Life in Ski Town USA

Post Summer Report. A New Beginning...

2010-08-21T17:54:00.011-06:00

Hey everyone! Long time no see eh? I hope everyone’s summer was amazing because I truly had a summer that I will never forget. This summer was hands down, the best summer I have experienced and boy do I have a lot to share with you. Back in late April, I left Steamboat on great terms and went home to my wonderful family in Denver. Within the first week of being home, I scored a great job working for a woodshop in Denver making great money. I was fortunate to score this job early, but the work was hard and enduring! That wasn’t a big deal though. After 2 months of saving my money, I managed to conjure enough cash to afford my first road trip! My friend from CU Boulder and I decided to make our way north to Canada. We spent 3 days driving up to a wonderful town in Montana Called Polson. We then made our way to Glacier National Park. Let’s just say Glacier is THE most beautiful places in the entire world. I was simply breath taken by its majestic beauty. It was life changing. The picture to the left is of me standing at the top of going to the sun highway in Glacier National Park Anyway… enough about my summer. I have some great news for you all.

About 4 weeks before college started back up in August, I ran into a bit of a financial situation. My family was making some second decisions about being able to afford another year for me at the residence halls. I was worried I wasn’t even going to be able to return! Luckily for me, I had my connections with CMC and managed to apply for an RA job at Hill Hall. Within a week, I got the job! Fast forward a month, and here I am, sitting here in my own personal dorm room typing this blog up. The entire week we have been training for the position. We literally got the full scale overview of the position. We went over everything from fire safety, first aid training, building code etc. We even managed to meet every staff member at the Alpine campus. That was tons of fun!

Another cool part of this training week was being able to train with the other RA’s from the other two CMC campuses with residence halls. Since it was our turn this year, the RA’s from the Timberline and Spring Valley campus made their way to wonderful steamboat to train with us. I originally thought this was going to be a big headache but I quickly realized how much it helped me as a new RA. Getting the perspective from other students from other CMC campuses helped me understand what being an RA is all about. Its all about being a positive role model that is there to help other students. The two days Timberline and Spring Valley students were here, we had diversity training. We learned about what it is like to be a minority and how stressful it can be for a student. We also learned how to treat people equally and with respect. I found it to be very valuable information.

On our day off together, we enjoyed a day in wonderful steamboat hanging out enjoying what we do best. We gave them a taste of what we like to do. We visited the river, played guitar in the back, played volley ball and basically enjoyed life. We even made our way to the downtown library to see an incredible display of Tibetan monks performing a ritual sand image. They spent one week with no rest masterfully creating a beautiful piece of art out of sand. Yes. Sand! The RA’s from the other campuses loved it and it really put the cherry on top of our diversity training. When we returned to hill hall, it was time for them to leave. Relationships were made, tears were shed and smiles were exchanged but in the end everyone had a great time. We got to be very close and it made the training that much more enjoyable. It began to rain very hard when it was time for everyone to leave and we all celebrated by running around in the rain like children. Everyone’s gotta be a kid too ya know! Thanks for reading. See ya next time!

My final blog post

2010-04-28T18:10:00.002-06:00

So today is Wednesday, April 28 2010. I had no class today for I am completely done with school!! My freshman year in college has diminished into the past and everything has turned into memories. I took my last final last night and I have never been happier. At the same time however, I am extremely sad. I am depressed that I have to leave such a wonderful place. Steamboat became my 2nd home very quickly. Leaving this place is not going to be easy. All the people and teachers I have met over the months are so awesome. I love everything about CMC.

I remember how nervous and scared I was when I first came here. I didn't know a single soul yet I managed to meet a lot of wonderful people. CMC was the first place where I fit in really well and leaving is not going to be easy. I will never forget the mini ramp, the mountain, the awesome small class sizes, the wonderful views. This list goes on forever. Hopefully summer goes by quickly so I can get back up here in August. I am going to cut it short today for I have a ton of packing to do but I must say this school changed my life. I love this place more than words can describe. CMC will hold many incredible memories for me and any non CMC students reading, this is one hell of a place. Don't spread the secrete!

I will be back in August for another great year of blogging so stick around! You are all great and I love you for reading my blog.

Yours truly,

Benjamin Saheb

End of the Year Sneek-Up

2010-04-26T22:47:00.005-06:00

So today, April 26th, 2010 marks the first Monday of the last week in school. About 2 weeks ago was the last time I posted a blog. 2 weeks ago I was put in an academic "hold" you could say. Lately, I have been doing a ton of school work trying to get ready for my finals exams and final essays. From writing a 15 page paper in English, more papers in Philosophy and US History, I had no finger strength to type up a blog. And with studying for several final tests including a math final, my brain was exhausted. As I sit here typing, I am happy to say that all finals are taken care of except my US history final. Victory is so close!

The weather is looking amazing in steamboat. The warm spring sun came out of nowhere and there is green vegetation everywhere again. Flowers blooming, grass growing and all the trees are beginning to get green again. Can't wait for school to be out. Kind of don't want to leave either :/

End of Season? Go 4-Wheelin'!

2010-04-12T20:27:00.014-06:00

Yesterday, April 11th, Steamboat Mountain closed its access to the public. The 2009/2010 season is now officially over and snowboarding/skiing will no longer be an activity participated by CMC students.... Or so you think? Me and my buds contemplated that exact question. With that being said, I managed to give my friend a call today to see if he wanted to go snowboarding. Not at a resort but somewhere in the back country forests. He equally thought it was a great idea so we met with my friend and his 4-Wheeling club in Summit County. 2 Steamboat bound college students with 2 Boulder bound college students piled into our friends 4-Runner and set off up a favorite trail we have been driving up for years. I will not disclose the trail name for it is almost a well kept secrete me and my friends have been keeping for quite some time. Anyway, we have gone up this trail in past spring seasons for some great muddy 4 wheeling and some slushy snowboarding!

We were leaving summit county at about 7:00 a.m. Our boards were packed up into the car and our lunches were ready to go. My buds and I were excited to get back into the wheeling season so we will not miss snowboarding for a while. When we hit trailhead entrance, it was about 8:30. The trail was covered in packed slushy snow. We had to drive to higher ground where the better snow still exists. The further we drove my friends off road vehicle, the harsher the roads became. more mud, more snow, more water. The car got exponentially dirtier the higher up we went. We knew going up the western face of the mountain would be the muddiest and we chose that for a reason. Driving through mud and snow is my favorite 4-Wheeling conditions.

As we approached the summit of the mountain, we got our boards and headed to the northern facing part of the mountain. We were incredibly bummed out to see that the place where the mountain gets the most snow, didn't even have enough to snowboard down. Everything was rocky, muddy and crappy. The only kind of vehicle that could make it down the slushy snow was our cars, and this crazy snow tractor contraption. We have never seen this mountain like this before. Although all the pictures show snow on the mountain, there was definitely not enough to to be able to pull it off safely. So for the first time in 3 years, we have been unable to ride at our spot. So much for it being lucky..

Instead of snowboarding, we parked the vehicles in a nice spot to get lunch. Enjoying the spring sun, we celebrated the coming of spring and the leaving of winter. Even though we didn't get to snowboard, it was still a great sun. After hanging out in the area for an hour, we knew it would be time to head back to the boat. We packed up our stuff, and said our goodbyes.

Southwest Field Exploration Part 4/4

2010-04-10T09:48:00.017-06:00

With the 2nd night coming to a peaceful end, I was happy to finally leave the campfire and get some sleep. I was exhausted. The first field day had kicked my ass and I fell asleep quickly. I had a weird dream about being an Anasazi traveling around the mesas but I couldn't remember it clearly. I got another amazing night of sleep and I woke up in the morning completely refreshed. There was once again ice on my tent however day 3 was extremely cold. As I stepped outside my tent, there were no clouds above and the sun was still on its way over to our side of the sphere. I put every bit of clothing on I had and went and made breakfast again. Everyone in the camp was groggy because of the cold and darkness but as soon as the sun came up everyone came back to life.

Giving a presentation before we left

Angie showing us how to read a map

Before we embarked out on our trip, we did another preliminary stretch. While stretching, Angie and Cody went through our days schedule and it was not as intensive as the previous day. This day we were going to hike to the top of the comb ridge and catch some views. Then we would get lunch and go to a final site before leaving back to camp. I spent a great bit of effort stretching... I would need it. At about 8:00 a.m., we took off on our adventure.

We first traversed onto the comb regions sandstone. We hiked a few miles south and searched for a high ridge to scale up. Once we found one, we began hiking up. This is where all that stretching paid off. We were going straight up a sandstone mountain. I was not used to this kind of hiking at all for it was also very difficult. One slip, and your going to have a rough tumble down. This was pretty extreme. The whole time, I was thinking how the ancient puebloans pulled this off. The didn't have sophisticated hiking boots or adequate equipment. However they managed to pull it off like no problem. For us however, it was a challenge. When we got to what I thought was the top, was only half way. I was exhausted and scared because of how high we went. But we had to keep going. There was one more ginormous from the Lion King. This rock was huge and we were going straight up it. On the inside I didn't want to do this but I had to.

Jake showing the instructors a sweet view

What I thought would take 10 minutes ended up taking almost 30 minutes to scale this crazy thing. When we got to the top, it wasn't the top. There would be still another hour of hiking to get to a point that see's over the ridge. Angie and Cody had miscalculated the trek and said we would have to reach the top of the ridge from our 1st site of the day. Since we spent so much effort hiking, we decided to hang out and see the incredible view while eating lunch. It was awesome to be eating lunch in the 80 degree weather, while still seeing mountains all around use covered in snow. It was almost very spiritual being up there. It was as if the Anasazi were right there showing us what life was like years ago. It was a great feeling, however I wanted to get down! I was getting weazy being that high up.

Pride Rock was HUGE

Lunch at the top of pride rock

presentations at the top of pride rock

Instead of going down, we began scaling the comb ridge sideways. Yes sideways. Angie and Cody knew that it would be easier to get to our site if we stayed relatively high up. So that was what we did for the next hour. When we got to the canyon we needed to be in, we hopped in and began working our way up again. Eventually we would hit our next site. This place was covered in crumbled sandstone and was very hard to move around. However, this site was not an actual site where these people lived. This was a place strictly covered in rock art and pictographs. They were everywhere. The presence of these people really made their appearance at this site.

After we spent about an hour checking out the site, We decided to work our way up to the top of the ridge once again. I didn't think we would make it to the top because of what happened earlier. Sooner than later, we hit the top and my stomach dropped. I was speechless by what I was seeing. Everything could be seen from 360 degrees of view. We continued to hike to the tip top and when we reached the tip top, I got super freaked out. The top of the ridge had a straight drop down of like 2000 feet. One mistake up there would be the last of you. I kept good footing and ground. When we took our group picture, it was the highlight of the trip. This view really touched me and I could just feel the puebloans sitting right there next to us.

After we spent time on the top ridge, it was time to head home. I had learned so much on this trip... What a great way to celebrate everything we did over the few days. The hike down was hard but it was more depressing than anything. I didn't want to leave.

Southwest Field Exploration Part 3/4

2010-04-04T16:36:00.015-06:00

Continuing from part 2, we were just getting done with exploring the monarch ruin site. We moved out of the cave area and hung out on the rocks for lunch in the warm sun. While that was going on, Angie and Cody our instructors were giving us a lesson on the culture and behavior of the people that lived in Monarch cave 1000 years ago. We spent a great deal of time in deep conversations on what life may have been like for the people back then. Everyone had their opinions but I was under the assumption that my theories were right and theirs was wrong. Angie and Cody explained to me that in archaeology, everyone's opinion is accounted for. Because we don't really know exactly what went on, everyone's ideas are valid. The more I thought about it, the more I agreed with them.

After lunch, we had our last goodbyes and off we were again to another site. We spent the next hour straddling the cliffs trying to get on top of the comb range. Once we were finally out of the canyon and on the sandstone, the environment took a complete change. No longer was there water, life and plants around us. As soon as we got on the sandstone, it was a barren wasteland that went on as far as the eye can see. I was completely mind blown by how quickly things can change in a desert environment. It was simply incredible. The one thing I did like about this was how easy it was to travel. No longer were we hopping over streams, loose rock, steep cliffs, etc. We were simply taking the highway over to our next destination.

On our way to the 2nd ruin site, we passed a giant pond that was eroded into the rock. For me and the rest of the students, the water looked barren and lifeless. So we just passed it like it was no big deal. To Angie and Cody however, this waterhole was a desert concentration for life. They told us if we looked into the water for a few minutes, we would start to notice this waterhole come to life. Thats exactly what happened too. The more I looked into it, the more little creatures and bugs I began to see! Cody gave us a class presentation right on the spot. He opened up one of his books and read us an article on desert pond life. Time and time again would I be continually amused by this desert environment. There was just a sea of knowledge to be learned and we had barely chipped the paint.

Angie showing us the complex life systems in water holes

When we closed in on our 2nd destination of day 1, I was getting super tired. I had to fight my weakness for there was still the trek back. We hopped into another canyon and began walking deeper into it. Once again, the further we walked up the canyon, the more little artifacts I started to see on the ground. At this point I knew we were getting close. Sooner than later, we closed in on our destination. I am not sure of the name of the 2nd ruin site but boy was this one amazing! From what I could perceive, there was 2 levels on this site. The top level was beyond our capabilities of getting there but the lower level was open for our inspection. This site was much larger with a big emphasis on the brick style of structures. we found corrugated gray and elaborate black and white pottery. This led us to the conclusion that it was from the Pueblo III era.

this is the station where they would sharpen their work tools. Notice the indents in the soft sandstone

Behind the structures was the cliff dwelling. Under the cliff dwelling was an opening that went into a cave. This cave had to have significance to these people for it was huge. I could imagine the entire group that occupied these dwellings used to hang out in the cave during hot summers. It was so nice and cool to be inside the cave. Inside was loaded with pictographs and petroglyphs all across the inside wall. I was once again mind boggled.

its hard to see... but this is a petroglyph of a husband and impregnated wife

black and white pottery = Pueblo III Era

black and white pottery = Pueblo III Era

more cave paintings

When we hopped out of the cave, we began to explore more of the ruin site. This area was loaded with rooms and kivas. This led us to the conclusion that this site was officially Pueblo III. No more speculation at that point. It was known that it was a Pueblo III site. All along this cliff was kiva after kiva, room after room. This society was much larger than the monarch site. It was fascinating to see differences between eras all in one day! I felt so privileged to be able to visit sites like this. Sooner than later however, we had to begin our trek back to camp. I was already exhausted however it my legs weren't going to move without me telling them to so evidentally it had to be done. I was sad that we had to leave but also excited that there was still an extra day ahead of us!

The shortcut road home

Right before sunset, we made it back to camp. I cooked an incredible dinner and spent the rest of the evening with the group hanging out by the fire. Right before bed, Cody read us a story that was about an archaeologist who spent his life digging up these sites.

This concludes part 3/4

Southwest Field Exploration Part 2/4

2010-04-03T14:53:00.018-06:00

The first night of sleep was amazing. I pitched my tent on some soft dirt and the ground was very comfortable. While I was sleeping, I was awoken by Angie. She was going from tent to tent waking everyone up for the big day ahead. For a second, I had thought I was dreaming. When I looked outside, it was still pitch black but everyone was walking around the campground looking like zombies. Apparently I wasn't dreaming. She had woken us up before sunrise! When I crawled out of my tent, I couldn't see a thing. I went in to grab my headlamp. When I turned it on, I noticed ice had collected on my tent! It was extremely cold for being in the desert. I put on every layer I had in my backpack to combat the frigid air. Everyone in our camp grouped up in the kitchen area. Together we had a nice little breakfast cookout going and the smell of bacon and eggs was prominent. I managed to get some hot tea in my system and the cold began to dissipate. It was still dark though. When we finished eating breakfast, the sun had managed to break over the ridge shedding its warmth.

Awake before sunrise

As soon as there was sun was shining on camp, the temperature had risen drastically. Within 20 minutes of the sun being out, I got extremely hot. I managed to shed everything down to shorts and a t-shirt and finally I was comfortable again. Our instructors Angie and Cody gave us an introduction for the day. We were going to check out two ruin sites. While they were talking, we were going through an extensive stretch session. We would be spending the rest of the day hiking through some rough terrain. I packed up my day pack, and was ready to go.

After we departed from camp, I was eager to explore this unfamiliar Utah terrain. For me this was alien territory. For Angie and Cody, it was the back of their hand. Thank god they knew where they were going because I sure as hell didn't. We hiked along the trail for about an hour and we saw a cow! A lonely cow he was however he was terrified of us. We had to make a little detour to avoid him but he took off the second he had the chance. We really were in the middle of buck nowhere.

beautiful canyon creek

About 2 hours into the hike, we approached into a canyon. We managed to walk along the bottom and there was a nice stream of water going through. Down in the bottom of the canyon was nice and cool, away from the hot sun. About 20 more minutes into the hike we approached our first destination. I knew we were getting close to the ruin site because people in our group were finding chunks of broken pottery everywhere. Surely enough, we arrived at our destination. There was a steel box with a notebook inside it. It was a log for who has been to the cave.

From far away this ruin site looked incredible. The structures that used to be there had unfortunately crumbled over time. However enough of the ruin was in tact for us to see how these people lived. In all honesty, its amazing that the structures were in this good condition because its almost 1000 years old. At this point there was artifacts everywhere! The artifacts we were finding were mainly pieces of broken pottery but we managed to see remains of old tools and ropes etc...

Piece of pottery

view of the cave

Angie and students scaling the steep cliff

When we managed to get up inside the ruin, the view was stunning. The people that lived in this cave were genius. They were right above a rain drainage for fresh water. The location of the cave was inside a massive piece of sand stone. This means there is only a 1 way route to the cave so they can spot outsiders approaching their territory. Inside the cave was rich with cave paintings and artifacts. We had to be extremely careful not to touch much but it was so tempting not too! There was even some corn cobs that still had teethmarks in them! AMAZING! Check out these pictures.

Picture of me

cave paintings

untouched corn

To me, this looked like some old ruin. To Angie and Cody though, was a complete different story. They knew so much about these people and how they lived. It was such a treat listening to them talk about their culture. Never was I ever so intrigued by something in a long time. This was an experience of a lifetime.

After we got our detailed look at the ruin, we moved into the sun to have some lunch. It was such a nice day at this point. Everyone was snacking on their lunches while Angie and Cody conducted a class presentation right on the spot. It was great being able to sit in the sun, take notes and listen to them talk about these incredibly interesting people.

Angie conducting class in the sun

This concludes the end of part 2.

Southwest Field Exploration Part 1/4

2010-04-02T21:42:00.012-06:00

Last semester a friend of mine had told me about an archaeology class offered at CMC. I was skeptical on enrolling in the class because archaeology never really interested me. At the time, I already had enough classes on my plate and I wasn't interested. So I kindly declined his proposal, I didn't want to take the class. And that was that... About a week after my Snow Orientation class, I was exhausted and burnt out from backpacking in the winter. My body was eager to get the hell away from snow for a few days. At the same time that was happening, my buddy came back to me letting me know that that archaeology class had an open spot. He really wanted me to join this for some reason. Once he had informed me that it included backpacking in the desert, I was sold. So I enrolled in the class. I should have asked more about the class itself, but I didn't care at the time. I just wanted to go someplace warm and learn some stuff. The class was called Southwest Field Exploration.

Walking into the first day of class I was eager to see what it was all about. Our teacher Angie Krall, told us that Southwest Field Exploration is a class that introduces the social, religious, economic and cultural development of the Ancestral Puebloan peoples of the southwest commonly known as the Anasazi. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I previously had no idea what archaeology was even about. I was just scared of its technical term. I actually showed a major interest in archaeology the more she talked about the class. Within the first 10 minutes of her introduction, I was hooked. The class included traveling to Utah, backpacking into remote canyons, practicing archaeological interpretation, and visiting ancient ruins, artifacts and rock art. I was very excited. I knew that I was going to learn a lot while having fun in the process.

Our day of departure began on March 26, at 7:00 a.m. Everyone met in the lower monson parking lot to load up the gear. Because we were car camping, I had packed a ton of incredible food because I was redeeming myself for how poorly I packed on Snow O. Anyway, our first stop on the drive was in Moab, Utah AKA jeep country USA. The only vehicles in Moab were 4-wheel drive. It consisted mainly of huge jeeps or monster trucks. We were about 5 hours away from steamboat, with another 2.5 more to go. We grabbed a quick lunch and were back on the road. Thankfully I was able to catch some z's in the car so the drive was not bad at all. Our 2nd stop was in Monticello Utah. Angie went to the park ranger office to pick up the group permit for our stay. There were some complications with paperwork so we got delayed about 45 minutes, but soon enough we were on the home stretch. Our final destination was in Bluff Utah. We made way to a campground deep in the Comb Region.

It was getting dark so we set up camp quickly. I was surprised at how cold it was too. As soon as the sun went down in that desert, it went from 80 degrees, to a freezing 28 degrees. That was shocking for me. Luckily, I was prepared and had my winter jacket. It was ironic that everyone was running around in the sand and dirt covered in winter clothing. I made myself a quick dinner on my incredible new MSR vortex stove. With a full stomach and a tired body, I hit the hay. I was very excited for the next day.

This would be my home for the next 4 days

To be continued...

Happy Gaper Day!

2010-04-01T10:12:00.005-06:00

If you live in a ski town, you deal with thse people everyday. If you own a season pass, they're most likely going to get in your hair. CMC students run into them every day and we we can't avoid them no matter how hard we try to. They’re the people in tight jeans with cowboy hats and 70's gear standing in the middle of the run, taking pictures of the resort.

However, without them, every local would be out of a job. They bring so much revenue and money to the resort, they are a very vital aspect of the resorts survival. With that being said, there is a special day dedicated to the celebration of gapers (good or bad) called gaper day. This holiday occurs every April 1st and is like Halloween for mountain town locals. It gives everyone a chance to dress up all hideous and have a great day of spring fun on the mountain.

Spring was far from it today in Steamboat however. This morning, we woke up to about a foot of fresh on gaper day. We have been blessed to have this last powder day for the 2009/2010 season.

Snow Orientation Part 3/3

2010-03-30T19:34:00.011-06:00

Waking up the next day was like waking up in my bed at home. I wasn't welcomed by the freezing ass bitter cold like I did the previous weekend. This time, I woke up to a beautiful sun peeking in the entrance of our snow cave. I was excited that I wasn't going to be shivering for the bulk of my morning. I got out of my sleeping bag and it was very warm inside the quinzhee. It was so warm that I noticed a layer of ice had formed on the inside wall of the quinzhee. This meant that it was so warm inside the previous night, that the snow softened and refroze into ice. Because of this, It was a joy getting dressed for the day.

When I crawled out of my quinzhee I greeted the warm refreshing sun. Everyone was already up before I was, and they had already started making breakfast. The smell of cooking made me extremely hungry! I hurried over to my backpack and grabbed some eggs and bacon and we had a nice little kitchen fiesta going on. It was such a cool site seeing everyone cooking in the middle of the back country. I have never had so much fun cooking in a long time. It was essential that we got a good morning meal because we were going to be out of camp for the entire day on an exploration mission. So we took our time making a fantastic breakfast meal before we took off.

This is me before we left

Around 10 am, we had packed our day packs, strapped on our snow shoes and head off into the hills. Our first mission was to get to higher grounds to catch an incredible view. On the way we learned about different animal tracks that we saw in the snow. We tried to identify the tracks but it was very hard. Our teacher Pete was an expert on the subject and taught us everything about snow tracks. On the way we also learned about different tree species and plant species. It was an information packed day that was for sure.

Hiking up to the summit

When we reached the summit of the mountain we were on, we decided to stop and grab some lunch. I had some PP&J. While eating lunch, we were soaking up the warm sun rays while enjoying the marvelous view the entire Steamboat valley. We even were able to see Haans Peak across the valley. I had to get a picture of me with the peak in the background for this is a legendary peak. While we were up there, our teacher gave us a lesson on how to properly read a map. CMC doesn't believe in using GPS systems because those don't teach you anything! So we spent a good 30 minutes going over everything about map reading. I am still trying to learn the magical art of map reading.

me with haans peak in the background

After we had plotted our way off the peak, we made our way into some trees that were away from the breeze. It was time for Jareds fire starting presentation. One big aspect of Snow Orientation is the ability to survive in a severe survival situation. With that being said, we needed to know how to start a fire with nothing but flint. I thought it would be impossible but Jared made it look really easy. He had the thing going within minutes of setting things up. I was extremely impressed. Even to this day I havn't perfected my fire starting skills.

When we got back we had a ton of daylight to spare so we built a kicker into some fresh snow. It was a lot of fun. Check out the video and pictures below.

When the sun went down, it began to get very cold. We had another kitchen fiesta and everyone cooked a fantastic meal once again. After dinner we used our fire starting skills to get a campfire going at base camp. This was the best night of the trip. By that point, everyone had gotten over the shitty feelings of camping in the winter. Everyone had their systems down perfectly and there was no better way to celebrate over a nice group campfire. This gave us a very good opportunity to dry our clothing by the fire. I dried everything from my jacket to my boots. Boy was it a great way to kick off the final night. Going to sleep was extremely easy.

Waking up the next morning was once again very pleasant. I was kind of upset to know that this would be our last day camping in the wild however I was eager to get back home. We went over one final lesson and we learned about avalanches in the back country. We built a mote and learned the dynamics of snow and everything that can cause an avalanche. We tested the snow after that. My body was aching and extremely sore. Our instructor told us that we had to completely destroy our camp because of their leave no trace policy. So we began destroying our quinzhees and kitchen areas. It was depressing, but we had to do it. Once everything was taken care of, we took off back to the car.

Driving home gave me a lot of time to think about things. I had learned so much over those 2 weekends. I learned that humans really only need the bare essentials to survive. I also learned that humans can do incredibly amazing things if they just put their minds to it. We were challenged mentally and physically but the entire group ended up on top in the end. It was a marvelous experience. I would highly recommend taking Snow Orientation for everyone!

Snow Orientation Part 2/3

2010-03-24T19:54:00.013-06:00

This is part 2 continued from part 1. There will a final 3rd post from this trip. Stick around for part 3 soon to come!

When I got back from my first weekend out on Snow O, I had a lot to learn from the trip. I realized that winter camping is a whole different ball game than summer camping. I realized that winter camping requires perfection in every way possible. Everything you do in winter camping, contributes to the outcome of your well being. If you leave your gloves off for 5 minutes, your hands will be ice cold for the rest of the night. If you get your socks wet trying to change clothes, your feet will be wet and cold for the rest of the day. The biggest thing that made my first weekend hard was the actual food I brought. Me and my partner tried to save money on food and that was a disaster. We were weak and hungry because of our poor food choices. For the 2nd trip, I would end up spending almost 40 dollars on food and it paid off. In the end, I would be more than prepared for weekend 2.

The following Friday after weekend 1, we all met back in the lower Monson parking lot. Everyone had a totally different mind set this time around because we all knew what was we were going to be in for. Everyone also looked a lot more better packed. When we left CMC, I was happy to see that the sun was out this time! I was so sick of the constant snowing from the previous weekend, I was relieved to know that the next few days were going to be mild according to the meteorologists. As we were driving back to the same mountain region, we made it extra clear to Pete not to drive in another ditch! Luckily, he listened and we didn't get stuck 3 hours behind schedule like we did last week. When we arrived, we were not so much in a hurry as we were last time.

The hike into our campsite was quite pleasant. The sun was out and it was warm. It was nice to know that we could actually see into the mountains we were hiking to. The view was fantastic. We were making such great time, we decided to actually sit down and eat lunch. Eating tons of carbs and drinking tons of water really helps with your energy and performance in a winter environment. So the sit down lunch did wonders for the entire group. When we continued on, we passed or original campsite and wanted to go further into the steep hills so we could get closer to some better backcountry terrain. About an hour after we passed campsite 1, we decided to make refuge.

The first thing we did was do a briefing on quinzhees. A quinzhee is a shelter made out of snow that looks very similar to an igloo. The only difference between a quinzhee and an igloo is an igloo is made out of snow blocks, while a quinzhee is carved out a pile of snow. With that being said, we mapped out our
camp and began constructing our quinzhee shelters. We started shoveling snow into a giant pile like there was no tomorrow. After about an hour of shoveling, we were done. In the process of all that, we managed to have 3 giant snow piles adjacent to each other. There was also a sweet mote path that connected the 3 snow structures. In order for a quinzhee to not collapse, you must let the snow sit for an hour to harden. So that was what we did. In the meantime, we got the stoves fired up and began making some hot chocolate and ate snacks to keep our core temperature up.

Dalton helping us figure out where to put the kitchen

Using melted snow to make hot tea!

When an hour passed, it was time to carve. I volunteered to be the main mole for the project because I had the most waterproof clothing in my group. Slowly but surely, our quinzhee took shape. Calling myself a mole was perfect because I looked just like a mole doing it. Surprisingly, I got really hot in there and I began to sweat. That didn't bother me at the time though because I just wanted to get the structure finished. After about an hour of straight mole action, the entire structure was finished. It was a really awesome set up. Like I said before, we had a sweet mote connecting the 3 quinzhee. We decided to turn the mote into a fantastic kitchen area.

At this time I began to start freezing. Exactly what our instructors had warned us about. If you get wet from something or sweat, you will freeze. My body temperature began to drop very quickly because of the sun going down. I ran over to the kitchen area to make a hot cup of tea and that made me temporarily warm. While I had some warmth, I decided to change clothes. Now I must say, changing clothes in the middle of dead snowy winter is one hell of a task. After 25 minutes of struggling to get clothes on, I finally did it and I felt a million times better. Having dry clothes on is a gift!

Final view of base camp

At this time it was dark and everyone was tired. I whipped up some dinner and went right to the snow cave for a great night sleep. I loved how much warmer the quinzhee was compared to the tarp. Inside the quinzhee, it was a whopping 42 degreese. SO warm compared to the -6 degree tarp! With that being said, I was excited to get a great night sleep. With all the hiking we did that day I was ready to pass out.

me and partner in the quinzhee

This concludes part 2. Stick around for part 3 coming soon!

Snow Orientation Part 1

2010-03-22T19:34:00.018-06:00

Colorado Mountain College is just like any other college out there. It has classrooms, dorms, a dining hall, a campus and degree programs. One thing that makes CMC different however, is the actual atmosphere inside the classroom. Besides small class sizes, CMC is right in the middle of the Rocky Mountains... An amazing place to be. Because of this, Colorado Mountain College is notorious for its outstanding Outdoor Education program. Like most colleges, classes are conducted inside a classroom or lecture hall with a teacher and a chalkboard. At CMC, outdoor education classes are conducted outdoors right where things matter most. Unfortunately for me, I am not in an outdoor education program however there is more to this story. At CMC, if you take 15 credits, the next 3 credits are free! With that being said, when I was registering for 2nd semester classes, I was stuck on 15 credits. I had no idea what I wanted to take so I figured I would use my free credits and take an Outdoor Education class. Since we were right in the heart of a mountain town, I thought that taking a class called Snow Orientation would be a ton of fun.

me being goofy

The first day of class we went over the basics of the class. The purpose of the class is to give students a better understanding of a back country winter environment while trying to learn about the natural history of the land in the process. Our teacher, Pete Huber, said we would be spending a total of 3 nights in the middle of the back country for 2 consecutive weekends. I have never been winter camping before so I was excited for what the trip entailed. At the time, little did I know that this would be one of the hardest things I would ever do in my entire life.

When the first day of the trip rolled around, I was up and awake at 7:00 a.m. sharp with all my gear ready. Our group of 12 met in the lower monson parking lot and that was where we piled in our huge heap of gear we would be needing for the part 1 of our trip. Since this was the first weekend, we were only going to spend 1 night in the wilderness so we can get a feel for how it is going to be. I wasn't too worried about 1 night so I didn't really put a lot of time and effort in what I had packed. Little did I know that I was going to be in for one hell of a time. at 7:30, we left the college and off we went! I am not sure of the exact place we went to however I do know that we were close to Steamboat Lake and Haans Peak.

While we were driving to our location, it was snowing quite hard. The road had accumulated about 6 inches on the ground and the heavy van/bus we were taking was having a hard time making it through the storm. A little ways up the road, our teacher Pete cut a turn too sharp and managed to get our vehicle stuck in the deep snow! Luckily for us, we all were equipped with our own shovels so we thought digging the bus out would be no problem. The picture to the right is us trying to dig the bus out. After 30 minutes of digging, we still got nowhere and had to call for backup. About two hours later, one of Pete's friends came to the rescue! Within no time, we were back on the road with only a 3.5 hour delay :(

The tow man saved our lives!!

When we got to our destination, everyone was eager to hit the trail quickly because our daylight was precious and we were behind schedule. Once we got everything situated, we hit the trail. At this point, I knew that there would be no turning back now. After 10 minutes of hiking, I was exhausted! My 30 pound pack and 12 pound sled I was trailing was getting heavier by the second. Although it was 20 degrees outside, I was sweating profusely and I had to shed layers down to my undershirt. Even with no clothes on I was still hot. About an hour into the hike we were only 1/3 of the way there and it was snowing harder the further uphill we went. We stopped briefly for a lunch break but we had to kick it into high gear in order to make it to camp before it got dark. When we made it to base camp, the first thing we did was set up our tarp tents.

Amazing pic I took while we were hiking

Everyone had specific jobs to teach to the class. Jared gave us a thorough class demo on how to build a tarp enclosure. He covered everything from snow carving, tarp material, knots, to securing the tarp to the ground. He made everything look so easy so me and my partner were not worried about the construction. Once again, I had underestimated things and building a tarp shelter is very difficult. Especially when your fingers are completely numb from the extreme cold. Fortunately for us, we managed to erect our beautiful hobo shack for it was going to be home for a night. After the tarps were set up, I was excruciatingly cold and immensely hungry. We cooked dinner over our 1 precious stove and melted snow for the morning. Dinner was not so great. We had packed those grab and go rice boxes and it was very un palatable. I knew that for the next week, I would go all out on buying substantial food.

This was me and my partners tarp structure

As soon as the sun went down, I was exhausted and cold. I wanted to go to sleep but I was simply just too cold to even do so. Me and a few kids were feeling the same way so we spent the rest of our energy building a fire pit. Boy did that fire warm my freezing ass up and boy did it feel amazing. I wanted to sit by the fire all night but eventually it would go out and I would be forced to go to the hobo tent. When I did manage going back to the tent, it was extremely hard getting dressed for sleep. I had nowhere to stand, and nowhere to put my clothes. It had to be done though. After 20 minutes of getting dressed for sleep, I finally made it in my life sustaining sleeping bag. I went to sleep faster than I have gone to sleep in a long time. Surprisingly, I was not that cold in the tarp. Maybe a little shivers every now and then but considering we were outside in the middle of the winter, it was not too bad.

The new and improved hobo shack

Waking up the next day was very hard. It may have been tolerable inside my sleeping bag but as soon as I got out of my sleeping bag, I began to shiver uncontrollably. I had nowhere to stand because I had no shoes and there was snow everywhere. The first thing I tried to do was put my boots on. Tried is the key word in that sentence. When I tried to put my boots on, there was one problem. The entire boot structure was frozen solid. Even the laces were frozen to the boot making it impossible for me to even slip my foot in. After 30 (yes 30) minutes of breathing on my boots, I finally was able to slip my foot in them. My feet would be frozen ice cold for the next 2 hours. Once I got outside the tarp, I eagerly made breakfast. Everyone else in our camp had quality food like omlets, oatmeal, hot chocolate etc. Me and my partner had bagels. That was it. Just bagels. Once again, I realized that we packed very immaturely as far as food went. Bagels simply don't cut it when you are out in the wilderness.

Since everyone was feeling similar to me, we packed our bags early and took off back to the bus. I was so relieved that I had survived the impervious night for it was one of the hardest things I had ever done. The hike back to the bus was easier for we were going downhill. Slowly but surely we made it back and my body was in survival mode. I didn't want to do anything but take a hot shower. That was all that was on my mind. Hot shower. Hot shower. Boy was that the most incredible hot shower I have ever taken. After the first weekend was over, I knew there was a lot I would have to change if I was going to survive part 2.

RHA Bareback Relay Race

2010-03-21T20:52:00.008-06:00

>

Like every Sunday, the Resident Hall Association puts on a program for the fellow dorm kids. This week was me and Josh's turn to to a program and we thought what a great idea it would be to do a relay race! Since the snow has recently been melting, we thought this was a great time to do a naked relay race because of how warm it has been. Ever since we put the promotional signs up last week, students have been talking about this event for quite some time.

The race entailed students to strip down to their skibbies and complete a set of relay oriented tasks. They had to first run across the parking lot, up the muddy hill and put on a freezing cold wet tshirt. Once they did that, they had to high tail it over to the basketball hoop to spin around 10 times and make a basket. Once they scored, they had to run all the way back to the starting point to close in their time. The top 3 winners would be granted gift card prizes to safeway. 1st place - $60 2nd place - $30 3rd place - $10.

At precisely 8:00 sharp, students started to gather in the MPR waiting for the race to start. I was surprised when 20 or so people showed up but I was let down to hear that only 7 wanted to compete. The rest were too chicken to compete. Throughout the entire race, there was 1 spot where kids were slipping and getting all sorts of mud over themselves. I felt kind of bad for how cold it was but it really didn't matter because they were all going for the gold! in the end the top 3 came out victorious and finally can afford some food for a change! When everything was all over, we had hot coco waiting in the MPR for all the freezing contestants that didn't win anything.

All in all the event was a lot of fun and we must wait until next Sunday to see what RHA has in store...

Until nexttime

Super Hot St. Patricks Day!

2010-03-17T19:17:00.007-06:00

Before I go into this post, I must give credit to the St. Patricks Day photo on the left. This photo was taken by Larry Pierce and I got it off the Steamboat.com. If you are interested in seeing more photos, please their photos of the day section! Anyway... do you remember my post yesterday about how it was so hot I was able to skate the mini ramp? If you don't, scroll down a bit, its the post right under this one... With that being said, today was another beautiful/hot day. I woke up this morning to the sound of dripping water and a bright sun shining into my room. I looked outside and there it was, once again, not a cloud in the sky. What a great way to celebrate St. Patrick's Day! Me and my roommate got dressed in our green T's and head for the Mountain.

When we arrived at the mountain we were in utter shock. The crowd was just insane!! There had to be at least 200 people waiting in line at the gondola and it didn't stop there. The base of Cristie was packed as well. It had to be a combination of spring break week alongside the fact that it was a holiday. I thought it was pretty funny to see security guards searching people's backpacks upon entrance of the gondola. I guess they were pretty serious about the DUI enforcement the city has been talking about. Not only that, but there was even police officers on the mtn skiing around! Me and my roommate were even lucky to get on a lift with some of them thats how many there were today. Other than that, it was an amazing day! There was not a cloud in the sky and there was so much green on the mountain. Check out these pics of me and my roommate lounging on the lifts.
Roommate

Me

Until nexttime... C ya!

Spring Break Update... Mini Ramp Session!

2010-03-16T19:54:00.005-06:00

I know this post is a little late, but all last week was our Spring Break Vacation and I had no will to do anything but relax. The break was 10 days long and it started Friday March 5th (early I know!). I was going to write this blog on the first day of break but I was eager to take a break, so I didn't do it. So I apologize :D Eventually however procrastination took over, and today I am finally writing this blog. Anyway, my Spring Break was nothing too exciting in case you were wondering. On Friday, I packed my bags and made way towards my Denver home. I was eager to see my family and old high school friends from back in the day. Unfortunately for me, all my old buddies were still in school and I was stuck at home with mom and pops for an entire week. Now that it was a bad thing but I was hoping for a more exciting spring break. If there are any CMC administrators out there reading, please make spring break in accordance with other colleges!

When I got back to Steamboat yesterday, I was in shock by how much snow had already melted. As I was driving down main street downtown, there were people in tank tops, shorts and flip flops walking down the street. I saw skiers in short sleeve shirts sweating their asses off. All the hills that faced the sun were muddy and snow melt streams were everywhere! Today I woke up to clear blue skies and temperatures well into the 50's. With that being said, I noticed the mini ramp was completely dried off and free of snow! I got some lunch and went down to the mini ramp. Boy was it a great feeling to get back on a skateboard again.

Check out this scenic picture of the mini ramp I took today!

This is a pic of the grass at the school! No more snow :(

Bone Dry Bob Adams Drive

So there you have it. Spring is official now in Steamboat. Lets hope we can make the best of the last few days on the mountain!

C ya!

Jalapeno Eating Contest!!

2010-03-03T20:40:00.007-06:00

About a week ago me, my friend Lex and my friend Spencer thought it would be a great idea to do a Jalapeno eating contest. After consulting with the RHA director, we got approval and were given permission to make our dream a reality! Last Thursday we went over to Safeway and we purchased their entire stock of spicy Jalapeno peppers. We ended up buying almost 4 pounds of Jalapenos... We even had to double bag the peppers just so the bag didn't rip. We also purchased a few gallons of milk for the contest would be on fire! No pun intended...

With the globe warming, the snow on the mountain melting, the flowers blooming, people in Steamboat just thought it couldn't possibly get any hotter. Well my friends, that destiny was shattered this past Sunday. Thanks to the Resident Hall Association, CMC put on its first ever Jalapeno Eating Contest! Boy did a heat wave blow through the MPR that night!!!

When Sunday evening rolled around, we went down to the MPR to set up for the contest. Students were anxious for the event to start. 15 minutes before 9pm, students poured into the MPR to spectate the competition. I was surprised when nobody said they wanted to participate but luckily we had 4 brave contestants who volunteered their taste buds for the chance to win. First place prize was a $30 gift card to Safeway and 2nd place was a $15 to Safeway. There was enough incentive for the competitors to go all out.

Feel the burn!

When the contest started, everyone was cheering and it got very loud in the MPR. Ive never seen people get so excited over peppers before! Some kids kept a straight face and some were in major pain. When the contest was over we counted up the pits.

This was the first RHA event I hosted and it turned out to be a great success. I was happy to see so many people show up as well. Check out our winners!!

2 Rails 1 Cup

2010-03-02T18:12:00.009-06:00

Two Rails/One Cup Snowboard event on Monday, March 1, on 7th Street. Seventh Street will be closed to traffic most of the day to prepare for the event.
4-7 pm.
After event party to follow.
Downtown Steamboat Springs
Between Lincoln Ave and Yampa Street on 7th Street
Hosted by Urbane

Sponsors:
Street prep by City of Steamboat Springs
Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club
Steamboat Ski and Resort Corp
Skull Candy
Powder Tools
^^^Taken from:
www.mainstreetsteamboatsprings.com

Last night, Matt Ladley, The Station and Urbane hosted the 2 Rails 1 Cup rail jam last night. The name was pretty funny when I first heard it so I knew I had to go down and check it out. The event started at 4pm and went all the way to 7. I had class at 4 so I couldn't get there until around 5:30. When I made my way down mainstreet downtown, I noticed traffic was getting sluggish close to the Jam. I knew this event was going to be awesome... It turned out to be a great time.

The event was located on Lincoln and 7th street. Those of you who don't know where that is, that is right in the heart of Downtown Steamboat! The setup they had was awesome! Right in the middle of downtown traffic was a bunch of rail junkies throwing down their skills trying to win the cup. I parked on the other side of 7th street and Oak and even from that far away I could hear the music bumping and the light set up. I managed to get close and take a pic of the event from across the street as well. I was extremely impressed with the planning that must have had to go on to make this event the success that it was.

When I made it across the street it was already the finals heat and the riders were throwing down. I noticed many local shredders also a few pro amateurs that rode for NeverSummer, The Click, and Steamboat. The set up they had was pretty technical. I was happy to see that they actually had rails set up instead of boxes. Many of the rail jams I have been to lately have always had boxes in the set up and I was happy to finally see some rails. They had an urban style down flat down, and an a frame. At the end was a little box for jib play.

After snapping some photos from the sides I moved down towards the bottom to get a few more pictures. It was so crazy to see that a place that is usually loaded with cars became a place where people were snowboarding.

After checking out the bottom I made my way to the right side of the jam to Urbane. From their balcony they had tons of people rockin out to the tunes and enjoying the great view of the entire competition. There was a huge concentration of 18 - 23 year olds so it was great to finally see some people my age for a change. Sometimes I feel like Steamboat is only old people but I felt right at home at the rail jam.

After scoping out the shops and their free stuff on the balcony, I noticed Urbane had a DJ set up right in front their doors. Major props goes out to the DJ who was spinning original vinyls. Thats just classy. The tunes he was mixin were great as well.

This is a video of the DJ mixing at the jam

All in all the Rail Jam was a huge success. I had tons of fun rocking out to the music, getting free stuff and seeing some great local talent. Lots of CMC kids were there as well and I they were having a great time. If any of the promoters of this event is reading, I gotta say GREAT EVENT!

C ya!

Tubing

2010-02-24T23:41:00.008-06:00

Like iv been saying in many previous posts, CMC does a great job keeping the students occupied with fun activities. This week CMC made arrangements with Howelsen Hill for a tubing night. A great thanks must go out to Student Government for putting the event on because stuff like this is definitely not cheap. So we were all fortunate that we got to go for free because normally Tubing is like $20 for an hour! Check out the snowfall pic to the right! It was snowing sooo had!

Tubing started at 9pm this evening and many kids were there waiting for the doors to open. After filling out our waivers me and some friends hit to the tubing hill when we were greeted with a extremely thick dense snowfall. It was incredible. It was snowing so hard! Gotta love the late spring snowfall. Anyway we got a few good runs in the tubing hill before it got busy at the top. Once it became busy though was when the fun started because music was blasting and everyone was having a great time. I was really glad I went because that was one of the most fun events Student Government has put on in a while! So if there are any Student Government kiddos reading this, do more things like tubing night! It was a load of fun. Anyway, check out some more pictures of the snowyness and fun we all were having!

This pic was taken from far back. The legendary ski jumping is on the left

This is a shot of the steep going down the tubing run. It was so much fun!

Anyway, the night came to an end and everyone had a good time. I can't say it enough but another thanks goes out to Student Government for a great event. We all had tons of fun! Until nexttime, C ya!

Buffalo Bill's Grave and Lookout Mountain

2010-02-16T19:47:00.008-06:00

For the past 4 weeks, Steamboat Springs has been hotter than I have ever seen it. Almost the entire month of January and February has been sunny, warm and muddy. I guess global warming is not a hoax! Seriously though, we are like 100 inches behind schedule and in need of some snow!! That being said, I grew excessively bored of boarding over rocks so I decided to take a trip to Denver to visit some old friends and the fam. Goin back to Denver was a great time but that is not what this post is about. This post is about Buffalo Bill's grave and how cool I didn't think it was.

Last Monday I left the Denver house a bit early to make it back for my math exam. Clocking good time going up I-70, I noticed I had hours before my math test and I wanted to do something Iv never done before. As I continued down the road I noticed the sign for Buffalo Bill's Grave and Lookout Mountain. I must say I have seen that exit sign hundreds of times but never even took the effort to check it out. I have always been to busy to get to Summit County or Steamboat to even care but that day I had nothing to do for a while... so what the hell I said, I took the right at the sign and head up the road!

About 7 miles up the road I eventually hit the destination. The sign "Buffalo Bills Grave" was a dead give away. Anyway the first place I checked out was the free museum they had at the top of the hill. At the moment before walking into the museum, I had no info on Buffalo Bull whatsoever. All I knew was he loved buffaloes. WOW was I wrong! According to the museum, he had nothing to do with buffaloes. that is a total misconception. He was a jack of many trades and one in particular he was a bison hunter. Bison are similar to buffaloes and thats where his nick name was screwed up. Besides that, he didn't even really like bison. He was estimated to kill over 4,000 bison in his lifetime! Not only that he was a performer, a rebel, a prospector and a tradesman. Lived a very successful life and upon his death, he wished to be buried on Lookout Mountain. Little did I know that lookout mountain overlooks everything! Literally everything! The pictures of lookout mountain inside the museum were insane! I had to check it out for myself.

When I left the museum, I bolted up the hill to the view spot of lookout mountain. WOW is all I could say. I literally could see everything! Except in real life! haha. I was able to see the tiny city of Denver, all the way past my house to Castle Rock, to all the way north just before Fort Collins! Such an incredible view it was. No wonder Bison Bill loved this place so much. I would want to be buried there too! I was so pissed that I didn't have a quarter to put in the binocular machines because everything was so far away I had a hard time seeing thing clearly.

After I checked out the view I took off down the path to check out where this dude was buried. I must say, the way they set this up was depressing. It looked like a tourist attraction to me. Gates around the grave, pictures, plaques, the whole nine yards. I felt kind of bad taking pictures of his grave because that would be the last thing id want people doing to my grave if I was him. But I had to so I could share them with the rest of the world :) Anyway here is a pic of his grave. And my awesome Suby.

So what was the lesson learned today? Well considering I got to see an incredible view, learn about Buffalo Bill and see his awesome grave, id consider it a day well spent. If you ever have the chance to check the place out, I recommend going at night time. The view would be killer! Perhaps I will go at night another time and show you?

C ya!

Things Just Get Weirder and Weirder ....

2010-02-08T21:09:00.009-06:00

When I say things just get weirder and weirder, I mean it when I say it. It seems that every show CMC puts on for entertainment up here, things just get weirder and weirder. Do you remember my previous post on the hypnotist that came to Late Nite Dinner for entertainment? That was a great act the guy put on. Still weird in context that we all got hypnotized into doing stupid things. Well people, what you are about to read and see will creep you out. It may not. It should though because the things I witnessed on Wednesday February 3rd is beyond explanation. Check this out.

Last Wednesday CMC put on another night of entertainment for the students. At precisely 9:00 p.m. the doors for late nite opened and we were greeted with a rather unique looking man named Christopher Carter. Mr. Carter is someone that calls themselves a mentalist/hypnotist/body language reader/nut case. After we got our dinner, the lights dimmed and all attention was on Carter. The first thing he told the audience was things are going to be weird. Only after it gets weird, it will get even weirder. We had no idea what was in store for us.

According to Christopher, he has spent his entire life dedicated to psychology and how the mind works. He claims that just by looking at a person's body language, he can extract any bit of information from that person that he wants. His first example was when he told someone in the crowd to pick a card and remember it. At this point I was thinking "oh great... another magician..... woohoo." As the audience member drew a card I got to snag a glance to see that it was an 8 of clubs. Christopher looked at the kid who drew the card and instantly knew it was a black card. How he knew this was beyond me. He then asked questions like is it a heart? Diamond? Club? Spade? Simply by the kids reactions to his questions, he was able to detect that the card was a an 8 of clubs. WIERD!!! He did this several times only with different things and he didn't even stutter, or fail once. I was impressed. Yet I assumed there was some kind of trick to all this. So I wasn't totally banboozeled.

This is when his act took a turn. I couldn't believe what he was doing, but he said he could do all these things while blindfolded. I was skeptical. He took 2 silver dollars and duct taped them to his eyes. Followed with more duct tape. He then managed to wrap a light proof cloth over his face and duct taped it some more. Why he did all this? I have no idea however there was no way he was going to see any light on that sort of makeover. He then made everyone write down their name, a question and a piece of information nobody on this earth knows on the card. He then collected all the cards.
With all eyes blindfolded, he drew out a card and knew exactly the name of the person who wrote on the card! He called out "Who has the initials SW?" That would be Shandra Winters, the Resident Hall Director of the dorms. She called out "thats me!" He asked her several non important questions and gave out her husbands name, some activities they have done in the past and some other personal information about her life that nobody even knew about. I would have thought he was joking except for the fact that Shandra was blushing in total awe. Everything he had said was correct right on the dot! At this point I started to get weirded out. After 2, 3, 4, 5... and up to 10 people's cards, he nailed every single one of them. Not a single thing wrong about everyone's secerets and questions. I was in awe too. Also a little bit nervous for him to call out my name. Luckily he didn't...

His next act not only was weird, but it scared the royal hell out of me. I thought I was in some horror movie. What he did was call out a volunteer. That volunteer happened to be Caity H, the same girl that kicks my ass in bowling every week. Anyway, he made Caity stand behind him and set a watch to whatever time she wanted. At the same time, a person in the crowd was holding 2 mini chalk boards sandwiched together with nothing written on them. He then told Caity to think she is writing on the chalkboards. He told her use her mind to write the time she set on the watch because her mind was going to write the time... After Christopher Carter made Caity show the audience the chalkboards, we all were presented with a chalkboard that had the time 5:15 on it. We were impressed that somehow, chalk made it to the chalkboard. After Caity flipped it around she almost freaked! The chalkboard said 5:15 and so did the watch that she set. WEIRDDD!!!! I had no idea what to think at this point... I was mind boggled.

Ok so I know you are probably getting tired of all these stories but this next one is downright crazy. To make this long story short, Chris Carter took 2 girls with 2 fluorescent light bulbs and turned the light bulbs on. I have nothing more to say other than that. Just watch this video.

So all in all... Christopher Carter... Google him.
that is all I have to say

Bowling Night

2010-01-26T21:12:00.004-06:00

So like I said in my earlier post, CMC does a good job for students and activities. Other than the mountain, there is not much to do in Steamboat. Therefore, people like lovely Tamara take care of making sure we have a good time down here. For a while now, CMC has been giving free bowling to any CMC student that wishes to get their game on. Located just 1 mile down Lincoln, is a place called Snow Bowls... The greatest and only bowling alley in All of Routt County! The people who work over there are nice enough to let us have the place on Tuesday nights for CMC kids to have fun.

As far as that goes, I have not much more to say. Other than the fact that I got beat by my friend Caity in Bowling. Her beating me means nothing but her having bragging rights until the next bowling night. Its a lot harder on me than you may think :P

Here is a pic of me trying to bowl... However it ended in an epic gutterball. I swear I got a gutterball on that photo too.

And this pic is of Caity kicking my ass in bowling. Its ok though. She will be beat.

Other than that, thats all I have for ya...

PEACE!

Dew Tour Video Finally Here!

2010-01-21T17:44:00.002-06:00

Ok, I may be the king of procrastination or just a slow worker. The truth is a combination of both of these things however fear not. My compilation from the Dew Tour is finally here for you to enjoy.

Its basically clips from the Superpipe...
Hope you enjoy!

Trampoline Night

2010-01-18T19:39:00.005-06:00

As you may already know, dorm life up at CMC is nothing to be bragging about. Once the sun goes down, the entire town of Steamboat goes to sleep and there is not a whole lot of things to do. Fortunately, the school knows that. Good thing they make efforts to expand student activities outside skiing and snowboarding because without the mountain, entertainment would be minimal. That is not the story here however. The resident hall association (RHA) fills the week with tons of fun things to do so students have a good college experience. Last night is a good example for that. For any CMC student that was interested, they were admitted free entry to one of the local gymnastic facilities for an evening of hippity hoppity fun (no pun intended lol).

Located about 5 min away from the school is a place called Excel Gymnastics of Steamboat Springs. Usually a place where gymnasts train for the Olympics, was the place for CMC students to have fun for the night free of charge. The facility was loaded with foam pits, trampolines, ring fixtures, climbing ropes, and anything and everything associated with gymnastic fun. About 40 kids showed up to use the facility and it was a ton of fun. Other than that, there is not much to say about the evening so how about some pictures to look at?

This is a picture of me in mid action about to hit the foam pit after an extremely sloppy front flip.

This is me in the foam pit. Yes you cannot see me I know that. I was super deep!

This is me trying to climb the easy rope

This is me about to get some mad air off the tramp

Once again thats all I have.

See ya next time!

2010 CMC Rail Jam

2010-01-17T21:12:00.007-06:00

One week down. Many many more to go. This Friday, CMC celebrated the official first Friday of 2nd semester. What more could someone ask for? Blue skies, wonderful temperature and a whole lot of snow. All these great conditions yielded one outcome... Rail Jam at noon.

In order to get the rail yard ready for the rail jam, students had to arrive early and get it set up. There were disputes over what people wanted to set up but in the end, everyone worked together to make an awesome park for the rail jam. At 12 oclock sharp the preliminary rounds started and everyone was just having fun trying out the set up and getting used to everything. After everyone was warmed up the competition began. They don't call it Colorado Mountain College for nothing. Students at this school are extremely talented which made it difficult for the judges. All in all however, the overall mission for everyone was to have fun so it made a great atmosphere to hang out and enjoy the day.

Here is a picture of some kids getting the park ready for the comp.

Here is a picture of the set up. And yes, that is doing a back flip over the gnar gap.

This is one of the riders getting ready to drop in

Chris raising the bar over the Titanic.

Jeff hanging out by the snow covered mini ramp

Students watching the event.

Overall the 2010 rail jam was a huge success. I was bummed out I had to miss part of it because I was on the big mountain having a good time. Luckily I was able to make it to see the 2nd half of the event. In the end, Taylor took 1st place. Chris took 2nd and Davey took 3rd. They all won gift certificates to powder pursuits... Lucky them.

Until Next Time,

C ya!

Finally Back in the Big Bad Boat!!

2010-01-12T21:30:00.004-06:00

Aah this may be the first time in the history of my life that I have said I am glad to be back in school. For an entire month, I was in my Denver home just sitting and waiting to be able to come back to Steamboat and snowboard. I spent my days hanging out, visiting family and friends, and enjoying sleeping in. Other than those things, that was all I did and it got boring really quickly. That being said, I am ever so grateful to be back where I belong!

I arrived in Steamboat Sunday afternoon. Everything was the same. Same old school, same old people, same old cafeteria food except one small difference... There was snow and lotts of it! Apparently we got like 30 inches over Christmas and I wasn't here to enjoy it but its all good because I know there will be plenty more. As far as scheduling for class goes, I am golden. Mondays and Wednesdays I don't have class so I can ride. Tuesdays and Thursdays however are a little crowded for I have class almost all day. Its ok though, I have already gotten a taste of my schedule and I think I will do just as good as I did last semester if not better.

Today is Saturday and I have spent almost a week back in the boat. 2nd semester cannot even compare to 1st semester. Every day has been filled with all kinds of things like snowboarding, winter concerts, lovely out of state tourists and getting to sleep in on Mondays and Wednesdays. Here is a pic of me at the base of the gondola yesterday afternoon enjoying the incredible sun we have been getting lately.

This is a picture of me that a sharpshooter took while I was snowboarding down the boat. Check out that deep carve ;)

2009 - 2010 Dew Tour

2010-01-02T14:34:00.004-06:00

So there we have it. The end of 2009 finally came by and the beginning of 2010 just started. Hopefully all of you made a good new years resolution because I have a really good feeling this year is going to be a good one!

Last week, I had a chance to make it out to the Breckenridge Dew Tour. The Dew Tour is an event that goes on all across the states and Breck happened to be one of the stops. I was fortunate enough that Breck is only a 1.5 hr drive from my Denver home so I decided to check it out.

Early morning view of the half pipe

Half pipe closeup

Totinos Pizza Samples!

Mountain Dew Samples!

Bobbie Joe with the High Cascade Marshmallow!

Powder is Good

2009-12-08T17:38:00.009-06:00

For the past two days, Steamboat Springs has been slowly receiving gifts from Mother Nature that are covering everything in a thick white blanket. Our snow dances have finally paid off for the fact that steamboat is getting its first reasonable snow dump. Waking up this morning there was about 6 inches accumulated at the dorms only meaning more had fallen on the mountain. Today being Tuesday December 8, I had 2 classes to attend to. Luckily for me however, I took care both of my Mass Media and Philosophy finals so I had the afternoon for exploring today.
The obvious thing to do was first go get a nice hearty breakfast at the dining hall and head out to the mountain for a day of great play. Nothing better than finishing finals a day early to go snowboard fresh tracks. Right around 11 am I hopped on the bus with sum friends and head out to the mountain on the bus. Being only a Tuesday, there was nobody around at the base and it was a walk on line at the gondola. It seemed like it was just us on the slopes at 11 and we still were able to track fresh tracks that late in the afternoon. Not something you get to do back in a summit county resort. Steamboat is just awesome! Today is what everyone at CMC has been waiting on for the past 4 months. It wasn't even bad for temperatures and it only reached a low of about 9. I got to ride all day and not have to worry about a single thing which was exactly what I needed after all the studying I have been doing. Time flew by so quickly and its still snowing even now that I am back at the dorms. The clouds haven't even let down one bit all day and its going to be an even more incredibly day tomorrow for snowboarding/skiing. Unfortunately for me, I won't be able to make it out for I have a class to attend to. For everyone else that didn't make it up today will have a great time tomorrow. Its really depressing to know that the season has officially been kicked off and we are getting kicked out the dorms for winter break on Friday.
I think this is the first time I have ever felt bummed out for the winter break for I will be spending it in Denver far away from this heavenly place. Its alright though because the Dew Tour is next week and im excited for that! Stay tuned for some really sweet action!

I Got Hypnotized

2009-11-18T18:50:00.005-06:00

Title says it all.
Last night the Alpine Campus treated the fellow students and I to a night of fun with a man named Fredrick Winters. Who is Fredrick Winters you might ask? Well, he is a hypnotist and he has been traveling across the country now for years preforming his acts to live audiences. I enjoyed the act very much but at times I wished I could have been the part of the crowd instead. Laughing at people is easier than being laughed at in my opinion but it was a ton of fun and definitely worth it.

Fredrick Winters displayed his show to the student body during late night dinner last night. The house was packed; Everyone was excited.... I actually have been studying hypnotism in my psychology class for the past month and I really wanted to give it a try. He called up 15 volunteers and I lucky to be called on to be a part of the experiment. He gave us the ordinary spheal about how hypnotism won't go against your good will or judgment and for some reason his comforting words made me nervous. As we listened to very bizarre music while he brought us into a trance, I was not feeling much different. After 15 minutes I still was completely conscious and began to get frustrated with the whole ordeal. I remember learning something in psychology that one must be willing to be hypnotized.It just doesn't come on to you. So I began to try to concentrate and believe the nonsense he was saying and slowly but surely I began to feel very different. My whole body became very heavy and very dead weight. I was still 100% conscious of everyone and everything around me. I began to get more frustrated with this whole deal and I just started to concentrate on my breathing to ignore the frustration. The next thing I remember was snapping awake in perfect sync with everyone else being hypnotized and everything from there was a crazy experience!

Opening my eyes for the first time was like two different worlds. I was still 100% conscious and functional but my perception on everything was skewed. I had a hard time understanding a lot of simple concepts. I was simply confused and disoriented. I was having a hard time understanding what was going on and the things around me. Even now its hard to remember what exactly happened. I remember, but the memories are very unclear and wish wash. According to some video footage a friend filmed for me, I apparently was singing opera and thinking I was getting sprayed with water. I remember both incidents but the way I perceived them was far from what exactly happened. To be honest, it was a very wierd experience overall but I enjoyed it very much. I am just happy I didn't end up taking off my shirt and ran around shouting "I LOVE BOY BANDS!" I did however sing happy birthday in opera. It was great fun. Here is a pic

I have video of all this for you to see but CMC's internet is so awful I can't even upload the video. If any administrators from CMC are reading this... WE NEED BETTER INTERNET!!! Last I checked, my download speed was 14kbps. THATS SLOWER THAN DIAL UP!!! Its already a pain to upload photos let alone videos. So if you would like to see more content (pictures videos etc) PLEASE help me and yourself out by posting a nice comment below. Until then, I apologize for not being able to upload video from last night, its not my fault :(
So whats the lesson learned?
1. Get hypnotized if you ever get the chance
2. Don't come to CMC if you are a fan of slow internet. Cuz its horrible.

Peace Out!

Stranded!

2009-11-15T21:39:00.004-06:00

Yup, you heard it. I am stranded.
On Thursday, I made a trip out to Denver to see my family and friends from home. Little did I know that the end result would be me being stranded because of the ridiculous amount of snowfall that swept through the Denver Metro Area. This is the 2nd huge snowfall for the Denver area this year, and I finally got to be a part of one of it. I was excited to see all the snow today.

The town turned a blanket white in just a night fall and it looks really pretty with it everywhere. Steamboat is in a different boat however.... This is something that Steamboat is very much lacking. Actually, Steamboat has absolutely no snow last time I checked and that was on Thursday. Interestingly enough, you would think SKI TOWN USA would have a ton of snow by now but controversially it doesn't. A bud of mine back in the boat said it snowed a few inches but even Denver won in the total accumulation of 10 inches. Yup, 10 inches. That is why I am sitting here in my home in Denver because the roads are too covered for any substantial and meaningful driving. I could make it, but it would be a long and grueling task. Check out the pictures!

On the plus side, I had a great weekend down here in the suburbia of Denver. I got to get my laundry done, free of charge and I got to actually go sledding. Two things I cannot do in Steamboat so far.

I also got to get back in the Denver night life scene for a night and see a very good friend of mine play an incredible DJ set. Nightlife... Also something you cannot get in Steamboat. You may take it like I am bashing big time on Steamboat but it really is not a bad time up there. The fun is just being major delayed for us up at CMC. Once the mountain opens however, it will be a whole new ball game filled with exciting things to keep ourselves occupied. Until then, I am just waiting for the day to pass over and the sun to melt up the roads for the long trip home.

Until next time,

Cheers

Private Concrete Skate Park Session

2009-11-11T23:38:00.005-06:00

I was just walking out from lunch today and I was fortunate to have no more class until tomorrow. The weather has been quite warm since the beginning of November and it seems to look like it will have a big effect on the quality of Steamboat Mountain's opening day. Forgetting about the dirt covered mountain, I decided to head to the skate park in good use of this great weather we unfortunately have. Went and got some friends and we drove to a very special place to skate today instead of the park in town. Colorado weather is known to have a life of its own, it could flip around and get snowy any day now. That being said, we drove over to the new concrete skate park that is currently in the middle of being constructed. About a 1/2 of it is complete but there was still a lot to skate. On top of the great weather and the incredibly pristine skate spot we found, there was nobody at the park either. Take a look at these pictures!

This is the street section

part of the big bowl

the other part of the bowl

still under construction

more to be continued.

Steamboat Mountain today

Anyway, the skate park is one of a kind. The people that built it are called "Team Paine really know how to build a quality place to skate. Its only half way done too. There is a whole lot more to come. check out this website

http://skateboat.com/

The pic of the bald snow less mountain is a photo of Steamboat Mountain as of today. No snow at all! Where is it all? I am not worried though. It might have a crappy opening, but I have a feeling a big dump will come around soon :)

Woodward at Copper

2009-11-08T19:43:00.009-06:00

On Friday we went to Copper Mountain for opening day. If you didn't already know, scroll down and check out the post before this. It will fill you in. I was originally going to make this 1 gigantic blog post but decided it would be better to split it up into two sections.

Anyway... Located just at the base of Copper Mountain is the new Woodward training facility. About 3 years ago, Copper signed a deal allowing Woodward to take over their terrain park maintenance and install the newest and state of the art action sports warehouse. If you are a skier, snowboarder, skater or fruitbooter, you will find Woodward at Copper a dream come true. They have hundreds of square feet of Snowflex installed. Snowflex is a technology for skiers and snowboarders to be able to ride without snow! Yes, I said it. Without snow. It is a carpet like material with hundreds of bristles and brushes on the surface. When you wet the material down with water, it slides just like snow! Just be careful because falling is something you do not want to do.

They also have tons of foam pits set up around the facility.

Rail Section

Overview of the foam pits and tramps

quarter pipe

Even if you are a skateboarder, you will find this place amazing. They have several skateboard features to keep you entertained when the snow features get old. Not like they will bet boring, but you get the point.

spectators lounge

Woodward at Copper is an awesome facility bar none. It is state of the art, fun, classy and expensive. very EXPENSIVE. In order to even partake in any of the facility features, one must take a training course. The training course is called a one hit wonder and that is $69. Once you have completed your training you can drop in anytime for $29 (thanks to Ali, one of our CMC bloggers/woodward employees for that info). They really did go above and beyond this time though. From the cool skate bowl, lounge area, to the huge foam pits, anyone from anywhere can find fun in this place. It is just a little over an hour from Steamboat and if you have the money, I highly suggest going to it.

Copper Mountain Opening Day

2009-11-06T21:33:00.014-06:00

Today, Copper Mountain opened its slopes to the public to kick off their 2009-2010 winter season. Since a lot of the CMC kids up here have the Ultimate Pass, a good amount of the school was empty this afternoon. Friday started perfectly waking up early not having to go to class but getting to go to the mountain for the first day up. After getting some breakfast and grabbing a sack lunch from the dining hall, we headed out around 7:30. The drive went by quickly because we didn't take the crowded Denver route I am used to taking called I-70. We thought we got a late start for opening weekend and expected the mountain to be packed for the first day. Surprisingly when we got there, the mountain was not as busy as we thought. On top of that, they had a pretty good base built up at the bottom. We waited in the line no more than 5 minutes when we got there at 9:30 and were excited to see hardly anyone on the slopes.

The sun was beaming down from above and it was such a warm beautiful day. A light hoodie and light gloves were more than enough warmth in those conditions. While we headed closer to the top, we noticed the little terrain park they usually have set up first was a lot better this year considering Woodward took over as the park crew. They had a box section, a handrail section, an urban section, a ribbed tube, a few jibs and at the end they even had a mini jump. Never has there been a jump at the top of American Flyer, this was a first for Copper.

Around 2:30 we were all getting tired and someone in our group got hurt in the park. A bud of mine from Denver brought up one of his friends and he was the one who hit his head pretty hard on a rail. We then had to call it a day and bring him in to a doctor because he didn't look like he was in good shape. It turned out out that he got a concussion and had to rest for a bit before he could leave. I hung out for 15 minutes or so then me and my 2 friends from Steamboat said our goodbyes and took off heading back to the school. It was a fantastic day considering it was opening weekend. The crowd was minimal and the sun was out in a perfect cloudless sky. It just made me that much more excited I will be getting to do this at the school every day once Steamboat opens! Check out some pictures of the clinic and some cool river I found.

Anyway, that was the adventure for today.

Peace!

Halloween 2009

2009-11-01T23:08:00.006-06:00

So last night was Halloween and man what a night! The day started off perfectly with a warm temperature and a cloudless sky. It was perfect weather for skating the mini ramp and that's exactly what me and the gang did for the bulk of the afternoon. There are not going to be more days this nice so we took advantage of it while we could. After lunch we spent the day hiking behind the school enjoying the clear skies and fall atmosphere.

At the mini ramp

Andy chillin by the mini ramp

me on the ridge
As nighttime rolled in the energy in the dorms was getting rowdy and everyone was dressing up getting ready to go out. As far as my gang, we didn't have much planned so we decided to take the evening into town and see what was going on. We all dressed up like 80's rockers and skated around the streets of steamboat. Somehow we managed to get on the other side of Lincoln street and this is where the story gets interesting...

We took a skate break to hang out on the bridge for a rest stop. The night was just as perfect as the day. Still no clouds in the sky, the moon was full and the trees had a surreal Halloween look to them. It really was a great sight to see considering the past 3 Halloweens have been presented with blizzard conditions. After catching our breath we decided to turn and head back to the dorms when all of a sudden we realized something. Behind us there was a clown on stilts peeing off the bridge! We could not believe what we were seeing. Seconds later the clown turned around and honked his party horn and screamed "HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!" and he took after us chasing us. The night was so calm and flat the whole night until this event. I was skeptical to the fact that this incident was even real but it definitely was considering my 3 other friends noticed it too. So there we were, skating for our lives back to the dorms like we just recreated a scene from the movie "It". That was definitely the highlight of the night for me.

Today Was the same weather as yesterday except I had absolutely no candy to eat! We skated around Steamboat for hours and didn't even have the brains to get any candy. What a shame. All day I have been sugarless for this problem. You could say I was a little bummed out by this. As I went downstairs to check my mail, I noticed I got another surprise package!! It was a box filled with Halloween candy! Just what I had been looking for!! That made my weekend for sure. The past hour consisted of munching on some candy while studying for my Psychology test. It was a great weekend!! This is a pic of my candy stash. Its half sized that right now.

Trick or Treeeet!!! SNOOWW!?!?

2009-10-30T11:22:00.009-06:00

So last night was another one for the record books. It was a great night for sure... with a twist :P. On October 29th (last night) the Resident Hall Association hosted a safe house trick or treat party for all the little people in Steamboat. Everyone who didn't want to trek around Steamboat in the cold, could come to Hill Hall and trick or treat in the dorms. We decorated the 3rd floor all creepy and spooky with blacked out lights and all sorts of scary stuff. Down in the MPR we had a bunch of games set up for the little young'ns to play.
Roughly at 6 PM the children showed up with their costumes and parents ready for a candy hunting adventure. Give it not even 10 minutes, and Hill Hall took a drastic change for the worse. Right when I got my first customer at my door, the last thing you could expect to happen... happened. With ear blasting volume, the fire alarm went in full effect making everyone charge out of the building for the second time this week. Yes. I said it. That was the 2nd time the fire alarm went off this week. The law enforcement agency up here must hate CMC kids that much more now :/. Turns out the fire was caused by one of our smoke machines. Major bummer.
Anyway after 10 minutes of freezing balls outside, we were allowed to go back inside and continue our mission. Every Kid went way out in their costumes and it was great fun seeing all the tykes in their sweet outfits.

Haunted Hallway

Tiff is a TACO!

Red Riding Hood and her Hubby

Me and my Candy Bucket

So disregarding the 2nd fire alarm of the week, it was a really fun night. Nobody died which was a good thing and everyone had a great time. I got to hand out candy and eat a whole lot more. I also got to keep a bunch too :)
aha anyway that was the adventure of the night. See you on Halloween!!
check out the pics of the snow!

Sunday Night Pumpkin Showdown!!

2009-10-25T22:13:00.008-06:00

Tonight for the weekly Sunday activity hosted by the Resident Hall Association, (RHA) was the yearly pumpkin carving contest. Everyone gathered in the MPR around 8:30 for the event. 4 teams of 4 were selected to carve the best pumpkin they possibly could and the winner got a prize! Everyone had s strategic plan for their pumpkin while my team sort of attacked the pumpkin with butter knives, toothpicks and carving tools. It was great fun and everyone had a good time. After the 30 minutes was up we all had to stop and let the judges decide who's pumpkin would be the winner. Turns out, our pumpkin took 1st place!! We were surprised. Anyway that was the action going down at Hill Hall tonight.... Nothing really more exciting until Halloween on Saturday!!!

Greatful Dead Bear

FIRST PLACE BABY!!! MY TEAM!!!
The Harry Potter Pumpkin

After the whole pumpkin carving extravangaza everyone was offered some pumpkin pie. Cliche huh? It was very good though.

Snow!!!

2009-10-24T11:53:00.004-06:00

Yup you heard it. I woke up today to look out my window and I saw snow on the ground!! I was so excited to see snow since this was the first snowfall of the year! There is a catch though... I am not in Steamboat Springs :( I am actually in Denver visiting the family for the weekend so unfortunately the snow did not fall in Steamboat. Major bummer I know. After I start to think about it, this really makes me angry. For the past two months, it has not snowed here in Ski Town USA. I mean I didn't name blog "Life in Ski Town USA" for nothing. Steamboat should have snow by now! Its already a week away from Halloween and this is Denver's second snowfall of the year. Now there has been a lot of snow higher up on the mountain and up at Buff Pass but zero snow stickage in town. I guess we will just have to be patient....
Anyway check out the pics of snow from my house back in denver!

SUPRISE PACKAGE!!

2009-10-19T18:43:00.005-06:00

So today is Monday....
Gotta love Mondays!
*sarcasm*
If you didn't pick up on that, we call that *sarcasm* Anyway... today was a long grueling day. From waking up early to get breakfast, from conducting a 15 minute presentation in front of my philosophy class, to missing dinner because I had a paper to type... it was a very long day indeed. It was one of those days that didn't seem right. Today was for sure an off day for me. It felt so good to finally get in my dorm room and relax because nothing today seemed to cheer my spirits up. I mean there I was sitting with an empty stomach, a headache and a pile of homework to do. I was not in a good mood. It wasn't until about half an hour ago everything took a sudden change for the better. I realized someone had mailed me a package!

After spending a great deal of effort getting the box open I was delighted to see that inside the box was a gigantic bag of puppy chow. Oh yeah, I said it. PUPPY CHOW! Now for all of you people out there that don't know what puppy chow is you are missing out on life. Its chex mix smothered with peanut butter chocolate sauce and powdered sugar. To put it in simple terms its delicious. My spirits were flipped upside down and I was so happy to get this baggy in the mail. I must throw a shout out to my good ole neighbor from Denver for doing that for me because it really made my day. Thanks Betsy!!

Anyway here I am now munchin away at this bag of puppy chow and man it tastes soo good. I can already feel a stomach ache coming down hahaha. Lesson learned today? Puppy Chow + poor hungry college student = :D

Skate Comp

2009-10-05T16:12:00.004-06:00

This past weekend on October 2nd, 2009 the Alpine Campus had its second skate comp of the year. Located down at the mini ramp near Monson Hall, about 20 skaters showed up at 12 o'clock for the event. It was a beautiful day, nobody could have asked for better weather. Clear blue skies, brisk October breeze with a wonderful view of the snow capped steamboat mountain. It was a perfect day to skate and everyone was throwing down some gnarly stuff. Winners were given prizes donated from "The Click" a local skate shop located in town. I am a skater myself however I decided to film the competition instead. The picture to the right is a picture of me out in the grass getting some scenic shots. Please take some time to watch the cool little edit I compiled together also! Overall it was a great time. Everyone skated well, everyone had fun and best of all, nobody got hurt.

Until next time,

I'm out...
Peace out :P

p.s.
watch my vid below

Goodbye September!

2009-09-30T22:37:00.000-06:00

Yes today is a sad day. September of 2009 will be gone in the history books within the next hour.
*tear*
No longer will we be able to get back the days of September in 2009 :(
*tear*
so I hope you spent your days wisely! Anyway as I was strolling around campus today enjoying the fall weather, I noticed how incredible the aspen trees looked. I am from the Denver area so Aspen trees are common but holy cow! I have never seen so many yellow and gold colors in my entire life. I tried taking some pictures with my video camera but the quality is sub par. So I apologize ahead of time. I will be getting a nicer point and shoot within the next week or so. So you can compare the difference, Here is a picture I took of the mountain in August

and this is a picture of the mountain today

Anyway, I hear its going to snow tomorrow. Im keeping my fingers crossed!!! I'm sure everyone would rather see some white in there but don't worry... It will come!

Until next time,

BYE!

Free Flu Shots Today!

2009-09-23T12:46:00.000-06:00

So today we got our flu shots in the Monson Lounge one floor above the main luncheon. After going through the huge swine flu craze, I was eager to be the first person to get in line to get the flu shot. For the past three weeks here at CMC, it has been a big struggle for me trying to stay healthy and free from sickness. At one point in time, both my roommates were sick with the flu and I was blowing through Lysol and hand sanitizer like there was no tomorrow. So you can easily see how I wanted to be the first person in line.

After showing up about 20 minutes before they told us to come in, I was at least number 15 on the list so I still had to wait. I guess there were a few people more eager to get their shot than I was! Anyway, after sitting around for a good while a buddy of mine (who wishes not to be named) was pale white in fear. It was blatantly obvious that he didn’t want to get pricked in the shoulder with a needle regardless the health benefits it would give him. I assured him that it was just five seconds of being uncomfortable and then it’s done. He was a little unforgiving and almost walked out on the whole procedure. I specifically asked him, “look man, do you want the swine flu or not?” Once those words came off my mouth he agreed and manned up. “Okay Ben, I will do it” he said with confidence.

Once we all walked out of the room where we got our painless shots, my buddy was only complaining about how painful and uncomfortable the whole experience was. I just ignored him haha. On our way out the girl who signed us up for the shot commented, “Hey guys make sure to come back in a month when we get the Swine Flu vaccines!” My friend had the worst look on his face. I guess the shots we got today didn’t cover the swine flu. OOPS! Its okay though, I’m just happy I won’t get the flu this winter. My friend on the other hand, was not a happy camper.

Rally Colorado and How I Met Travis Pastrana

2009-09-21T23:42:00.000-06:00

So yesterday was the end of a great weekend. The reason why it was such a great weekend could have been many things ranging from the great weather to getting to sleep in. The thing that made it even better however was the rally race that took place. On September 18 through 20th, the town of Steamboat Springs welcomed Rally Colorado back for another section of their national race tour. It was an awesome sight being able to see tons of Subaru’s driving around town. Don’t forget to mention meeting Travis Pastrana and Ken Block in person! Anyway this is how the story unfolds.

On Friday around 5:00 p.m. a few friends (who drove up from Denver) and I went to city hall to check out the preliminary race show. Every racer had their car parked in orderly fashion for display to the public. I got to meet a ton of young ambitious racers and I saw the inside and outside of their precious vehicle. Let me just tell you that these cars are awesome! Many of these racers have been in the business since they were much younger, so it was easy to see how much rally racing was a part of their lifestyle. The best part of the day was getting to talk to Travis Pastrana and Ken Block who are two world class athletes/racers. They were both great characters and it only made me more excited to see them race on Saturday.

Starting Saturday morning, we woke up early and drove out to Hayden where one of the checkpoints was at. When we arrived, we eagerly awaited Travis Pastrana’s arrival to watch him tear up the track. Followed shortly by, was Ken Block and all the other riders. They all did a great job driving and it was so much fun watching these cars perform so well in the all terrain track. Once all the cars passed through, they were required to make a lunch stop back at the raceway once they completed their 60 mile stage. So about an hour later, we got to see all the cars once again except this time they were dirty and beaten up. I ran up to Travis Pastrana for the second time and he recognized my face. The story gets a lot better after he saw and recognized me but I think a video would tell the story better since I also got it on film.

Anyway that’s my story of the week. Its getting Late and I keep having to remind myself I have class early in the morning. So until next time, I will see ya later!

Cheers,

Ben

Welcome!

2009-09-20T12:02:00.000-06:00

Well hello there!

If you don’t already know me, my name is Ben Saheb and welcome to my blog! I am 18 years young and I currently reside in wonderful Steamboat Springs Colorado. Just this past August, I began attending the Alpine Campus at Colorado Mountain College hoping to get some fresh air away from my suburbia town in south east Denver. After being in Steamboat for just over a month now, I am glad I decided to come up here to enjoy everything Steamboat has to offer. Some of my hobbies are mountain biking, camping, skateboarding, playing guitar, snowboarding and video production. I love being able to fulfill every one of my favorite activities up here.

Currently I am getting my Associate of Arts up here at CMC and later I want to transfer to a four university to continue my education. Being outside and adventurous is what I live for so in this blog I will try to include as much of the steamboat life there is and perhaps maybe a bit of the dorm life as well (not like there is anything exciting about it).

I love to take my camera everywhere I go so stay tuned for some exciting Steamboat action! Anyway, there is my brief introduction and I hope to see some comments in the near future!

Cheers,

Ben