I was itchng to get on the road after being without the car for a few weeks. It was my first time really camping in the mountains near the ski resorts. So I wasn’t sure where I would be able to sleep the night without being bothered. And I wasn’t totally sure how the van was going to deal with the cold. I was a bit apprehensive to be fair.
I left later in the afternoon on the Tuesday and made my way to Frisco. Did some hiking in the area. It was actually the same trail that Alexandra, Luke, Matt, and I hiked in the summer. The one we saw the moose on.
I was excited to break in my snowshoes but it wasn’t necessary. The trail was pretty packed down from all the traffic and the lack of snow recently. It was a good warm up for the legs though.
I chilled out in town after the hike and found an overnight parking lot to park the car and sleep in. I have to believe they would chase people off on the weekends. But during the weekdays they probably don’t care all that much. It was pretty damn cold though. Probably about zero degrees.
I am finding that the insulation, though it slows the heat loss, doesn’t keep the van comfotable throughout the night. By the time I wake up in the morning, it is probably a similar temperature in the can as it is overnight. I have enough blankets so I am not waking up in the middle of the night. But in the morning I have to run the heater for a bit before I can get out of bed comfortably.
The first day at Breck was solid. I am finding that my ski boots are a little too loose and I need something a bit tighter. But I want to wait until the ned of the season to upgrade. I have tried a few workarounds and it’s been fine so far.
The second day there I met these two EMTs from Colorado Springs. Literally within a minute of talking to them on the gondola, they offered me some whiskey and invited me to ski the rest of the day with them. We had a good time. Mostly hitting the groomed black runs on Peak 10.
They were supposed to head back to Colorado Springs that night but they were drinking pretty heavily on the mountain to be honest. It didn’t take much convincing to get them to stay the night. We found a cheaper AirBnB outside of town. Went out in town that night and did a bit of partying. Ollies has some legit BBQ Pork Nachos for anyone that is interested.
The AirBnB we stayed at had this really steep icy driveway and I was fairly surprised that I was able to make it up in the van. I had to back down the driveway the next morning to get out and I just manuevered it all wrong and got stuck against a tree.
At first I asked the hosts to help tow me out but they didn’t have a chain or rope heavy duty enough to pull the van. So I had to call roadside assistance to come rescue me. It didn’ take too long honestly and it’s included with the insurance so it didn’t cost me anything. I was a bit stressed out about the situation but it worked out fine.
At first, I just felt like heading for home but I still wanted to ski. One of my friends was at the mountain and I decided to head over there even though it was close to lunchtime at this point. I had a lot of fun and I was proud that I didn’t let a negative situation stop me from doing what was best for me.