructors had free on the mountain lodging. It really was incredible to be part of this event.  This was the most patriotic group of people I've ever been around. Many would just start crying at the sight of the flag. Have you ever heard of Jamie Kennedy? He has a comedy show on TV and just came out with a movie. This is his sister who was one of the program volunteers. Just some pics of the instructors room. Each day they put some inspirational quote on the walls. Every meeting started the an inspirational track from a preslected CD. All of us kept our equipment in this room and would change there in the morning and afternoon. Towards the end of the week the place smelled like feet. One of the instructors parties had an ice luge for shots of your favorite beverage. In came down to a state vs state competition. I ended up totally bonding with a group of instructors from Minnesota. They made me an honorary Minnesotan and needless to say we dominated the luge. Bo Dereck spent most of the week with us. Yes I did get to meet her. I couldn't believe how nice and personable she was (or maybe she just liked me). Just to give you an idea of the type of equipment we were using. We basically had a staging area built that looked like slips in a marina. Clients would pull up in wheel chairs and we would "dock" the equipment next to them. End of season moutain closing parties. Each of the mountains threw a huge closing day party. They staggered the closing dates so you could attend all of the parties. They also had an employee party the day after close. At the Snowmass employee party they set up a water pond that people would ski, or snowboard across. In was very entertaining. |
