Day 21 - A Fitting Last Day

The day we had today at Winter Park was a fitting wrap-up for the the Adventure. Dan and I are winding down and were planning on taking it easy on the slopes today. We got on the lifts around 9:30 and took a few moderate runs. We felt like we needed some energy, so we stopped at about 11:00 at the bottom of Mary Jane and had lattes and chocolate - check the pic in Dan's post, below. Energized, we took an easy tree run on the far west side, then decided to go over the top to a bowl we hadn't been to yet. We did a long, windy traverse at 12,000 ft along the highest ridge at WP (highest, that is, without hiking above the lifts). The back side of the ridge was bare rock and dirt. Then we spotted a narrow, winding, white, snow path leading over the ridge across the dirt and rocks, to the trail sign shown in the slide show - Belle Fourche. We immediately realized that Adventure skiers must follow that path. We figured that it might lead to the bowl we were seeking. It was so thin in some places, we only had snow for one ski, and did I mention it was windy?. Then we came to a spruce-wooded, steep bowl that had the best snow we'd seen in two days! Dry and deep, and only a few skiers had been their since the last snow, days ago. We had a blast, connecting drop turn after drop turn flying down thru the spruce trees. It went down and down, finally, as usual, ending in a long run-out along a stream. When we popped out of the trees, I had a branch hitchhiking on my arm (see the slide show). It was the bowl we were looking for (Vasquez Cirque). So we did one more run over the same face from there. After that, we found some folding lounge chairs at Lunch Rock on the top of Mary Jane and chilled out in the sun for a while and generally took it easy for the rest of the day.

It's been a long Adventure and we're ready to head home. Dan and I thank all of the friends who joined us along the way, in Leadville and in Utah, for their valued contributions.

And in response to Dan's comment below about the GPS - It played a critical role in directing us from place to place across four big states, for monitoring our elevation, and for finding gas stations, restaurants, and, most importantly, lattes. But I agree it was pretty confused in Pocatello, Idaho.

I hope this blog will inspire Adventurers across cyberspace to act on their Adventures.

Bye.

Day 21 - It's Over

It's hard to believe that it's over. We finished with some fabulous Colorado Sunshine. It's certainly been a "Once in a Lifetime" experience that we will treasure. Thanks to all who shared in "The Adventure"! Particular thanks go to Ray and Anita for keeping Ken busy when I was dying with the flu. And thanks to Cade for helping me keep my senses about me when Ken and James were teching me to death with their duelling GPS directions and giving me grief about not carrying my cell phone on the slope. And once again a very special thanks to James for his enthusiasm and his definition of "Adventure Skiing" and for helping to make this blog as much fun as it has been.