Big Sky

I have really fallen behind on my blogging, but you know how things go...too much fun, and not enough time to write it all down! So, these next few posts will be a sort of "catchup" for the last month. I managed to sneak away with my brother and two guys that we work with for an epic 31hr drive to Bozeman, MT for a 3-day snowboarding adventure at Big Sky.
We left after work on a Wednesday, and started driving. The route is pretty simple....pick up I-80, switch to I-90 in Chicago, and keep headin' west. It may be hard for some of you to completely understand this, but there is something so incredibly exciting about getting into a car, and just driving for a thousand miles and seeing how the country changes. This is a truly beautiful and varied landscape that we live in, and I love it all, from the barren landscapes of South Dakota to the dramatic peaks of the Rockies, to the rolling hills of Ohio....there are few places in this country that I am just in awe of this wonderful creation. Bilbo Baggins is my hero: "The road goes ever, ever on..." (Bilbo and the Elves are always going West. Coincidence? I think not. Go west, young man. Okay, okay, I'm starting to get choked up.....let's just say it had been a long time since I had been on the road towards the mountains, and my heart was overflowing with joy and anticipation.

31hrs of non-stop driving later, we arrived at Bozeman, and I unfolded myself from the backseat of the Land Rover to see mountains and snow. I was just happy to be able to stretch my 6'-2" frame. Montana is really a different state. It’s got that cowboy/rancher/redneck/hippie vibe....which is truly unique. While I was on the lifts out there a guy told me that last year they passed a law that you can’t drink in your truck anymore. You used to be able to consume adult beverages as long as you were under the limit, but not any more. Apparently it was not a popular law. Being from Ohio, talk about a little culture shock:). I really enjoyed boarding at Big Sky – it was a fairly even mix of terrain, difficulty, and had a couple of parks. What was cool about it was that the resort didn’t have a bunch of mid-mountain lodges to bring the people in that were there to see and be seen. Basically, if you were on the mountain, you were there to ski and board. The snow was great – we got about 2-3 inches of powder every day, and 4-5 inches on the last day. Perhaps the best thing about the resort was the fact that there were literally no lines. None. The longest line that I had was on Saturday afternoon around 3PM, when there were 4 people in the lift line in front of me. The rest of the time, I didn’t have but one or two people in the lifts in front of me. Needless to say, there was a lot of time spent riding, which was very cool. The lift tickets were reasonable as well – only $63/day for a three day pass. There are none of the snobby rich Vail crowds that sit in the lodge and drink, and the slopes were super un-crowded. You just have people skiing and riding. It’s all good.
The longest run in the resort started at the top of the Lone Mountain Peak (11,166ft), you took a 15pax gondola up, and then rode about 1600ft in elevation down to the top of the next lift.

Winds up at the top when I rode it were about 70mph. You couldn’t see very well, and I was afraid that my board was going to be ripped out of my hands and blown off the side of the mountain before I had a chance to strap in. I saw a guy almost lose one of his skis like that – he went diving for it, and caught it just before it went over the cliff. Crazy. Definitely not snowboarding on groomers. The biggest problem for me was that the blowing snow felt like millions of needles poking me in the face (I didn’t have a facemask) and I just wanted it to stop, so I got down as quickly as I could. If I had spent more time up there, the peak would’ve been lots of fun to explore. Maybe next time - now that I'm over the psycological barrier, I can concentrate on riding the mountain. I'm just a poor farm boy from Ohio....them mountains are scary!

Check out the incredible open stretch of downhill here! This is about 400-500ft from the top, where I could sit down and take my camera out without getting my hands frostbitten. The boarder is my brother, shredding it Ohio-style!
That's me, doing my post-superpipe gold medal run pose for the cameras, as I'm waiting for the scores to tally. Please note the $1.99 ANSI Z27.1 standard issue safety glasses. Yup. Too cheap for real shades:). Give me a few years, and I'll be like those old dudes feebly driving their baby blue cadillacs around with the over-sized el-cheapo molded plastic super dark sunglasses... Of course, the real gold medal went to my brother, who busted out this method and a bunch of other tricks that I wasn't able to catch on camera.

All in all, it was a great trip, since I got to see mountains and didn’t have to work. I definitely want to go back there soon, and probably do a little longer trip so that I can squeeze in a day or two at Jackson Hole (3hrs away) and see Yellowstone in the winter (1hr away). It was really fun, and a great break from work.