As the Colorado Rockies have been seeing some early snow, Joel and I sat down and nutted out a trip to Denver to make use of the resorts on offer with the epic pass. Originally we had planned to drive, but the 16 hour drive there and back had us leaning towards flying, and fly we did.

We arrived in Denver last Sunday after riding opening day at Heavenly. Tahoe hasn’t had a great deal of snow so only one run was open at Heavenly but to finally ride down that mountain looking over Lake Tahoe was really something else. There’s a lot of satisfaction involved in getting somewhere and doing something you’ve always wanted to do. That aside, we were psyched to be on the road and in the air and to get to Denver and ride some open terrain.

Joel lining up at the Rocky Mountain Express.

Denver copped a few inches of snow the night before we got here and snowed steadily the first day we rode. It set us up for a super fun week, of which we’ve got a couple more days to get a few more good rides in before we head back to Tahoe, hopefully to more snow.

By chance on the way out for a few beers we ran into an Australian couple in a store we were checking out. The accents really catch your ear when you’re around nothing but Americans and they gave us a few tips as to where to head for a cheap drink. We ended up catching them between rides the following day and we’ve spent a chill couple of days hanging out with them. Today, Dom and his girlfriend Adele came along to Keystone with us and it’s been nothing but good times with these two people.

Yours Truly, Top of the World at Breck.

The snow they got here on those first couple of days set us up for a perfect week of nothing but clear blue skies and fast, fast riding. The T-Bar had opened and we got plenty of untracked lines through the glades close enough to the peak here at Breck, but not without a hiccup. As it was all fairly new snow, the third day of use I had on a brand new board resulted in a base puncture and a trip to the tune shop to get some P-Tex and a base grind to get her back to good as new. The fifty bucks was well worth the fresh turns we got on those few runs.

Keystone today was super fun. Some of the longest runs I’ve ever ridden, Whistler aside. They really make the longer trips up the chairs and gondolas worthwhile. We were misled as far as how long the free bus trip to Keystone would take, in the end it was about an hour and a half. Under estimated by approximately an hour and ten minutes. Brilliant. The trip wasn’t without it’s characters though. We stopped at a hospital and met a skier who had just left after receiving a total of 84 stitches taking a tomahawk tumble down a cliff. An old guy, presumably drunk, handed him quite a decent amount of marijuana saying “My friend, you look like you’re in pain”. It’s very legal in Denver, but you can’t drink a beer anywhere but a bar. Go figure. It was a funny trip none the less.

We’re looking forward to a chill last couple of days here in Breckenridge before heading back home. A buddy Adam will be at our place by the time we’re home and is staying for about a week then it’s not too long til my little brother heads down to spend Christmas with us.

The next few months are shaping up to be super fun. Will be sure to keep updates coming.

Cheers amigos!

G

On Saturday November 16th, there were not one, but two events that were just too good to pass up. The Love Games and Back to the Grind Rail Jam. After a late Friday night, I woke early on Saturday morning to pickup a good friend and photographer Ryan Bregante who just drove to town from Utah. We arrived at Loveland Pass around 9am and watched and waited as more and more people came out to share the love of snowboarding on some incredible natural features that separate teams had come up and built days prior to the event.

The event kicked off around 10am and the energy level was high. People wasted no time dropping their heaviest tricks on a variety of features including log jibs, pole jams, a man made jump, and even a staircase with a wooden railing to jump on. Things were hectic. People were dropping from all over, spraying snow, drinking beer, and having an all around great time. This is the type of event that snowboarding was made for. I was pleased to have put down a few solid tricks on each feature and be the first girl to hit the wooden staircase feature. It was pretty intense to say the least, but having grown up in Montana (where there were no terrain parks) I felt right at home on these natural features. After two 45 minute jam sessions, I was happy with my performance and really grateful to be named the top woman at the event.

Photo credit: Ryan Bregante

After a quick award ceremony in the parking lot, it was back in the car and over to Keystone for their annual Back to the Grind Rail Jam event. Since moving to Colorado Keystone has felt like my home and I am always happy to attend events there. We showed up around 3pm, just in time to get a coffee and put my boots back on to qualify for finals. I put down a few tricks and made the final cut, and was pretty impressed with my performance considering my lack of sleep the night before and hiking at the Love Games all day. I had a couple hours between qualifiers and finals, so I did everything I could to stay warm and awake. The snow started to fall very heavily by the time finals came around but it was time to put the game face back on and finish this day on a strong note. I stomped a few different tricks and was pretty pleased, but decided to go for a crowd pleasing gap to the down rail on the Y rail feature.  In the end I walked away with first. I am very happy and grateful to have started my season on such a positive note and I think I had the most fun of anyone that whole day Big thanks to everyone who put all that hard work in to the Love Games and Keystone/Keystone A51 for their spectacular rail setup as always.

Here are some photos from the events & some shots taken over the last few days :

Photo Credit: Cassie Connor

Photo Credit: Ryan Bregante

Photo Credit: Ryan Bregante

Photo Credit: Ryan Bregante

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