Gluten Free Snowboarder

Yes, it was really like this - Photo: Dominique Taylor at Vaildaily.com

I know I’ve really been slacking at the blogging thing lately. My primary excuse is that I’ve been hitting mostly big powder days at local resorts where the competition for fresh tracks has been fierce so the picture taking has gone by the wayside. I did do a classic two day trip to Wolf but shot mostly video which I need to convert and then learn how to edit (yes, I know it’s my business) – I’ll post that one of these days. But if you haven’t heard already Vail had one for the ages on Wednesday (my birthday no less – thank you gods) that I need to share with powder hounds everywhere.

Who needs food when you can eat snow all day - Photo: Dominique Taylor at Vaildaily.com

First off I want to say that I didn’t take any of these photos – they were all mostly by Dominique Taylor at Vaildaily.com. I know it’s bad etiquette to post other folks photos but the world needs to see Dominique’s fine work and if you want to see more or buy these photos you can get them at Vaildaily.com in the photo section. I was too busy sucking down snow (lesson #1 – keep mouth shut while riding on thigh deep powder day) to take any photos of my own.

Hey, where did everything go ? - Photo: Dominique Taylor at Vaildaily.com

On Tuesday I had gone up with my new best friend Joel Gratz of Coloradopowderforecast.com, the hottest new ski weather forecast site on the web. We had a fabulous day riding the 13″ new they had called and sometime will post the merely great pictures from that outing. When we got back to Boulder at the end of the day we both had other plans for Wednesday which immediately went by the wayside when Joel saw they had posted another 19″ new (32″ in 48!) at 5:00 am the following morning. I was planning on maybe having a leisurely powder day at Loveland but fortunately decided not to look the gift horse in the mouth and quickly hopped in the car for a return voyage to Vail.

This isn't me but I know the feeling - Photo: Dominique Taylor at Vaildaily.com

The drive up felt more like a Saturday in March than a Wednesday in April as the word had definitely gotten out that Vail was getting hit hard. I did my finest Mario Andretti impression and thus was able to at least be inside the maze at the Vista Bahn when it opened at 8:30. I knew it was going to be good but when I got into the back on my second run and encountered thigh deep blower pow (and not just in some random drift – everywhere!) I knew that I (and several thousand of my new closest friends) was in for a special treat. When I got to the liftline the main topic of conversation revolved around pointers on how to breathe when your face is constantly covered in snow.

Doesn't look like it was too shabby at Beaver Creek either - Royal Elk Glades - Photographer unknown

The back was quickly overrun so time to move on and eventually made my way to Blue Sky Basin as the chair was just opening. This allowed me to ski the Champagne Glades which on this day was like the best bottle of vintage Moet Chandon that you could ever hope to find. I then reconnected with Joel (we had gone up separately as the lucky dog had a cat trip at Irwin Lodge lined up for the next day) and we proceeded to cement our powder relationship with several incredible runs through all Blue Sky has to offer till we started to get a little tired and began to go through trees instead of around them.

The tracks say it all - Photo: Dominique Taylor at Vaildaily.com

And speaking of trees I decided to give myself a little momento from the day and managed to catch a branch right in the nose on my last run down to the village through Riva Glade (and yes, it was well worth it). Joel got a nice picture of my face afterwards but I don’t think I’ll be posting that here. All in all an absolutely amazing day with perhaps the best snow conditions I’ve ever seen at Vail – who says April is the cruelest month…