Stirring softly in my comfy bed, I began to awake slowly.
Me and my family were staying in Vail, Colorado for a fun-filled week long ski vacation.
After two days I had finally acclimated myself to the Rocky Mountain higher elevation levels.
No more huffing and puffing up the lengthy three flights of stairs to get to where our rental condo was located at.
The two-mile walk with shaped skis, ski boots, a fully loaded black North Face backpack, and racing ski poles to the base of Lionshead at Vail now went flawlessly without the need to stop to rest momentarily.
I quickly hopped out of bed, not even stopping for the moment to care if my bed was made. I headed out towards the kitchen and living room.
My mom and one of my sisters were already in the kitchen cooking up some awesome smelling chocolate-chip pancakes and waffles.
My dad was sitting down on the plush leather maroon couch, busily working away on his laptop.
My brother was re-arranging his big rucksack for later on that night. He was planning on embarking on a solo camping trip in preparation for an upcoming glacier climbing trip in Alaska.
My other sister had stayed home back in Minnesota because of college and work.
With breakfast almost ready, I helped out by setting the dining room table with plates, bowls, forks, knives, spoons, glasses, and napkins.
Then with breakfast finally ready, we all sat down to eat the yummy looking food.
We had the awesome homemade chocolate-chip pancakes and waffles, Jimmy Dean sausage links, a fruit medley consisting of honeydew melons, cantaloupe, blueberries, and authentic Georgia peaches.
Coffee, Water, and OJ to wash all that good food down with. It was a splendid feast and a great way to start off our day on the ski slopes.
Now for anyone currently reading this story who has been skiing or snowboarding before, getting ready to hit the slopes can be somewhat cumbersome and tricky.
And for anyone that has ever traveled out to the Colorado Rocky Mountains, one must plan for constant weather changes.
The old saying goes that if it is raining right now, “give it ten minutes and the weather will change.”
So after we had all showered, it was onwards to prepping and dressing for a fun-filled day out on the ski slopes of Vail Mountain, Colorado.
Dressing up in a few different light layers, my always trusty Nike Livestrong clothes a definite must wear, and some various equipment for safety purposes.
Final mental checklist…
Helmet, check.
Goggles, check.
Sunglasses, check.
A few extra warm clothes in case the weather turns colder later on, check.
Ski mask, check.
Shape Skis, Ski Boots, and Racing Ski Poles, check.
Vail ski pass, some lunch money and ID, check.
My black North Face backpack packed with extra bottled water, some extra warm clothes, an extra pair of warm ski gloves, iPod and headphones, spare cellphone, first-aid kit and personal American Red Cross certifications, check.
Me and my family, check. Now we are all finally set to go out and have fun skiing today.
Clunking out the front door wearing chunky hard plastic ski boots, carrying on my right-shoulder the shaped skis with both racing skis poles attached to them, we headed down the lengthy three flights of stairs.
Now walking along the freshly swept asphalt trail headed towards the base of Lionsheads at Vail, we started talking with pure excitement about how we were looking forward to skiing the fresh powder in the Blue Sky Basin.
My brother is the lone snowboarder of the family. He was talking about wanting to hit-up the double-black diamond moguls that he had seen the other day when we were riding up the Mountaintop Express Chairlift.
Before our really nice parents had treated us and took us on this very special family vacation, my parents had previously purchased Vail ski pass ID cards so as we didn’t have to wait in the long ski ticket lines when we were at Vail.
Now after finally arriving at the base of Lionshead at Vail, we headed towards the Eagle Bahn gondola line.
The Eagle Bahn gondola is an updated modern marvel.
The Eagle Bahn gondola offers a smooth gentle ride, spectacular 360 views of awesome Vail Mountain via four-sides of visibly clear plexiglass windows.
Now after having arrived near the top of Vail Mountain we quickly grabbed our skis, ski poles, and snowboard. The Eagle Bahn gondola pulls into the Eagle’s Nest building.
It was a semi-lengthy ski journey via a few long catwalks to get to The Blue Sky Basin.
The Blue Sky Basin is apart of Vail Mountains various adventure filled back bowls.
With the fresh cool mountain air filling out our lungs, the slight windy breeze on our backsides, we skied onwards towards The Blue Sky Basin.
Then we took up The Blue Sky Basin chairlift, gazing all around in wondrous child-like amazement at the very picturesque view that we felt very lucky to be beholding and witnessing at that very moment in time.
The Blue Sky Basin landscape was lined with lush green pine trees caked in soft fluffy white powdery snow. The Blue Sky Basin landscape was dotted throughout with many bumps and moguls. Tracks leftover from skiers and snowboarders in the fresh powder were highly visible from the chairlift. The crystal clear Rocky Mountain sky was a deep pastel baby blue color, with just a few cotton ball shaped clouds in sight.
The Blue Sky Basin was just a giant and vastly expansive awesome view that seemingly went on as far as the naked human eye could possibly see.
We spent countless hours skiing and shredding down the many various fun ski runs in the Blue Sky Basin.
Dashes of adrenaline upon sight of a huge mogul, splashes of fresh white snowy powder shot-up after an inverted ski turn, and a random snowball fight happened here and there.
The highlight runs being Cloud 9, Resolution, Heavy Metal, Iron Mask, and Lover’s Leap.
With a few brief interspersed hot cocoa breaks to warm-up, and a fantastic late lunch-break at Two Elk Lodge, we had another wonderful day out skiing and snowboarding on Vail Mountain Resorts gigantic ski hill.
Now with our fun-filled awesome day finally wrapping up, it was onto the hot tub to sit-back, relax, and chill out.
Oh the life of a Vail ski bum! Thank you for reading this and please make it a great day!
Danko
