Sunday, October 25, 2009

Cool Way Up, Fast Way Down







Unfortunately they've muted the music from Loveland Pass Street Luge due to a copyright beef. I like something that starts out smooth and tasty and then gets whipping. Like this.

God damn I miss Colorado.

6 comments:

David Marlow said...

Really cool.

One day in February (I think), 1997, Mike K., me, Troy, that other guy and what's-his-name were over on The Jane side, and Mike said, "Hey, let's go this way." I.e., out of bounds, which, as you know, you can lose your lift pass for. Now Mike was in the top 5 back country snowboarders, if not the best. It was a great ride, ended up flying out of the trees along 40. Got a ride back to the ski area from some kindly hippies who couldn't figure out how we'd ended up there.

172 cm custom Burton. Still have it, obviously. Would love to use it again some day.

Michael said...

I never had the nerve to go over the back. That's ballsy dude. On the few trips we made to WP, we spent the vast majority of our time on MJ. Great mogul field right at the top to greet you as you stepped off the lift. Wonderful ski area.

Burtons were just getting popular when I was a regular. The big thing du jour was telemark. I used to get so friggin' mad at those people, big sweeping turns that took up the whole trail. "Hey if you want to use long skinny skis, go find a flat spot!"

Elan RC-SL 210s. Ingemar Stenmark boards. Still standing in my closet. Can't bring myself to get rid of them. Some day I'm going back.

Michael said...

Hey Switters! Something just occurred to me, or perhaps I'm going mental.

If my memory serves, the first year I drove to Co, which I wrote about before, was the year they opened the 2nd of the twin Eisenhower tunnels. That would have been 1978. The first tunnel had opened the year before I think.

My buddy Chris from Littleton was my guide, and I remember him telling me that 2 years before that, Loveland and Berthoud were the choices.

Also, and here's the part I'm kinda sketchy on, I think the first year I skied Winter Park was the year they opened Mary Jane. You were there in the mid-late 90s which would mean it was about 15 years old by then. Mary Jane was still reasonably new when you guys were bombing down the back right?

David Marlow said...

I wasn't familiar with The Jane's specific history while I was there. It didn't seem "new". The Jane, for snowboarders, was incredibly intimidating. I didn't do moguls well, so had to stay in the steep trees.

The trees over on Vasquez Ridge was where I could be found most of the time. The flats could be a drag, but when you've got the-one-that-got-away towing you across them by dragging you with one of her poles, life is pretty sweet.

Michael said...

Ah. So she had skeelz. So did my ex. A much better skier than I. Which is fine.

Yeah, the more I thought about it last night, I'm positive The Jane (1st time using that) was just opened. Maybe the year before. Big boom back then in both areas and roadwork.

Right around the same time, from the back bowls at Vail, Sundown Bowl?, we watched them clearing the trails that were to become Beaver Creek You could just see it off in the distance. That first year, Beaver Creek was skiing only. No hotels, no condos, no nothin'. Just a parking lot and a ticket booth.

Also, around 1987-88, we had the pleasure of driving through Glenwood Canyon while they were widening I70 from 2 lanes to 4. Thing is, at that point it was down to ONE lane Swit, through the entire canyon. And so, if you were the last one to pass the flag dude you were very happy. If you were the first one the flagger stopped, you turned off the car because you were looking at a 20 minute wait.

Rick the Truck driver tells me they did a fabulous job over-undering the east/westbound lanes so that they don;t fuck up the natural beauty of the canyon too much.

Long time ago dude.

David Marlow said...

January of 97. I was down in Fort Collins to finalize the breakup with the girl I moved out there with because the-one-that-got-away had announced her affection for me. I was driving back to Winter Park. The snow started in Denver. I'm pretty sure it was a Sunday afternoon. I was in my 89 Trooper. As I climbed up I70, I had to pull over to put it in 4-wheel drive. It was snowing what seemed like an inch an hour. By the time I got back to Winter Park, there was easily a foot on the ground.

It was one of those snows that's so heavy you think it just has to be snowing like this all over the world.

My first season there we got 75 inches in 4 days. Bottomless.