This past Saturday was a long day.  Not only did I head up to Vail for a day of snowboarding with the same guys as the past couple of times, we stuck around to see O.A.R. play as part of the Vail Snow Daze event.  Knowing that it was going to be a long day, I decided to drive up later in the morning than the usual 6:30 or 7 departure.  I was hoping to avoid traffic by leaving at 9:30, but that didn’t go as planned.  There was a little snow on the roads at higher elevations, but there were also a ton of cars on the road.  The drive would normally take an hour and a half in perfect conditions, but it took three hours on Saturday.

Since we didn’t arrive out on the slopes until after 1pm, I tried to speed through as many runs as I could.  I made it out to Blue Sky Basin just before closing time, but on my first good run out there a strap on one of my bindings broke.  Since I was as far away from the car as possible, I decided to just do as best I could for the rest of the day.  Despite my heel lifting up on my back foot during hard turns, I was able to enjoy some of the great snow that had fallen overnight.  Vail reported nine inches that morning, so there was definitely some powder to be found.  I just wish I could have found more of it.

As far as the concert goes, it was a rather cold event.  Normally I would have expected the show to start shortly after the lifts start running, say 5pm or so.  The Snow Daze event starts much later, and O.A.R. didn’t hit the stage until after 7:30.  The crowd was pretty large once they finally got started and I think that helped keep everyone fairly warm.  I decided to keep most of my snowboarding gear on, so I was plenty warm.  I actually watched the first half of the show from fairly deep inside the general admission standing crowd.  Definitely much further into the crowd that anytime recently.  For the first time in a long while I actually had to deal with crowd surfers.  I thought that was a thing of the past, but unfortunately it doesn’t seem so.

O.A.R. at Vail Snow Daze

The setlist was a mix of old and new popular songs for the most part, which easily appeased the vast crowd.  I was hoping to hear some of the new tracks that the band has been working on for their next album, but I should have guessed that this would not be the place for any debuts.  I was really happy to hear “Revisited” which I haven’t heard in a long time.  Also “Anyway” was another highlight of the show for me.  I taped the show but haven’t listed to it at all.  It should be a fairly good recording based on the sound mix I heard while at the show.  Once the show was over and it was nearing 10pm, we made the drive back to Denver.  Though it was late, I was happy to be driving on clear roads with no traffic at all.