Drove down the hill Friday afternoon after an extremely productive day domestically. Why I did a bunch of shit around the house hours before two women showed up is beyond me. I clearly must be under some spell.

Both flights were delayed and Sarah arrived first. There was enough of a gap for us to have a beer while we waited for Cory. Neither checked bags, hooray I love these girls. We hit the road, both were hungry, and Cory was craving pizza from Johnny’s, 90 minutes of driving and a mile walk away. We had a good ol night and it’s nice having loved ones around.

Saturday was taken slow at first until we decided that we were going to bus down to Breckenridge for the closing day of the Ullr Fest and the Chilly Chili Cookoff. Guitar Hero ran overtime so we missed the bus we intended to catch.

Oh noes, we have to have a beer at Johnny’s. We catch the next free bus half an hour later, hear from Missy that they’re at Jake’s watching the game, and we never make it to the Chili fest.

After the game we seek food, hoping for Italian but settling for Mexican due to the insane holiday crowds. Post dinner I’m wiped and not looking forward to a crazy night. Turns out my guests are wiped too and just want a movie night. Fantastic. I love these girls. Missed out on a good party in Breck but any party you’re not in the mood for is a bad party.

Woke up Sunday morning to blue skies and decided to go skiing. Sarah hadn’t been up since Dad took her something like 14 years ago. We got her some skis rented and headed toward Loveland Pass, unsure if we were going to ski Keystone or A-Basin.

Keystone looked slightly more crowded than last weekend so I opted for A-Basin which was a mistake because it somehow was the most crowded I’ve ever seen it. Plus it was in the clouds, windy, and icy because much of the mountain is above treeline and vulnerable to wind.

I did one run with Sarah, she did fine and was complaining about her feet hurting, I can’t help you there and can’t deal with complaining so you’re on your own kid. I talk Cory into heading up since there’s no lines there and I can’t deal with these lines, she accepts, we do one run and can’t see anything. I’m done shortly after 1pm, find Sarah at the bar cause she’s done too, and we head home early.

Bill invites us up to their place in Beaver Creek and we accept. This house, owned by one of his buddies’ parents, was absolutely absurd (on the awesome side). They were all watching the game downstairs, which took us two minutes to find, cause they were in a TV cave down two flights of stairs and a hundred steps from the front door.

The wall was one huge screen with two regular screens each on the left and right. They were just using the regular one. The drink of choice was a 1999 Pinot Noir from somewhere that was delicious and apparently very much in stock. Their wine collection was insane, over 3k bottles methinks.

I played the UBOC event #3, a $300+20 ultra-turbo, exactly the speed I need to be playing on a day like today. I one tabled the thing, beat KK with KT, and ran that all the way to 17th place for $1300 or so. Joined everybody else in the hot tub overlooking a golf course and Beaver Creek. We all went out do dinner and then the girls and I left for Frisco.

They flew out of DEN at 3pm so I figured leaving by 11:30 would be plenty of time. 90 minutes to the airport from Frisco but it’s snowing. They’re not checking bags. Should be fine. It takes us 90 minutes to go 14 miles to the Eisenhower Tunnel.

Since it was a holiday weekend Monday is like Sunday when Denver heads home to drive desks for the week. Except it was a gnarly one cause it was a holiday weekend. It was insane I go so nuts in lines where there shouldn’t be lines. We made it 30 minutes before Cory’s flight and she caught it no problem.

The drive home was fine, traffic at the Tunnel was literally stopped going to Denver and I heard reports of it taking some people 3-4 hours to get to the Tunnel from Frisco. Ugh nasty. I made it home in time to play UBOC’s online and shouldn’t have cause I got my ass handed to me in nasty fashion. It was one of those days full of bubbles and bad beats without a single cash to show for it.

It continued to snow all night and I woke up Tuesday morning to twelve inches on my driveway (and truck). Vail was reporting 16 and Breck 26, Bill was at Vail and Breck was windy so I decided to drive to Vail. After cresting the pass the clouds broke over Eagle county and I hit the chair shortly after 9, running about ten minutes behind Bill and company.

They never slowed down long enough to let me catch up or gave me a spot to meet, my phone was dying, so I picked a lunch spot in the village because I wanted to get my skis waxed and fix my goggle fogging problem. Took care of all that, took off a layer, they brought lunch so kept charging, and i was back at it around noon thirty.

Blue Sky Basin is one of the back bowls at Vail and absolutely amazing. It was closed Monday due to wind that blew apart one of the comm lines which then tangled up with the lift. Or something like that. It hadn’t been open since Sunday and was sitting there with 19 inches of fresh powder.

Everybody expected it to open at 10am and it didn’t, creating some messy lines on the backside. While I was making my way to the top I got a hold of Bill who would wait for me there and then they opened Blue Sky. Awesome. I met them and they informed me that they were too tired. They’re done. 19 inches of untouched pow at 1pm and you’re passing? Bums. Nice riding with you. I made my way back there, jumped in the singles line and was looking at Mt. Holy Cross in no time.

I got four runs in before they closed the life at the normal closing time (2:30), and the middle two were the best that I’ve had all season, possibly lifetime. First tracks through 19 inches in a perfectly spread, perfectly pitched aspen/pine glade with the occasional cliff to jump off. It was incredible, well worth the trip just for those two runs.

I had some pasta at the Frisco Depot that was just what it should be on the way home, took a bath letting sore muscles soak in hot water, and was ready to go online by 5pm. Made some decent runs, best finish being 8th in the 40k that was whatever.

Got sucked out on when it mattered but hit two three outers on the way to stay alive. Also made my 2nd UBOC cash in the 100k, grinding my way to a min cash that I feel fine about. I booked a small win as did my horse, so overall a pretty dang good day.

Peace and good luck,

Devo