Finally!   I had my first real powder day of this snowboarding season.   Actually, I had two.   Kim and I spent the weekend at Copper Mountain with her sister and her boyfriend.   I had never been to Copper before, though I’ve wanted to for a while, so we finally found a good excuse to go.   We picked up our visitors on Friday after work and headed straight up into the mountains.   We reserved a last-minute condo immediately next to a couple of lifts at the center village of Copper.   After a rather long and snowy drive, we finally arrived at the condo and rested up for the next morning.

Saturday morning, we had an early start on the slopes.   Though the first couple of runs were mostly groomed with a little powder on top, we quickly found some other runs with tons of powder.   Over the past week they had received nearly two feet of snow, so the conditions were the best we’ve seen all season.   After taking a run down a steep and mogul filled slope, we didn’t quite make it a full day.   We had a couple of après-ski ski drinks before dinner and Olympics viewing at Endo’s.   I must admit that Copper isn’t the most happening town I’ve ever stayed in, but there was enough to keep us busy for a couple of days.

Kim and I got another early start on Sunday, while our visitors went out for breakfast and enjoyed their vacation.   With the snow continuing to fall, we headed immediately for some of the bowls hoping for lots of powder.   And we were rewarded handsomely!   This was definitely the best day we have had all season.   We spent most of our time around the Union Peak area.   After a draining ten runs, we headed back toward the front-side of the mountains to meet up with the others.   We somehow managed to stay out all the way until the lifts closed at four.   What a weekend!

Copper Mountain on Dwellable

My hockey team faced-off with the third place team in the league on Wednesday night.   We had previously lost to this team 2-6 in the fifth week of the season.   Fortunately things have started to turn around for my team recently.   We were able to hang in this game, and we actually had more shots on goal than our opponents.   Unfortunately, with the score tied at two late in the game, one of the referees called in a goal.   Not only did the puck not cross the line, our goalie made an amazing save, he wasn’t even in position to make the call.   Instead of letting the game go to overtime, we were handed a 2-3 loss.   I assisted on one of our goals, though I wasn’t given credit.   My team can still make it to .500 as long as we win the last five games of the season.   Time to lower our goals.

My Olympic addiction is back in full effect.   It’s been four years since I last filled up the DVR will so much sports recordings.   I’ve never really watched that much of the summer games, but I love the winter games.   I guess my years of playing hockey and my recent snowboard addiction help to fuel this.   So far I watched most of the opening ceremonies on our flight to KC on Friday.   We were tuned into speed skating, ski jumping, luge, and freestyle skiing during our KC pub crawl on Saturday.   Sunday was spent glued to the TV watching biathlon, nordic combined, and women’s hockey, along with more luge and freestyle skiing.

I stayed up to date on the events yesterday on nbcolympics.com and watched snowboard cross, men’s downhill, and figure skating pairs last night after work.   Today I’m working remote which allowed me to watch the USA curling match over lunch.   I also have the USA men’s hockey game on in the other room so I can listen to it for the rest of the day.   So far I have really enjoyed watching these games, and have been surprised by the curling action along with the freestyle skiing.   Not to mention the snowboard cross, which is something I’d love to try.   I can’t wait for more of the snowboard action to start up either.

It seems that my hockey team either loses a close game, or we complete dominate our opponents for the win, which doesn’t happen often enough.   Fortunately last night was one of those rare occurrences.   With a few key players at the Avalanche game, we were able to grab a couple of extra skaters who really helped us out.   Our opponents are one of the teams with the highest goals for all season, but our excellent defense and outstanding play from our goalie held them to only one goal.   We ended up with eight goals, one of which I had an assist on.   We still remain in last place, but don’t face any of the top teams for the rest of the season.   Hopefully we can get a few more big wins to pull out of last place as we look toward the playoffs in just over a month and a half.

On Saturday night, we did another thing that we’ve wanted to do, attend a roller derby bout.   The bout took place at the Fillmore Auditorium, which is normally a large concert hall.   Though a majority of the floor was occupied by the track, somehow the event sold-out.   Normally, the capacity of the Fillmore is 3,700 people, and though I’m sure there weren’t nearly that many attendees, it was still a pretty big crowd.   Much larger than I was anticipating.

The match-up for the night featured two Denver based teams, both part of the Rocky Mountain Rollergirls, The Sugar Kill Gang and The Dooms Daisies.   It all started around 7pm with Elvis singing the national anthem.   They provided a couple of rules over the loudspeakers, and also a very short general description inside of the program.   We had to figure out most of it as the bout proceeded.   One thing that was quickly apparent was that The Sugar Kill Gang was the far superior team.   After a close start between the two teams, they managed to build a double-digit lead rather quickly.

Overall, I was pretty entertained by the event, though I don’t think it was quite worth the $20 ticket price.   I would consider going again for a lower amount, but I’d much rather watch a concert for that price.   I can buy tickets for a professional lacrosse team for much less than the price for this amateur event.   though I have to admit that they must be doing something right if they can bring in a sellout crowd at the Fillmore.

After Monday night’s game, my hockey team is back to our losing ways.   We have now lost three in a row, and are back in last place.   Had we actually won the game on Monday, we would have sent our opponents into last place instead of them sending us to last.   We did have a substitute goalie, who let in a few soft goals, but we still lost 9-3.   Hopefully we can turn things around next week when we face off against another one of the weaker teams in the league.   We only have seven games left before the playoffs, so something needs to happen.   I just found out that the championship game will be played at the Pepsi Center.   That would be awesome!

I attended a Colorado Mammoth game on Saturday night with a group of eight others.   Many in the group had never been to a lacrosse game before, let alone an indoor game.   For those of you who are unfamiliar, indoor lacrosse combines the physical play of hockey with the high scoring, fast pace and play-making style of basketball.   Everyone was quickly impressed with the sport and thoroughly enjoyed the game, despite the Mammoth loss.   One of our friends researched various aspects of the game and later told us that the average salary for the players is only $14,500 per season.   Obviously, the athletes are playing for the love of the game, and it really shows.   And with tickets starting at $5, you really can’t go wrong.

We spent the weekend in Breckenridge, once again.   Our friend Tracey flew into town Friday evening, and after picking her up from the airport we headed straight to Breckenridge.   Along the way we stopped for dinner at Tommyknocker Brewery in Idaho Springs.   After some good food and beers we continued on to Breck.   Upon our arrival we immediately checked into our hotel, Breckenridge Mountain Lodge, which was clean but lacked pretty much any amenity that we’d normally be accustomed to.   Not only were there no hot tubs or pools, the room didn’t have a coffee maker or even cups.   I’m not sure we’ll stay again, but if you need a really cheap place to stay, it has a good location and is clean.

Before retiring for the night, we walked next-door to one of my favorite spots in Breck, the Breckenridge Brewery.   I had a vanilla porter, which is such a great beer, and before long we all headed for bed.   We woke up fairly early Saturday, and after catching the shuttle bus we were on the slopes around nine.   It was a little cold, and there wasn’t really much fresh powder, but we had a number of friends on the slopes to make the day really enjoyable.   At one time we were roaming around with a total of nine skiers and boarders.   We made it all the way until three, and then we hit up happy hour at the Quandary Grille with most of the group.   My friend Rob also met up with us there after his day of fly-fishing.   We spent the rest of the evening at his in-laws condo before heading back to our hotel room once more.

Snow was falling throughout the day Saturday and really picked up overnight.   We woke up even earlier on Sunday to get a head start on the crowds and hopefully find some fresh powder.   Fortunately we found the powder, as Breckenridge got six inches of snow overnight, but unfortunately it was much colder and very windy.   We did one run just after 8:30, and then took a break.   We did another couple of runs, and then had to take yet another break.   We decided that we should call it an early day if Tracey was able to resell her lift ticket.   She was able to sell it for $40 pretty easily, after buying it for only $55 with our discount.   Normal tickets go for $92.   And with that we were back in the car and headed toward Denver.

The snow continued to fall and the trip back took about double what it normally does, but I read that it was much worse later in the day.   I’m glad we left when we did, and we still had a great time with Tracey.   She will be back in another month or so, and I’m hoping the slopes have much more snow than they do now.   I’m ready for another epic weekend.

The winning streak that might hockey team had going was short-lived.   We played the first place team in the league last night, and despite it being close through two periods, the final score was 7-2.   I think we gave up in the third when the score became 5-2, so it was really   much closer than the final score indicates.   I just noticed that our team is no longer listed in last place, though last night’s results are not included.   I hope it stays that way, though we still have nine games left in the session so anything is still possible.

I put together a video of Kim’s brother’s trip using photos and video clips we took throughout their stay.   If you haven’t already seen it on Facebook, I’m embedding it below for your viewing pleasure.

I did the same thing last year, and if you haven’t already seen that video, here it is.