Learning from the lesson last time, I asked for an 8.5 shoes this time and the skis were still 150cm. We got our rental gears from Blue Valley Ski again.
We started pretty early considering we had a big group. A-Basin located in a high-altitude area so at the top of the mountain, there were no trees. Because we had half beginners and half intermediates, we split group into two. I was, of course, in the intermediate group and before long, we picked up where we had left last year.
By the end of the second day, four of us intermediates almost finished the whole skiable area: A-Basin was too small for us. Two of us even tried a rather difficult diamond trail. So we decided to bite the bullet of a $86/day lift ticket and tried our newly improved skills at the Breckenridge.
(Now in case you don't know what the "double diamond" means: Ski trails are labeled with their difficulties so that you can choose the right ones for yourself. A green circle stands for "easy", blue square for "intermediate", black diamond for "hard" and double black diamond for "very hard". However, there is no universally agreed upon standards for the labeling so sometimes, for example, an easy trail in one resort would have been counted as an intermediate in another.)
It was the happiest day of our vacation. We skied so hard that the owner of the resort would cry. In one day, we finished almost half of the trails available, i.e., intermediate and above. We didn't waste any time except a short stop for lunch. It was an absolutely gorgeous day and I would almost admire myself when I were standing in the middle of a steep slope and looking downward. The feeling of a (almost) free fall was totally addictive.
Thanks to Bin, Shuyi and Shuxin for taking some clips of me skiing. I wouldn't have had so much fun without their company. (In fact, I wouldn't have even tried so many hard but fun trails without them, for the sake of safety.)
As a climax of our ski "career" so far, we used our last strength to try, for the first time, a double-diamond trail called, get this, "Psychopath"! It was steep and narrow and bumpy. Pretty accurate name, huh? It was great fun.
So that explained the title of this blog post. Yes, it bought me a lot of bragging points so until next year I ski, you'd better get used to it, my friends.
We had hot-pot and champagne at the Christmas' Eve. Eating, drinking, talking and laughing. Then watched a movie and played some mahjong. No work all play.
On Christmas day, there wasn't much we could do because most of the shops were closed, except movie theaters. So we watched two movies in a row.
All good things come to an end. We cleaned the house and left Denver with a big big smile. See you later, Colorado!
PS, when you arrive at Denver International, don't forget to pick up a free copy of the Colorado Winter Vacation Planner. It's printed so beautifully that you start to realize what a lucrative business this is.
***
Now the clips:
1. A cautious play
2. Upside down (lol)
3. Speed "demon" (yeah!)
We started pretty early considering we had a big group. A-Basin located in a high-altitude area so at the top of the mountain, there were no trees. Because we had half beginners and half intermediates, we split group into two. I was, of course, in the intermediate group and before long, we picked up where we had left last year.
By the end of the second day, four of us intermediates almost finished the whole skiable area: A-Basin was too small for us. Two of us even tried a rather difficult diamond trail. So we decided to bite the bullet of a $86/day lift ticket and tried our newly improved skills at the Breckenridge.
(Now in case you don't know what the "double diamond" means: Ski trails are labeled with their difficulties so that you can choose the right ones for yourself. A green circle stands for "easy", blue square for "intermediate", black diamond for "hard" and double black diamond for "very hard". However, there is no universally agreed upon standards for the labeling so sometimes, for example, an easy trail in one resort would have been counted as an intermediate in another.)
It was the happiest day of our vacation. We skied so hard that the owner of the resort would cry. In one day, we finished almost half of the trails available, i.e., intermediate and above. We didn't waste any time except a short stop for lunch. It was an absolutely gorgeous day and I would almost admire myself when I were standing in the middle of a steep slope and looking downward. The feeling of a (almost) free fall was totally addictive.
Thanks to Bin, Shuyi and Shuxin for taking some clips of me skiing. I wouldn't have had so much fun without their company. (In fact, I wouldn't have even tried so many hard but fun trails without them, for the sake of safety.)
As a climax of our ski "career" so far, we used our last strength to try, for the first time, a double-diamond trail called, get this, "Psychopath"! It was steep and narrow and bumpy. Pretty accurate name, huh? It was great fun.
So that explained the title of this blog post. Yes, it bought me a lot of bragging points so until next year I ski, you'd better get used to it, my friends.
We had hot-pot and champagne at the Christmas' Eve. Eating, drinking, talking and laughing. Then watched a movie and played some mahjong. No work all play.
On Christmas day, there wasn't much we could do because most of the shops were closed, except movie theaters. So we watched two movies in a row.
All good things come to an end. We cleaned the house and left Denver with a big big smile. See you later, Colorado!
PS, when you arrive at Denver International, don't forget to pick up a free copy of the Colorado Winter Vacation Planner. It's printed so beautifully that you start to realize what a lucrative business this is.
***
Now the clips:
1. A cautious play
2. Upside down (lol)
3. Speed "demon" (yeah!)
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