Today was the 4th of July, or better known to me as...."The last day of my snowboarding season..." I have been the ultimate weekend warrior since the Bird started operating only on the weekends. A title that I hope to only hold during spring skiing and not during the regular season due to the dreaded 9-5 jobby job. Anyway.....on Friday when I went up there were 12 people on the tram. There are about 20 of us die hards that go every day that the Bird is open. There's Asian guy in his yellow shirt, there's pink spandex guy, there's the Bird drunk, there's flaming red hair Aussie guy... (the list goes on). Anyway.... so it has pretty much just been me and this core of guys with a few random bangers and beaters. Well today....THERE WAS AN ENTIRE MOUNTAIN FULL OF BEATERS WEARING COSTUMES!!!! I still cannot figure out why the last day at a ski resort warrants the wearing of bikinis, capes, strange hats, thongs and random costumes that are completely unrelated to snowboarding or skiing. The same thing happened at Brighton 2 1/2 months ago when they closed.
So, when I arrived at the Bird around noon, there was still an enormous line to get on the tram. Due to the lessening snowpack, they were only letting people ride the tram up once, so it wasn't like people were lapping this thing. I was shocked. Then, to get up there, take my first run and WAIT IN LINE FOR 45 minutes behind people who haven't been skiing in months just infuriated me!!! I realize that if this would have just been some random last day of skiing in June, this wouldn't have happened, but it was the 4th of July, so everyone and their costume were on the mountain. I haven't seen a crowd like that since the epic pow day on January 1, 2009!
This has been a really beautiful spring with bluebird days at least once per weekend. Today, it was cooold up there. I was in my full face gear with a flannel shirt and was shivering! The girls in bikinis and the "hot piece of ass" in the above picture were all freezing and had purple legs. It was about 42 degrees and was even raining up there. The tram operator said that there was a possibility that we might get stuck on the mountain if lighting and rain started and to "find shelter, but not on the metal tram deck."
Surprisingly, the snow was absolutely amazing due to the cooler temperatures. I could have ridden up there all day, but only got 5 runs in. This was more than I should've but since I was "a single" I was able to sneak to the front of the line the last few runs and link up with another single who had waited through the whole line like I had.
So, my last run of the season was down Book Ends. I was very sad to see my season end, but what an awesome season it was! I will post stats and all the high points in a post tomorrow...
