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| Life In Colorado, USA | 2008 Winter Season, Colorado |
I've been here living in Edwards since driving out on Jan 2, and it's been the most insanely awesome month of my life! I knew without really knowing that it'd be incredible when I got the job, but it has so completely surpassed my expectations, I'll just do my best to write about it.
My excitment was mounting when I woke on Jan 2 to a stunning view from Stacey's apartment in Aurora of snowy sidewalks, snowy rooftops and beyond, the gleaming white Front Range under a clear blue sky. See, when I drove into Denver, it was dark, the day I flew to Oregon it was cloudy, and when I flew back it was dark, so the mountains had remained hidden until that moment, and I knew that in the afternoon, I'd drive out into them finally, and probably not come out of them for a while.
It was great getting behind the wheel again after nearly a fortnight away from my Jeep (I missed it), all my gear still sitting in the back, I headed for Sapphire Technologies with my google map printouts ready. On my way into the office I walked over the snow covered median strip and sunk past my ankles, managing to get snow in my shoes and on my suit pants. Off to a great start. After I met the face behind the voice who got me the job at RTP, Todd escorted me around town to get my errands done and have lunch. I got an oil change, bought an ice scraper, snow shovel and tyre chains, then managed to make a huge mess of my sleeves doing a test run of the chains. Finally, in the afternoon running a bit late, I headed out onto highway 470 that skirts south of Denver, then north along the foothills to intersect I-70, the gateway to the mountains. I-70 is a piece of work, electronic signs report weather conditions ahead with expected travel time, & as the road weaves up into the mountains, I drove with mingled excitement, awe and caution. At the height of the pass at an elevation of 11 158 feet (3401 m), the 1.7 mile long Eisenhower Tunnel punches through the Continental Divide, becoming the longest tunnel in the US Interstate System and the highest vehicular tunnel in the world. On the other side, despite good road conditions (wet but no snow cover) I still passed three wrecks on my way to Avon, one sedan had slid under the back of a semi which had half ripped the roof off, another car was in a ditch, and an SUV had run off the road, hit a snow embankment and flipped to lay on its roof.
I arrived in Avon close to 5pm which concerned me, as I had nowhere to stay, and was relying on using the phones & internet at the office to arrange something. Upon my arrival, I met the HR manager & after quick introductions, I explained my situation and we begun looking for accommodation. Todd back in Denver was helping as well, but after 20mins of calling & searching, there was NO accommodation whatsoever in town. Holidaymakers were still here from New Years; the nearest room was in Gypsum, 30 minutes west and $200 a night! Carol sent out an email to the staff saying a contractor had arrived in town & could not find lodging, and fortunately for me, a guy named Andrew had just vacated his guest room at his house and, without having even met me, offered to come back to work to escort me up & stay. Needless to say, he's an absolute champion and we're now good friends, I even got to watch Oklahoma play in the Fiesta Bowl (a respected college football event) while I begun my research for somewhere to live.
I started work the next day, learning loads about life in the mountains, places in town, stuff about work, soaking it all up the best I could, & canvassing what little accommodation I could find, with roommates.com, craigslist.org & the Vail Daily. I didn't get much sleep again that night (2nd night running) from anxiety over my lodging, next day I teed up an interview with 2 people looking for a third in a 3bed duplex in Homestead Meadows. Another 3rd night of bugger all sleep & in the morning the only new ad was titled 'Mountain Bare' and was a 4brm house with at least 2 other guys living there looking for room mates. They were massage therapists, who enjoy the odd meditation session, and quote "setting is clothing optional, so if you are affronted by nudity, stop here now"! I can't believe I was so desperate I was even thinking about it, but later at work by chance, I was having a conversation with my boss Steve about the crap accommodation situation when this guy happens to walk up & say 'well I'm looking for a room mate.' His name was Nate Sutterer & he was in fact the CFO of the company! I was all to happy to look at another place as I hadn't heard from the pair the prev night, so we checked out his 2bed apartment in River Pines in Edwards he was renting by himself, which is just down the road 10min from work. He has a dog Gusto, awesome dog, the place was great & we had lunch at E-town, the restaurant/bar which is a stroll away from the units, got along really well, agreed on a price & that was that :) Less than 48 hours from my arrival I had accommodation squared away in one of the toughest times for it, and the relief was almost physical. I can handle just about anything with this traveling business, provided I have somewhere to sleep when it's below freezing outside!
So I spent the night moving in, saying goodbye to Andrew's family (wife 2 kids dog & cats) and saturday getting organised, & then sunday Nate & his girlfriend Emily (who lives in Denver) took me out onto the slopes of Beaver Creek, the ski resort 10 mins down the road next to work :) I was hooked up with spare board & boots, Nate used one of his half price passes on me & we spent the afternoon at Bachelor Gulch, an area of the Beav which is centered around the stunning Ritz Carlton 5 star resort. In the afternoon it snowed steadily & I was boarding through a couple of inches of powder until lift close, unable to grasp the reality that I lived only a couple miles away.
Just about every day since has held something new & amazing, just like my arrival to the states in Norman Oklahoma. The river innocently flows through the valley past work & home, my bedroom window looks out onto the Riverwalk shops, & the winding snowy path that follows the river. White bumps in the river are snow covered rocks, which meet with the snowy river banks, & in places sheets of snow covered ice completely hide the flowing water from view. It takes a song or two on the CD player to warm the car in the mornings, often I spend a couple of those minutes sweeping snow off the windows and bonnet with my gloves. Four wheel drive comes in handy for snowy uphill road entries, a committed run-up is sometimes needed for everyone else. Days that I wear business gear to work are fun, when I cross the car park in my work boots, the slick soles cause me to slide, stumble & skate across the ice & snowpack while i'm trying to appreciate the icicles hanging from the rooftops. One morning I saw the air glinting with thousands of fine particles when I looked towards the sun, like sparkling dust, and I was completely mystified. Found out later that it was frozen fog.
Dad wrote me in chat one night responding to my news of getting a job in the mountains of Colorado, and he said "there's temperatures there you haven't even dreamed of." haha! Well that's for sure, my coldest morning I've seen evidence of so far has been -4F, which is -20C. When it gets like that, outside exercise is impossible as your throat can freeze, exposed skin (ear lobes, fingers) are at risk, and the river which is made of snowmelt and can only be a fraction above freezing, actually steams.
The craziness doesn't end there. Water up here boils around 92C, the weather can go from sunny to snow showers in minutes, and post does not get delivered to your door in these mountain towns. Everyone has to rent a PO box, and there is a queue, first come first served. Pretty dodgy actually, they stuffed up my application to share Nate's PO box & my pay checks bounced back to Massechusets, took me a full month to get them. The driving is always interesting too. Most of the main roads are treated with sand/gravel and magnesium sulphate, which turns everything to a lovely brown slush, but is supposed to be better for your car than salt. When it snows, the formidable local fleet of trucks with ploughs get out & you don't want to be driving next to them when they start ploughing snow 10 feet to the side.
I haven't told anyone from home this story yet (sorry mum, dad, but I know how you worry). In my second week here, Greg & I were planning to hit Vail, which would be my first visit to the largest ski resort in the United States, and I was going to pick him up from his place down the road at 7:30 AM. So there was no snow on the roads, & 1 week is the perfect period of time to become blaz-e about driving, and well there's a bump on a gentle left turn not far from my apartments. I believe a combination of black ice and acceleration caused the rear wheels to break traction, and the car veered left into the oncoming lane (no traffic thankfully). I tried to correct steering to the right, but the roads were so slick it went past straight and I started spinning to the right, so somehow I had the presence of mind to whip steering hard right and throw the brakes on so I slid in a straight line up the road, coming to a stop in the middle of my lane facing the wrong way, and the 3 cars that were following me. Probably slid 25m all up, I put it back in gear, got in the other lane, did a u-turn and went on my merry way. After taking stock of what happened, I started laughing at myself for how ridiculously calm I remained throughout it all, I was even pretty stoked. A few mins later I saw a Bachelor Gulch staff truck getting towed out of the snow banks after sliding on the ice, and even upon my return at 3:30 PM that afternoon, there were 2 cars in the snow banks on opposite sides of the road in the same place I spun out. Evidence of several other impacts were in the snow banks from that day, and I know that I was very fortunate. When I called Todd, starting the conversation with 'hey guess what happened to me this morning' his reaction was 'what already? you've only been there a week and a half.' haha But DON'T WORRY MUM, DAD, I can see trouble spots now and am getting better every day at knowing how to drive real winter conditions :)
Besides, everywhere is so close, I only have to get petrol every couple weeks, and so much stuff is just walking distance from home. A grocery store, a cinema, a restaurant/bar, a liquor store, the riverwalk for strolls and exercise, coffee shop, book store and of course Moe's ;) What more can you ask? Well, apart from more warm clothes. Walking Gusto is funny, in cold weather (single digit F) after 10 mins his paws get cold and he tries to avoid walking on them, so he walks on 3 legs with a hind leg stuck in the air, alternating every 10m or so, stopping to bend over sniffing another dogs markings, leg still in the air. You can't stop laughing. Nate says if you're too far from home he will stop walking & you have to pick him up & carry him back!
So I'm learning an awful lot about snow. I've seen dry, fine champagne powder snow, wet clingy snow, large fluffy light snow, heavy dense snow, wind scoured snow, even cold snow as opposed to 'warm' snow. Many areas of the mountains have seen the best January snowfall in a decade, and there has been high avalanche danger. When I was in Oregon one snowboarder crashed into a well of quicksand-like powder and suffocated, and separate avalanches killed a couple of back country skiiers. The locals I work with know a great deal about back country snow conditions, and even they say they don't know enough to risk doing it with so much snow. One of the deadly back country avalanches had a 12ft crown (the crown is the top of the avalanche where the snow breaks away) That means there was already 12ft of snow at the beginning let alone what got churned up further down. One avalanche buried 2 cars on a highway a few nights ago, authorities said there was more volume in that single avalanche than in all of the avalanches in that area for the past few years combined.
But it's all good, avalanches will always happen to back country skiiers who can't resist the lure of fresh powder, I'll stick to getting up early to catch first chair and blaze new tracks at the resorts after evening snowfall. It's such an awesome thing, speed is key & the bumpy grooms & packed snow gives way to a soft cushion where you feel as if you're floating, a wake of snow splashes around your knees & over your trailing hand, & you leave a cloud of powder 10 feet long. Steering is totally different, instead of sliding through turns you go exactly where you lean & point the board, like surfing with fins as opposed to without fins. Days like that, people are whooping and laughing, smiles all around, and your only problem is deciding which run to tackle next, or which line to take through the trees. As Nate says, 'What nice problems to have'.
I'm working on convincing Nate to buy a waterproof camera like mine so he can take some action shots of me too. He could have got a good photo this past weekend, I spent half the day finally getting into the tree glades at Vail, and when I stopped to have lunch in Mid Vail and took my helmet off, there was a great big twig sticking out of it :) With world class ski resorts only minutes away, and my 5 mountain pass permanently hanging off the chest pocket of my parka which I negotiated into the deal for my job, I'll be making sure I'm out there every weekend for the rest of the season.
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| Life In Colorado, USA | Vail Resorts, Colorado |
