Colorado Snowboarding

During the first week of March, Em was in Denver for work so we convinced her employer to let her stay for the weekend to do some snowboarding. I jumped a flight Friday night to join in the Colorado fun. Coincidently, it was Emily's birthday, so what better way to spend it than snowboarding! Besides, I got Em a new Burton snowboarding coat (the blue one) for her birthday so it is only appropriate that she gets to use it on her b-day.
*Those of you with a close attention to detail will notice that she was actually wearing it in some earlier posts on this blog...neither one of us is too patient when it comes to gifts :)

We met up with one of my friends from high school, Chad Staker and his wife Brie, who are currently living just outside Denver. Emily was also able to meet with our cousin Dave White and his family (Heidi, Taylor, Jackson) and our Aunt Rochelle and Uncle Lee. As some of you may remember, we are especially close to Dave as he stepped up to the plate to perform our wedding ceremony about a year and a half ago.

LtR: Chad Staker, Brie Staker, me (with helmet hair), Em

The park at Breckenridge...more than a little intimidating.

Here's a few pics of Em hitting the slopes:

My favorite run at Breck, called "The Burn", is an amazing tree run on Peak 10 and usually is a great place to find powder stashes.

Here's Em riding through the trees on The Burn.
(See video below of Em carving through some trees.)

Keystone remains my favorite place to snowboard of all time....here's a pic from the parking lot.

Em flew back Sunday night, but I can't get enough of this stuff, so I decided to take Monday off work and stayed to ride with some friends at Keystone (again). I got there right when they opened in the morning and enjoyed about 3 runs with the mountain all to myself!! This is a pic of the fresh corduroy. FYI, for those that don't ride/ski, corduroy = the fresh grooves left behind by the grooming machines. It results in perfectly smooth snow that is extremely fast, fun, and predictable to ride on. Good stuff.

On the drive back to the Denver airport, I caught some cool shots of waterfalls. Unlike the countless waterfalls I have photographed in Hawaii and Oregon, these are a little different because they are FROZEN. If you look closely at the last one, it has a big waterwheel. Enjoy.

And last but not least, here is a video of Em carving through the trees: