2009-2010 Season in Review

I'm sure you've all been waiting, and here it is... Cue the inspirational music to "The Natural," because here comes the 2009-2010 Winter Season in Review from yours truly!!!

I kind of gave a small preview of this with my last post, but I feel I need to include a little insight as to the shenanigan's I had put myself through whilst on the mountains of North America (and specifically, the mountains of the Western portion of the United States). The season unofficially started when I decided to go on Meetup.com and try to find a group of people to hit up the mountains with. I joined some Denver Ski/Board group which I subsequently quit once I got a message from one Krista Hood that I needed to join the Boulder Snowboarding Group, now BSG Colorado.

My introduction to the BSG was a snowboard movie premiere at the Ogden Theater in Denver. I love me some snowboard porn, so I was ready to go watch a bunch of professionals pull some tricks on film in ridiculous snow that I have no chance of replicating. I showed up and met up with Adam (the organizer) and Krista (the co-organizer). It should be noted that everyone was around the ages of 21-30, and they were all super chill. My kind of peeps! I went to a few more events before the mountains opened up, and then the main event: A-Basin opening weekend on October 10, 2009... By far the EARLIEST I have ever ridden in a season. I tried to put on the old Hiatt charm to the peeps that were there, and it worked!

Went riding with the BSG on many events through October and November, and then in December everything started to just click. I went up to Breckenridge with a meetup group that stayed up there on Saturday night. We all stayed in a cabin in Breck and hit up the bars that Saturday night. I was introduced to Validimir aka John this weekend, although I still didn't ride with him at all for the whole weekend. I also met my future roomie, Sarah this weekend as well.

Now my season was not limited to just Colorado, although I did the vast majority of my riding in Colorado this season for sure. Christmas time came, and I flew to Utah to visit my Mommy and Grandma for the Holiday Season. Of course I brought my board with me and the morning I flew in, I hit up Park City Mountain Resort because you get a free lift ticket on the same day of your flight. Park City: not so good. It was windy, crusty, and icy. Yuck! Plus I ripped my pants. WTF! I stayed in Ogden with Mommy and Grandma, and then on Christmas Eve I hit up Powder Mountain for the first time since 1997 (when I was 18 years old). Nic Saben had been raving about Powder Mountain anyways, so I wanted to see what all the hoopla was about. The last time I was on this mountain was the first time I strapped into a snowboard, so needless to say I am much better now than that first day. Powder Mountain was SICK! So much POW! And the vast majority of my runs was through trees and in untouched POW! Plus, it is a relatively unknown mountain so there was hardly anyone on it.

January and February: Plenty of riding happened in January. I had a welcome edition to my household with Yumiko, who I know through a best friend JenGen in San Diego. Yumi moved in mid-January and was going to be staying with me through February. At this point, my one-man Wolf Pack had expanded to many people. I started riding with A.J., Laura, Dan, Vladimir, Tennyson, Shelley, Deven, Sarah, Kim, Kevin, and Michelle. And Yumi got up to the mountains with us also. There was still a few people who I had yet to meet. I had ridden with plenty of others besides the aforementioned including Mike Lohr aka Mike Loooowwwry!, Krista, Adam, The Chad, Miss Wendi, Johnny Dee, Nic Saben, Nicole, and who knows how many others... The other beyond awesome thing that happened was Ruby Hill Rail Yard opened up in Denver. That meant getting to hit box rails any night of the week, and only about 20 minutes from my house! It was here that I met Kelley, a friend of Laura's. I also was re-introduced to Cindy, although we had met before at earlier off-mountain events (only Cindy and I didn't ride together, ever, until the very end of the season).

February culminated in Arisara and the Chicago Crew heading to Colorado to hit up the mountains of Summit County (and Winter Park for a day). Yumi had just moved out of the house, but I welcomed in Sarah right away. When Arisara and friends got into town, we all went to Park Tavern to experience $2 You-Call-Its on that Tuesday night before we were to head up to Winter Park for the first of four straight days of mountain skiing and riding. We cabbed it to and from the Tavern because with $2 You-Call-Its everyone was sure to get a little tipsy. Woke up Wednesday and headed to Winter Park. We all had a Cabin in Frisco right near Breckenridge and Keystone, and only about 30 minutes from Vail. All three mountains that we rode while the Chicago Crew was visiting. Took the crew to Vail and had them experience Vail in all its glory. Went to the back bowls, and I watched like a proud father of the mountain as these Chicago peeps all got so deep in powder that their legs were probably about to fall off. I took the two boarders with me to Blue Sky Basin and we hit some of the deepest snow of the season! The cabin was the same one that I stayed in with Dre and the Cali Crew from the year before: Hot Tub on the deck. Big Ol' Kitchen, 4 rooms, enough sleeping for a small army. Chris Miller joined us on Thursday night, and Sarah joined us on Friday morning when we headed to Keystone and hit the Outback Bowl. In the Outback Bowl we hit some more SWEET POW! And had the longest untouched POW! ride of my season through what seemed like a glistening lake of soft snow. The days at Vail and Keystone with the Chicago Crew made me feel like a proud father of both mountains. They had lived up to the hype for sure. The last day the out-of-towners were here, they experienced over-crowding at Breckenridge unfortunately. But still, they for sure had a glorious time. That Saturday night we all met up with A.J., Tenny, Kelley, Kevin, Vlad, Dan, Michelle, Danny Collins, and Sarah at Cecilia's and "Danced the night away."

Speaking of Cecilia's, the main crew had been to Cecilia's many times before and thanks to Dan we are the "Pitted" Crew. Get PITTED!

March: More riding with the BSG, and then met up with Big Brother and one Jimmy Lin back in Utah. We stayed at my cousin's condo in Solitude. Now, I haven't ridden with my brother in over 15 years, and Jimmy is the man responsible for teaching me how to snowboard in the first place. I've rode with Jimmy all of my adult life, but I hadn't ridden with him for at least two years. It was a reuniting of Epic proportions! There's only two things that I would change about this trip: 1. I'd go any other time except for St. Patty's Day; 2. I wish there had been more snow. The snow wasn't the greatest, but still, how can you complain about the snow when you're not working all week? The other cool thing about Utah was that my brother introduced everyone to the Red Iguana! Such good Mexican Food! I was going to give up on getting good Mexican Food outside of California until I ate here. Apparently Salt Lake City has some awesome Mexican Food, and I'll be going back in June to eat some more of it! My brothers friend Paul also came out and skied with us in Utah. It was great to see big brother and Jimmy Lin.

Closing Weekends: April is closing month for all the mountains except for A-Basin really. I missed out on closing weekend at Keystone and Beaver Creek because I was working the Padres-Rockies series in Denver that weekend. No problem though because I went to Breck and Vail for it's closing weekend. We all dressed up something ridiculous on both Saturday and Sunday. The crew for closing weekend was Sarah, Dan, A.J., Laura, Michelle, Kelley, Vladimir, and Danny Collins. We saw Wycleff at Vail, who put on a killer free concert! Then we went out in Vail on Saturday night before dressing in spring clothing for Vail's closing day. Unfortunately for me, I had to leave Vail at noon on Sunday to head to Grand Junction for work.

Late April-May: Late April saw the re-introduction to A-Basin because it was the only mountain open. I am pretty much done riding except for closing day at A-Bay Bay now though. But the beginning of May saw me riding some fresh POW! at A-Basin? Yes, ridiculous, I know! I also finally rode with Cindy on the mountain! The end of the day at A-Bay saw a party on the Beach right by the bottom chairlifts with hula-hoops, live music, and beers. So much fun! Only Tenny, A.J., and myself stayed after with Cindy and her man Justin to enjoy this awesome fun-fest! The next week, the BSG had a beach party of their own on the beach at A-Bay, and there was tons of food, beers, and snow! We were now into May, and it was dumping! Still hitting fresh tracks on May 1st is pretty ridiculous if you ask me... We were there from 8:30am til close at A-Bay on May 1st, and so far I haven't been back since. The next time I will go back will be in three weeks for closing weekend, and the official close of my season.

Summer's just around the corner, and with it there will be surfing in San Diego and, thanks to Laura's suggestion, wake-boarding in Colorado! I can't wait!