As I mentioned at the end of last week, Kim and I headed up to Vail this past Sunday, which was their last day of this season. We attended a pub crawl on Saturday, and therefore were really slow to get moving Sunday morning. We finally made it up to Vail around 1 or 1:30, we checked into our hotel (highly recommended), and hit the slopes. Immediately I noticed how slushy the conditions were. On the first lift I saw a big crowd gathered at another base nearby. It was at that point that I realized that the pond skimming competition that was originally scheduled for Saturday was taking place Sunday. I later found out that it had to be postponed due to road closures from the previous days’ storms. So we headed over that way on our first run to check out the action.

Pond skimming is a competition where the entrants ski or snowboard down the hill, hit a rather large jump at the bottom, and then attempt to skim over a pond. The goal is to skim all the way across to the other side, but that is something that is rarely done. We must have sat and watched wipe-out after wipe-out for an hour or more. Before we knew it, we were ready to get something to eat, and decided to do so before closing time on the slopes, which would allow us to get in somewhere without a wait. So, we pretty much only did one run for the day.

On the way back to the hotel to drop off our gear, I heard the sounds of O.A.R. coming from around the corner. We walked around and found that the band was getting ready to run through a quick sound check. After playing about half of their song “Shattered,” the band members came down into the crowd to say hello to Kim and I. They were playing a show later in the night, which was the biggest reason we decided to stay in Vail for the night. But more on that later, in another entry.

So, the season officially wrapped up for most of the resorts in Colorado. Arapahoe Basin is still open, and we stopped there on our way back to Denver Monday. As their location is higher up than most, their conditions were much better than we experienced the day prior. We managed to get in close to ten runs in a short amount of time, and before too long were back on our way home. I’m sure we’ll head up to A-Basin a couple of more times before they close in another month or two.

By my count, we only did 15 days (16 for Kim) this year. I guess the low snowfall did hurt us this year, after looking at last year’s stats. Anyway, here is how our days broke out this year:

• Breckenridge – 7 days
• Keystone – 4 days (1 was on the same day we did Arapahoe Basin)
• Vail – 3 days (I missed 1 of these days)
• Arapahoe Basin – 2 days
• Beaver Creek – only 1 day :(

I’m hoping we can get to twenty days next season. A guy, I’m assuming retired, was awarded a free pass for next season after he hit the slopes of Vail every day of this season. Something like 137 days! Can you say, jealous?