THE j3 SKI EXTRAVAGANZA

When da Wolf bites back

Got back into the Yellow about 5 hours ago--all in one piece bringing the First Somewhat Annual j3 Ski Extravaganza to a all-too-soon conclusion. Five boarders and two skiers made way through the meandering landscape between the flat, dry and windy Yellow, Tejas and the small valley town of San Luis, Colorado on March 10th, 2006. Their mission: to seize the opportunity of 36 inches of new snow at what I consider to be the best skiing in Colorado: Wolf Creek. Now, we're not talking about 36 inches of new snow over the course of a month. We're talking about 36 inches in three days. Now, we had planned this trip back in December hoping and praying that there would be snow there, but it's been a horrible winter for snow. At the end of last weekend, Wolf Creek had 49 inches of snow melting at a rate of about two inches a day. At that rate, when we would arrive, there would be only 40 inches of snow which is hardly enough to pee your name into. Futhermore, it's certainly not enough to enjoy your first trek up the mountain in over nine years. Over the next four days, we watched as the storms crawled across California, Utah and into the southern Colorado peaks. One day, six inches of new snow. The next day, the total creeped up to 15 inches. Day three, they doubled the 15 to 30. By the time would arrive on Saturday morning after a treacherous (my new favorite word) journey on snow-packed roads to Wolf Creek, they would have close to four feet of new snow covering the mountain--doubling their base from the 49 to close to 100 inches. And it was still snowing snowballs. After travelling two and a half hours through the winding, slick roads that climbed the ledges of the Pass, we had arrived. We strapped on our gear, tossed our money over for our lift tickets and mounted the chair for our first ride up.

Timbo, Mayhem and Rory moving on up

Now, I just arrived back in town. My lovely wife was missing me. Jackson the Super Beagle missed me so I'm gonna chill with them. But when I say "chill," I mean "relax." Not "freeze" which is what I did for the last three days.

Just some parting words from Cornman, who Duke, Sarah and I encountered in the Colorado backcountry on FM radio.

"It should be criminal to not be able to run through a field of corn without getting sick."

I agree wholeheartedly.