We spent the weekend of March 23-25 in Pagosa Springs, CO where I skied at Wolf Creek and Teri did some more training for upcoming races. The temp was super warm - in the mid 60s, but fortunately there was a ton of snow at Wolf Creek so it was pretty much perfect spring conditions. On Friday I got in half a day and wore myself out hiking and skating over to some of the more out-of-the-way spots. I went down some steep runs and had a blast. There seemed to be a lot of cars in the parking lot, and quite a few people hanging about near the bottom and at the lodge, but once I got up on the hill, and started doing some of the more difficult terrain, there was pretty much no one around. I kind of pushed it and had a few spills, including 2 times when one of my skis just popped off executing a turn on a steep slope. The snow was heavy of course, so I think my ski just got wedged in the snow and my binding released. When I got back to Pagosa, I upped the DIN setting on my bindings to prevent the early release problem.
Teri had gone on a 7 or 8 mile run on the road up to Wolf Creek and then she just drove up and picked me up when the resort closed. I was really tired because I never waited for anyone and I just went up the lift and skied down until the lifts stopped operating.
We stayed in a nice condo on the west side of Pagosa and it was very quiet. The next morning we saw a beautiful fox right outside the condo. He paid no attention to us and was just seemed to be doing his usual routine. His tail was huge and he still had his winter coat. He wasn't as red as some other foxes I've seen - a little on the grey side, but wonderful anyway. We scouted out Teri's run for that day which was a 15 miler, and put a stash of Gatorade and water at 7.5 miles west of our condo. I then left for Wolf Creek for another day of skiing.
There was a pretty good crowd there, but mostly beginner or intermediate skiers. In the morning I first of all did one of runs where my ski popped off the day before. This time I had no problem. I then hiked up to the knife-edge ridge chutes and found a place to drop in. I think it may have been the steepest thing I've gone off, at least at the top. It's a short drop and the bottom 3/4 is not all that steep, but the top seemed close to vertical and there was a big cornice at the top too. I basically wimped out on it and sidestepped down a few feet before I made my first turn. It was still fun, but next year I'm going to do it right.
The rest of the day was great and I again got very tired. I had a nice lunch with a nice family from Kansas. The dad was about my age, had a very similar background and we had a great chat. We traded phone numbers and I'm sure he's someone that I will keep in contact with.
Teri's run went well although the 2nd half was a lot of uphill and she was also beat. We had dinner at the Alley House in Pagosa Springs which is probably one of the better places we've been. Outside of some very loud and drunk people from Texas who were sitting at the table next to us, the dinner was perfect.
