Feb 2, 2014

Brenda and I went up to Blue Mountain for a night of skiing and boarding. It was a lot less crowded than last time we came, so that was nice. They closed the 4-person lift early, which was a small annoyance. We didn't really get stuck on the 6 lift with many people though so it ended up not making much difference.

The skiing was good on most of the trails, but it got icy again pretty quickly. A lot of icy spots make it less fun for me and a lot less fun for Brenda on a snowboard. Overall it was a really fun day though. We both ended up at the same lodge at the end of the night as well, which helps things go smoothly. We got some food near Allentown for the drive home, which didn't seem as long as it usually does. 

Jan 19, 2014

I spent the morning going through photos and updating the blog, then I picked up Brenda and Ryan and we headed up to Blue Mountain for the night. Brenda realized she had forgotten her ski pants so she had to get another pair when we got there. Ryan went ahead while we waited to get her board sharpened and then we did a few runs together before meeting back up with him.

The slopes were a bit crowded for the first couple of hours, but it started to die down. Dreamweaver was open this time, but it was super icy so not as fun as usual. The whole mountain was actually more icy than usual. I assume because of how much use it got on the holiday weekend. It was a little scary in some parts, but we had fun with it anyway. I didn't break anything.

Someone told Ryan he looked terrifying with all of his gear on his face. I was glad we didn't have to wait in line too long at any of the lifts, and we managed to ski right up until the Ski Patrol was funneling us to the exits. Somehow Brenda managed to get to the bottom lodge after they stopped the lifts so we had to go down and get her after we packed up and changed. It was a really fun day and the weather was great. Just a long drive home that didn't seem so bad with good conversation.

Dec 30, 2013

For the first time in quite a while, Ryan and I actually got to go to Blue Mountain to ski between Christmas and New Year's. We got up there a little late, but once we got bundled and did our brief Bambi legs on the skis, we were right back into it. The snow was mostly manufactured so it had that soft and fluffy quality to it that makes it a little annoying to ski in sometimes.

We spent most of our time going down the diamonds this time, eventually racing a couple of times down one of them. That was a lot of fun. We only went down Paradise twice this time. The snow machines were running all night so the lifts looked like we were viewing terraforming on some distant planet. It was a good first day of skiing for the season and made us look forward to the next trip.

Jan 22, 2012

After a stop at Dick's for some new goggles we headed up to Blue Mountain for the first time of the season. It's much later than we usually go, but the weather has been so warm we had to wait. It wasn't overly crowded for the night session so we got plenty of runs in.

We took our normal break for something to eat and then continued skiing for most of the night. We stayed until almost closing time so we made up for not going for a while. It felt good to be back out on the mountain.

The ride home is always long, but it didn't seem so bad this time. I was ready to get in bed when I got home though. It felt good to take off shoes and socks.

Sep 10, 2011

After our meager continental breakfast we drove over to Blue Mountain and got to the registration tent where this overeager gentleman wrote our bib numbers on our arms and forehead so they could identify us in photos to tag later.

Once we had our materials, we walked around and check out the sites.

The mountain was transformed. It was really strange to see it without snow on it, let alone with all this other stuff going on. There were tons of people there and lots of Chevelle music.

The time had come and Ryan lined up with a big group of others and waited for the start of his heat. After a dramatic speech from a shirtless guy with a Spartan helmet on, they counted down and sent the runners on their way through a cloud of annoying smoke.

I spent my time wandering around looking at merch, taking photos of people coming down the home stretch to the finish line and doing a bit of reading. I was hoping to catch Ryan but it was my turn to get in line for my race so I went over there to get ready. He finished just before I started and came to give me a good luck talk.

This is a great shot Ryan got as I jumped over the fire at the end. So much happened before this. The first part of the race is running up the mountain. There are a few small obstacles: walls to climb over, under and through, ropes to help up steep slopes, a net to crawl under, fish netting to climb up and over and a bigger wall. The steep mountain made it impossible to run or even really continue walking at times. At the top they greet you with a big bucket you have to fill with rocks then walk down part of a double diamond slope and back up. It was crazy hard and I slipped and fell at one point. And the guy made me put the few rocks I spilled back in my bucket.

Once I somehow passed that rock bucket thing, I had to climb a big wall and finally got a nice cup of water! It was so good. Then I was off and running to a pulley thing with a heavy weight I had to lift about fifty feet up and safely set it down. Not too hard. The hardest thing was running downhill in the mud. There were rocks everywhere so I wasn't about to be careless and slip. More obstacles on this side were log stumps spaced about four feet apart you had to hop from one to the next, there was a giant water slide into a lake (so much fun) into a lake I had to wade through and swim under a string of barrels, and I think the next worst feeling thing was a really long length of barbed wire under which we had to crawl in the mud. I marine crawled a bit and then rolled, getting dizzy. It was hard.

This is what I looked like at the end. Mostly from the barbed wire crawl. The last bit included a wall with little pegs you had to cross that I couldn't do so I had to do marine squats. Then there was the spear throw, which so many people were missing, including me. More marine squats. Then I got to jump the fire, climb the little wall, fight the Spartan guy and cross the finish line to collect my t-shirt, finisher medal and banana! I'm so dirty.

I went right over to the showers and got in there for about a half hour trying to get all the mud off of my body and then tried to get some out of my clothes. It wasn't happening. I donated my shoes to a charity thing they had there. They need more pressure on those showers.

I had cut my hand sliding down one of the rocky hills on the way down so I got it wrapped at the med tent after I got cleaned and changed then we headed to the beer tent to grab my free beer from Long Trail brewery. It was pretty good, but I was starving so I drank it quickly so we could get out.

We went to check our times before we left. I came in at 1:47:51 and Ryan came in at 1:54:55 so we were really close. Though I couldn't run the whole time, I think my time would have been drastically improved if I weren't waiting in line a lot of the times throughout the race on the way up mostly. Some things only a few people could do at a time so we had to queue until it was our turn. Next time I'm going to try to stay closer to the front of the pack in the beginning and get ahead.

We went to Chili's for food and, even after having some free chips and salsa before our meals got there, we devoured our dinner. That was such a good burger. I can't wait to do another race like this!

We got back and I turned right back around with Joanna and went to the Electric Factory for a show. We got there when Man Overboard was playing. They were really good from afar. I need to listen to them more. When they finished we stood around for a raffle at the back bar to try to win a poster or tickets for either a NFG or Circa Survive show. Neither of us won anything, but I asked the girl who won the Circa tickets if she wanted to sell them and she ended up just giving them to me. So nice!

We made our way up front and The Early November came out to a very excited crowd. They haven't played a show for four-ish years. They opened with "I Want to Hear You Sad" and the place didn't calm down for the rest of the night. They were amazing and played every song I could possibly want to hear.

Ace was super thankful to everyone who was there and made that abundantly clear. They didn't want to leave anymore than any of us did. They played so many great songs. It was so much fun and by far the best show I've been to in a long time. I can't name the second best right now even.

It was quite a great day and I was tired; but the good kind of tired. I got a real shower when I got home and that felt fantastic. It was nice to lie in bed too.

Feb 6, 2011

I slept as long as I could before getting up to meet Ryan to head to Blue Mountain for a day of frustration and fun on a snowboard. It seemed unusually light out while we were there at first.

Since I had only snowboarded once I was expecting horrible things. It didn't go too badly at first and after a few runs down I thought I had the hang of it. I realized soon after that, while I could make it down the mountain with relative ease, I was doing it wrong.

Ryan picked it up pretty easily after a while and started doing just fine. I was still stuck on the equivalent to a snow plow on skis and after a few hard falls (including one where I hit my head) I was feeling cautious and didn't want to stay too much longer. We did a few more runs and then headed out. Still a pretty successful day. I think I'll ski next time though.

After showering and changing I went to Westby to see Alex for a short time and then to Heather's to have nachos. They were spicy, cheesy goodness.

After hanging out with everyone for a while and watching It's Always Sunny, I was ready to go to sleep.

Jan 2, 2011

I met Steve and Jamie at Bob Evans for breakfast in the morning before they headed back to Colorado. We talked about our wonderful English class we had together senior year and tried to figure out how we never got in trouble. After our robot waitress brought us the check I bid them farewell and headed to Ryan's to pick him up.

We got up to Blue Mountain a little after four and got our SkiZ Passes. They aren't really called that but they should be. It's a little card you keep in your pocket and it opens the gate for you at the lift during the time period you paid for. And it's rechargeable. Ski EZ Pass.. SkiZ Pass. Okay.

Most of the trails were good. We took a trip down most of them before taking a break for food. We came back out to do several sets of races. Some of them were just dangerous since we were going down the diamond trails but the others were just a lot of fun.

After a bunch of races it was closing time so we had to leave. We never stay until ten. The ride home seemed surprisingly quick. Despite being tired from the day I couldn't get to sleep for a long time again.

Feb 28, 2010

We all met up at the buses near the Student Center early in the morning in preparation for our ski trip. After loading up the bus and waiting for a few last minute inspections, we left only about twenty minutes late.

Once we all suited up, booted up and found a locker (finally,) we got out on the slopes. It was Joanna's first time ever skiing and she did really well. She picked it up pretty quickly. Maybe I'm just that good at teaching?

We had to bring the gnome along as well to ride the lift up with us. He stayed in my pocket after that.

I took Joanna on a blue trail for her second run since she did so well on the first one. She did just as well on that one.

Josh snowboards in jeans. He doesn't just sit in the center of the trail, he relaxes.

Mike and I did a more difficult trail together but the conditions weren't great so it wasn't as fun. Turning tightly over moguls isn't as easy with a hurt ankle either.

It was Laura's first time skiing as well. She seemed to be doing pretty well also and having fun. We spent a lot of our time over on Paradise. There were a lot of people there so wherever we went was crowded.

We all managed to stay together most of the day. We took a break in the afternoon to get lunch at the lodge. We had the veggie sandwiches left over from the night before and it was nice to take a break and make some videos in the cafeteria.

We went back out for quite a while. It started snowing/raining a little bit toward the end of the night and got much colder. We stayed out until we had to meet up at the bus though. We got a good long day of skiing out of it. The sky looked really nice at the end of the day as well.

We got back on the bus and had to wait for people who took their time getting back. We stopped at a rest stop for food on the way back and had a good ride home. It was a long fun day and I was exhausted after. I need to go more before the season is over.

Feb 14, 2010

After waking up to a nice message on my calendar that made me smile, I went to brunch with Nathan at Maurice River Diner. Yes, brunch. I had a pretty good veggie omelet. I almost got pancakes but I have had them a lot lately and there are more to come! What am I talking about?

Shortly after eating I picked up Katie and we headed to Blue Mountain. She wanted to snowboard--something I was hesitant to try because I wanted to ski. The initial experience of locking the boots in the board was not pleasant but after some trial and error we got the hang of it.

I started to really enjoy it and feel in control. So I got my camera out while moving of course.

I went for one solo run so I could go quickly. I made a full run without falling which was my unofficial goal. We did a blue and a few greens throughout the night which were fine except for being more bumpy than usual.

I realize why snowboarders sit down so much now though; it's really hard to stand still on a board. It's easier just to sit until you're ready to go again. I fell one time and twisted my ankle a bit. I'm still not completely comfortable with both of my feet being attached to one surface but overall I really had a good time and would like to try again.

We got some food on the way home but Katie was interested in stopping for pretzels on the way home since we got to Philly around midnight.

After acquiring a bag full of hot pretzels, of which I ate none, we continued heading home.

I'm pretty sore from falling down and twisting my ankle AND I have to get up early for class... however, the day was a lot of fun and I managed to say happy v-day from 346 miles away. Goodnight!