For once we actually got out to the mountains pre-December and it was awesome! I had been fiending to go riding since the end of last season, mostly because of the fact that I had only made it out 3 days last season (TERRIBLE!) and secondly due to all of the talk about throwing my bachelor
party in Whistler, BC. All that said and the fact that my fiance Allyson was going to have our daughter in December (possibly while we were at Killington), I needed to make sure something happened ASAP. Amazingly we got a 10 person posse together, a great deal on a condo, courtesy of my Uncle, and score on the lift tickets! The crew was Karm, Vito, my brothers Chris and Anthony, Mike
Macari, Sal Muff, Patty, Troy and his wifey, and myself.
We got in around 1AM Saturday morning after a 7 1/2 drive that was supposed to be 5 1/2 hours. Quickly we sparked a blunt, drank a few brews, shot some pool and hit the sack with intentions of getting out to the mountain for 9AM.
We got up at about 9:30, ate breakfast at the Grand Hotel and gobbled down a nasty, expensive buffet and finally made it to the lift for 11. Strapping up at the top of the mountain in 14 degree weather is a feeling that cannot be described but one that I hope everyone can experience at some point in their life, it is beautiful to say the least.
We made it through the day virtually unscathed. Afterwards we sparked a few blunts, drank a few brews, popped some percs, ate, checked in with Ally to make sure I didn't have to head back to
meet her in the delivery room, and watched
The Kingdom (I give it 6 out of 10).
After the catastrophe that was waking everyone up and getting to the mountain on Saturday I told everyone a little white lie (that we needed to check out of the condo by 9AM or we'd have to pay for an additional day)...and we still didn't get out until 9:30 again.
We hit
Peppers for breakfast and some fresh squeezed OJ and enjoyed our food there. We finally got to the lift around 11:30. The temperature was about 29 degrees warmer than Saturday giving me hope that everyone would want to stay the entire day. I was wrong; after one run some of the guys started to call it a wrap, so I knew this was going to be an early day and was ready to get in as many runs as possible. Unfortunately I took a brutal fall early and began getting anxious to hit the road myself. In the end we got in about 6 runs on Sunday and a total or 20 for the weekend; not too bad.
All-in-all the trip worked out well for everyone. The conditions were above average, we kept the expenses low , got some nice pics and no one got hurt...and Allyson didn't have the baby. Now almost two months and a baby girl later the itch is back again. Surprisingly only a few of the other guys went riding one other time since then so I think they'll have the urge to get out again soon too. Right now it's tentatively looking like early Feb so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for some good snowfall in the next 3 weeks.
Check out the rest of the pics on the
web gallery.
-Styles