BodesWell

Competition

Posted on March 10, 2014 by jason3 Comments

Bode entered his first competition this weekend – freestyle moguls. He heard about it on Friday and figured, why not? He loves skiing the bumps and the terrain park, so this seemed to be a good fit. All his idea.

Check-in was at 8:30AM on Saturday. Two minutes later he had a number and a jersey (#96) and was quite pleased with himself. On our first lift ride up, he told everyone within earshot that he was racing today for the first time.

All of us were clueless as to what was involved in the competition*. First, we headed to Bradley’s Bash, where the course was located. Coaches and ‘volunteers’ were busy building the ramp and the kids had a chance to do a practice run.  Moguls, a jump, then more moguls.

There is fair amount of waiting around – at least for the parents. Bode had the 53rd spot. Plenty of parents were yelling at their kids, over-analyzing the course, fretting over what to do if they had to pee, etc. Kid’s competitions = competitive parents. We were just happy to be there and trying to learn what it was all about. Bode made some friends and started a snowball fight.

Bode’s slot came up and he was a little nervous. We just told him to take it easy, have a clean run and have fun.

He rocked it. He landed his jump and was credited with a ‘daffy’. Old school!  Zero spills, but his moguls were a little sloppy – he was trying to go fast.  Plenty of kids went down and there were a few DNFs.

The first thing he said after finishing was that he could have done better. We assured him he did great. I think I told him how proud I was about 20 times throughout the day.

When the results were tallied, he finished in the middle of the pack. Since it was his first ever time to compete (in anything, really) and we didn’t even know the rules or practice for it, we figure it’s a pretty good result.

He and I rode together a few more hours in the afternoon. On one of the lift rides up, he asked “Can we come back next winter?” Followed shortly by, “maybe we could live here and build a house?”

*We mistakenly thought that speed was part of the score, but apparently that doesn’t factor in until they’re older. Moguls are 75% of the score and the jump is 25%. Deductions for changing lines. The judges will favor a skier who is aggressive and fails over someone riding safe. One judge said, “attitude matters.”

For future reference: the winner in his group stuck a 360 heli. The winner in the 10 year old group landed a 720.

300 Inches

Posted on March 8, 2014 by jason2 Comments

That’s our snow total so far this season. I think we picked the right winter to head to the mountains.

Tubin’, Part 2

Posted on March 7, 2014 by jason1 Comment

There are quite a few tubing options around here. This is the one at the resort. It’s essentially 4 bobsled-style runs of varying speeds. It didn’t take long for to Bode to skip over to lane 4.

Free Rides

Posted on March 6, 2014 by jasonNo Comments

There’s tons of free stuff to do in and around Winter Park and we’re keen on finding all of them.

On Saturdays, there are free carriage rides. Free!

You don’t really go anywhere and it doesn’t last long, but what else can you expect for free?!  Then, you can go spend your money warming up inside somewhere nearby. The Library is a good choice – the town’s only brew pub. “Tell your mom you were at The Library”

Hideaway Park

Posted on March 5, 2014 by jasonNo Comments

Winter Park has some great little open areas for the residents. In the summer, this is a skate-park and playground. In the winter, it’s the town’s sledding hill. The city even provides the sleds free of charge. Just grab one and start sliding.

A little tip for the uninitiated: the saucers are the fastest.

While were were there, we met a few teenagers making home videos. Really well-spoken nice kids doing questionably stupid things. Always a great combination. They came here after the cops chased them off the train tracks. I’m guessing they’ll be famous some day.

Adams Falls

Posted on March 4, 2014 by jason1 Comment

We decided to go on a short hike up to see Adams Falls. It’s technically inside Rocky Mountain National Park, but you start the hike from Grand Lake.

It’s not a long walk, but my mom and Mike were pretty sure we were trying to kill them. Hiking through the snow at elevation wasn’t really on their to-do list on this trip.

We were assured by someone in town that the falls were still going. They weren’t. Completely frozen over and covered in snow. We couldn’t even hear a trickle. Still, we made the best of it, got some fresh air and threw some snowballs.

Grand Lake

Posted on March 3, 2014 by jason1 Comment

My mom came up from Texas for a visit, so we hit the road for a little tour of the area. The town of Grand Lake is near the base of Rocky Mountain National Park, and also happens to be the ‘largest natural lake’ in Colorado. It’s nowhere near the largest lake in Colorado… but it’s natural. And completely frozen.

The town is essentially one street and a stop sign, but with lots of local charm. Definitively different from anywhere in Texas.

It’s a sleepy place – especially this time of the year. Snowmobiles blaze up and down the main street – usually ice fishermen coming in to get supplies. The sun came out today, and several shop owners were up on their roofs with sledgehammers and shovels.