When my daughter’s favorite group, Atmosphere, announced they were performing in the first ever winter show at my favorite venue, Red Rocks, we had to figure out a way to make that happen. After some mad Google Mapping and creative budgeting, the road trip was on.

We packed up the MINI and hit the road last Thursday afternoon. After a quick stop at the Axel’s Bonfire in Eagan to eat some free birthday Bull Bites, we drove to Lincoln, Nebraska (420 miles). Holiday Inn Express was our hotel of choice this trip, thanks to their decent breakfast food and relatively low prices.

On Friday, we drove from Lincoln to Littleton, Colorado (500 miles) and checked in earlier than planned at the hotel. I totally forgot about the time change, so we had an extra hour before the concert started. We hit the local King Soopers grocery store to check on discounted lift tickets (not a great deal – skipped it) and had dinner at a surprise Chick-Fil-A (totally forgot they are in Colorado). I don’t care what anybody says – that food is damn tasty!

The concert was scheduled to start at 7:30, but I wanted to hike around Red Rocks before the sun went down. We had about 45 minutes of daylight, which turned out to be just about perfect. Since we were so early, we also got an awesome parking spot in the VIP area immediately below the main exit. We hung out in the car until gates opened at 6:30 and made a beeline to the merch table, which unfortunately was at the very top of the amphitheater. Many stairs later, the kid got what she wanted and we hiked back down to row ten to watch the show (it was general admission, so we took what we could get).

The bill consisted of Get Cryphy, Grieves and Budo, Common and headliner Atmosphere. Get Cryphy was playing as soon as the gates opened, which was nice. The set by Grieves and Budo was brief, but entertaining. Technical difficulties delayed the start of the Common set by about 30 minutes – I felt bad for his band (two keyboardists, a drummer and an MC), who just sat there in the cold the whole time.

I’ve listened to most of the Atmosphere albums, but there are still a lot of songs I just don’t know. This was not a problem for the kid, though, who sang along to everything. I do know that God Loves Ugly was the opening song and Brother Ali finally came out for the very last song (which wasn’t really an encore, as all the performers went off stage for only a minute or two at the end). The crowd was a little rowdy, but the close quarters and movement helped keep it warmer. A few snowflakes added character, along with lots of “special” smoke in the air, too…

The show ended around 11:45 and we were able to beat the worst of the traffic, thanks to our great parking spot. We made it back to the hotel around 12:30 and were back on the road by 8:30. I decided to skip Beaver Creek this time, opting to take the Loveland Pass over to Arapahoe Basin. I-70 looked good on the traffic cams at 7AM, but all three lanes were bumper-to-bumper about five miles up the grade. We finally made it to the Loveland Pass exit and I white-knuckled it up and over the treacherous two-lane road with no guard rails. Even driving my own car with snow tires, I wasn’t comfortable at all and will probably skip that option in the future.

A-Basin was just perfect. I had been there once before in high school and not much had changed. I take that back – they had a great new high-speed detachable lift right in front of the base chalet and a nice mid-mountain restaurant called the Black Mountain Lodge, where we had lunch. Rentals were quick and easy for the kid and I loved the pricing, which was cheaper than what we paid in Minnesota. Since they consider teens to be kids and not adults, her lift ticket and rental was only $59. Add in my $74 adult ticket and you had quite the Colorado bargain.

We took most of our runs off of that high-speed quad, with the “green” run Sundance being her favorite. Parts of that run are steeper than most “blacks” in Minnesota, so I didn’t mind skiing it like a mid-length cruiser. I was also quite fond of High Noon and took a few runs from the top of the mountain too. I would’ve done more up there, but the wind really picked up as the day went on. We managed around ten runs total before stopping around 3PM.

The rest of the trip was basically a big highway blur: Arapahoe to North Platte, Nebraska (320 miles), overnight one last time at the Holiday Inn Express, followed by 640 miles back to Minnesota on Sunday. We stopped for a steak lunch in Omaha at the lovely Upstream Brewing Company in the Old Market part of town and had some boring Wendy’s in Clear Lake, Iowa, for dinner.

Great trip, but oh so short. First vacation in three years, though, so I’ll take whatever I can get.

Now to figure out how to finally become a ski bum…

Ski rental office, Arapahoe Basin, Colorado

Mid-mountain, Arapahoe Basin, Colorado

Sign in the A-frame Lodge, Arapahoe Basin, Colorado

http://www.schweitzer.com/lessons-equipment/lssm/

This week we stopped at one of the few spots in Minnesota that has snow right now – Giants Ridge in Biwabik. Of course most of that snow was artificially made, but you really couldn’t tell. The quality was great – not icy and very few bare patches. It helped that there was a dusting of real snow overnight, but overall I was very happy with my first day out this season.

After the big crash last year at Lutsen, I now judge the success of a ski trip by whether or not my face gets smashed on something. The new helmut makes me a little more confident, but I’m still not as agressive as I used to be. I’m slowly coming around to the fact that I should probably dump the ancient straight skis and get something more modern (and safe), but cost is a huge factor right now.

Speaking of cost, I experienced a bit of sticker shock at the front desk. I was hoping Giants Ridge would have a reasonable beginners package available, as one of the kids had never skied and another needed a refresher after not skiing for a few years. All I wanted was a bunny hill lift ticket, rentals and a short group lesson for a reasonable price (say $50?), but they didn’t offer anything like that. I bought four lift tickets, three rental sets and taught my own group lesson and it was $250. Add in several visits to the cafeteria and it was a very expensive five hours.

A few other downers: spoiled kids, rotten parents, cursing teenagers, greasy chalet food, lack of sunshine, cold winds and frozen extremities.

But I still love the actual sport of skiing – there is really nothing else like it. Freedom to move at your own pace, a connection to the outdoors, the feeling of “beating” winter, spending time with my kids and an adrenaline rush you don’t get from running or golf.

You will never confuse Giants Ridge with Colorado, but compared to other ski areas in Minnesota, it’s fun. I still prefer Lutsen, but Giants Ridge is only a half hour from work. Both of them could use some high-speed, detachable chairlifts, though – the old style chairs take soooo long…

Schweiter.com screenshot, Sandpoint, Idaho

When I saw Atmosphere’s tweet tonight about the first ever winter show at Red Rocks in Colorado, I was hoping I could figure out a way for kid one and I to go. Google Maps says it’s a 14 hour drive from home and I have relatives that live in Denver now, so that part should hopefully work. Just needed to confirm it was an all-ages show (yes) and if seats were reserved (nope – general admission). When I saw there was a cheaper pre-sale price before the general public on sale tomorrow, I pulled the trigger.

This trip will be a birthday present for both of us. I haven’t had a vacation in almost three years, so I couldn’t be more excited. We’ll also get some bonding time during the MINI road trip through Iowa and Nebraska, along with a day of skiing at an area to be determined (Beaver Creek?).

Kick. Ass.

http://www.schweitzer.com/

http://descente.com/

Picked up some new gear at the wonderful Joe’s Sporting Goods in St. Paul last weekend. Took my pocketful of Christmas cash and bought a set of Fischer nordic skis and bindings, Alpina boots and a pair of Yukon Charlie’s snowshoes.

I’ve never really done either of these sports, so these are just entry-level products (but well made). I went out and used both yesterday for the first time and did OK. I need to learn more about cross-country form, but 32 years of downhill skiing made it pretty easy to get around without falling down.

Snowshoeing on frozen Lake Vermilion at night was a total trip. The stars were beautiful, it was absolutely quiet and temps were very reasonable. So peaceful and calming – at least until I started to sink into some slush. I was using the cross-country poles and one of them poked through to water. I asked a co-worker about that and he said not to worry – apparently the heavy snow can force water up through cracks to create a slush/water layer. He assured me there is ice beneath that, so I’ll go out again tonight.

Saw one shooting star last night, but still waiting to see the northern lights again.

The picture above was taken with my new favorite iOS photo app – Camera+. It really is a massive improvement on the build-in camera app and the low cost makes it a no-brainer purchase.

It was hot and humid today in Minnesota, but ski season will be here before you know it. I found these old clippings in the basement that I used to have up on the walls of my room on Lombard Avenue.

I made it out about five times last season, but I bet that number will increase this year…

My third day of ski-bum week was spent at Wild Mountain outside of Taylor’s Falls. I read on their web site you could get a free pass on your birthday and figured that was too good a deal to pass up. The weather wasn’t the greatest (misty fog that never burned off), but the temps were OK and the snow quality was good.

I figured my last visit to Wild was likely 20+ years ago and the ski area is basically the same – four chairlifts and a nice variety of runs, including Ego Alley, North and South Wild, Bear, Competition and the infamous Wall. The inside of the chalet was like a time warp back to high school ski trips, although now I can go in the Eagle’s Nest. They cooked me a mean French Dip sandwich with fries for lunch and had free wi-fi, which was very useful in an area of poor cell coverage.

There is now a tubing park just south of the main skiing area and they still have the alpine slide tracks. I think the water slides and small water park near the chalet are new since I was there last. I sort of forgot they are seven miles north of Taylor’s Falls along the river, so it takes about 90 minutes to get there from the south metro.

Day two of my mini ski bum week was spent last Sunday at Welch Village with three of the Miller clan. That was also the day of the big Vikings-Cowboys game, so it wasn’t as crowded as a normal holiday weekend.

Welch is still one of my local favorites – there are a number of relatively steep, medium-length runs (at least by Midwest standards) that are fun to ski over and over. Chicken, Bakkelyka, Dan’s Dive and Pete’s Pike are now joined by the new back bowl runs Carter’s Cliff, Lauren’s Ledge and several others. That new chair is really nice – too bad all the runs are so short (with a long traverse back).

We got in a lot of skiing before lunch, which consisted of the usual fried junk. Kowalski’s is selling advance lift ticket vouchers for $40, which I picked up before I left in the morning. Regular adult tickets are $47, but they can be turned in for a $10 gift card if you ski for less than four hours. Unfortunately, the Kowalski tickets don’t qualify, so I skied until 2:30 before heading home.

Last night I decided to spy on kid one’s first school ski trip of the year at Afton Alps. The weather has finally been decent and I was really glad to be out again doing something during the winter blahs.

The kid wasn’t too excited to see me, so I mainly skied by myself. Her school was based mainly in the Meadows area, so I hit the Highlands (Sally’s Valley and Heather’s Highlands) and the Alps (Barbi’s Challenge and Trudy’s Schuss). Those runs are all nice, but oh so short. I counted turns on one run and struggled to get in 15 before reaching the bottom.

Stopped in at all three chalets: looked for the kid in the Meadows chalet, ate a typical ski area dinner in the Alps chalet and sat by the fire with some hot chocolate in the Highlands chalet. Also got to watch part of the crappy Wild game before heading home around 9:15.

Night skiing starts at 4:30 and costs $27 for adults. Lifts close at 9:30 (Sunday-Thursday), but some of them shut down before that, so make sure you get where you need to be to avoid lots of skating.

It was too cold to golf, so I decided to take up Afton Alps on their $5 lift ticket offer today (bring three items for the food shelf and get a lift ticket for $5). Tomorrow is the last day of the offer (and of the season), so if you want one last bit of metro-area skiing, this is it.

They were running four lifts (#2 through #5) and had 12 runs open in the Alps area (although it looked like the Meadows and Highlands areas still had a fair amount of snow). I spent most of the time on chair three, alternating runs on Barbi’s Challenge and Trudy’s Schuss.

The snow was really nice – it got a little slushy at the end, but there were no bare spots and it was actually a little icy in the shade.

The Alps chalet has been upgraded since the last time I was here and it was nice to see reasonably priced ski area food. It’s still mostly greasy junk food, but at least it’s cheap.

7MM Afton Alps Photo Gallery

Last weekend I decided to return to Welch Village before all the snow was gone to use my gift card, visit with some friends and check out the new back bowl.

The weather was perfect for spring skiing, with plenty of sun and great temps. The snow got a little slushy at the end of the day, but runs like Chicken and Bakkelyka stayed nice all day, as they don’t get a lot of direct sun.

The back bowl was a bit of a disappointment. The new chair is a very nice quad, but the new runs are just too short. While the trail map lists nine open black diamond runs, there are really only four that come off of the new chair. When you get to the top, the three runs to your left, 4-Score, Lauren’s Ledge and Adam’s Abyss, all start with a flat traverse, a fairly steep, short section, then a flat traverse back to the chair. The one run to the right, Great Scott, is more of an open cruiser that funnels into a steep chute at the end that drops right to the chair.

Future plans call for two more runs, a second chair and a new chalet at the top of that chair. The back bowl is accessed from the triple chair located in front of the east chalet. The Allie’s Alley run gets you back to the east slopes from the top of the new quad.

Welch will be closing for the season tomorrow at 6PM.

We finally made it out for our first ski day of the year with a visit to Welch Village this morning. We started at 9AM with sunny skies and decent temps that kept rising all morning. Tickets were $45 for adults and $40 for kids, but you could get a $10 per ticket gift certificate if you turned in your tickets within four hours of purchase (which we did).

Crowds got bigger as the morning went on, but lines never got very long. We mostly skied on the east end of the area, hitting runs like Dan’s Dive, Dud’s Dream and Pete’s Pike. I also took one run on Chicken (for old time’s sake) and was surprised to find the steep, shaded run with very little ice.

We took a morning break at Madd Jaxx for hot chocolate and cheese curds before heading back to the west side and the main chalet around noon. It was more crowded on that side of the area, but still reasonable for this time of year.

The near-mythical “back bowl” was still not open, but I heard patrol talking about how there is a lot of snow back there and that the new chairlift is being stress-tested for a possible 12/31 opening (season-ticket holder access only for the first month).

Welch Village holds a lot of special memories for me from my high school racing days and is still my favorite near-metro area. Skiing in Minnesota will back later this season to report on the new runs and bring you more photos in our photo gallery.

I’ve personally used Descente ski jackets and pants since I started racing in high school 20+ years ago. Their clothing has always been top-notch and can usually be purchased far below the suggested retail price if you know when and where to go.

In the past, this meant places like White Wolf (RIP), Hoigaard’s and Joe’s. These days, I really like Valley Bike and Ski in Apple Valley – friendly staff, good sale prices and usually a great selection of Descente.

Two years ago, I purchased the coat pictured above and was exposed to Descente’s unique Passport Program – the jacket came with a book of passes to various ski areas across the country. We used three of them, which basically paid for the coat. Spirit Mountain was the only Minnesota area that year, I believe.

Full Disclosure: Descente sent me an email about a special online sale they are having for their DNA line and I noticed they had a promotion for webmasters that will award a free jacket to selected sites that link to them. Free jacket or no, I’m happy to write about their great products and refer people to Minnesota ski shops that carry Descente.

According to an email from them, Lutsen Mountains is opening Saturday, November 22, 2008 with five runs on Ullr Mountain. They are making snow and hope to have 20+ runs open by Thanksgiving weekend.

Early season deals include 2 for 1 lift and lodging (through December 18) and a free concert on Saturday night at the always great Papa Charlie’s by slide guitarist Nathan Miller.

Made it back yesterday. Overall, we had a very nice, relaxing and unique trip. Also realized this trip completes #25 of my things to do list: Ride a train across the Rockies.

Picking up from the last post, kid two participated in an all-day beginning Mountain Riders class on Friday, while kid one and I skied together all day. I got to ride the two new lifts I hadn’t been on (the triple and the T-bar) and both the snow and the weather were great.

My uncle came back from Spokane on Friday evening and we went to dinner with him at the St. Bernard’s Pub. This on-mountain restaurant has been there since the 60s and the inside decor has not changed much since then (it was awesome). I had a really good hot turkey sandwich that was a little different: thick bread, garlic spread, turkey, cheese and gravy with thin cut Idaho french fries on the side.

We all hung out at the condo until it was time to drive down the mountain to the train station. It was snowing pretty hard again (they were expecting another nine inches of new snow overnight) and the road to Sandpoint was treacherous. The train was only a few minutes late arriving and we made it with plenty of time to spare.

The ride back was less stressful, as we knew what to expect. It snowed all the way to the Minnesota/North Dakota border, so the views weren’t quite as good as the westbound journey. The train was packed and we were told they were sold-out for the next five days. There were switching problems in Montana, so we arrived in St. Paul about two and a half hours late.

More pictures have been uploaded to the photo gallery (Travel/Empire Builder and Private/Spring Break 08). Please contact me if you need the password for the private section.

I’ve been coming to Schweitzer Basin since I was nine. The resort has changed a ton since then. In fact, it’s changed since I was here two years ago. Venerable chair one has been replaced with two new lifts: a high-speed detachable quad that goes to Midway and a fixed triple over Face to the top. It remains a great, relatively undiscovered ski area with lots of great terrain and few crowds.

After arriving a little after midnight on Monday at the Sandpoint train station, my uncle Greg from Spokane picked us up and drove us to his condo on the mountain. On Tuesday morning, he skied with kid one, while I took kid two on the bunny hill. About 400 feet down, kid two fell and strained her knee. She totally wanted to quit, but I got her to ski between my legs to the bottom of the hill. We did four more runs that way before meeting the others for lunch.

After lunch, those two took off and we tried Happy Trails again. Another fall and things got worse. Kid two limped back to the car, dropped off the skis and hobbled to the ski patrol office. Ice, Advil and no more skiing for the day was the diagnosis. We sat in the lodge while the others skied.

On Wednesday, the wonderful staff at the Kinder Kamp agreed to take kid two for the day, even though she was now too old to go there. So Greg, kid one and I got to ski together all day. It pretty much snowed all day (about 4 inches), which gave me my first ever ice beard. We had lunch at the Outback Inn, which uncharacteristically had seating available inside. The Idaho potatoes they serve there are to die for.

The snow yesterday was awesome. The temperature stayed around freezing, but the snow felt wet when it hit you. Once on the ground, though, it stayed pretty light. 3-4 inches of soft snow on top of groomed corduroy is skiing nirvana for this old guy. Sundance and JR (kid one’s first true black diamonds), along with G-3 and Revenge on the Colburn side were my favorite runs of the day.

Today, kid one joined the Mountain Riders–instructor-led groups for kids too old for Kinder Kamp. Dave the instructor led the three Riders all over the mountain, including the new T-bar (which I still haven’t been on). The new snow was knee-deep today (12 inches overnight) and the sun made a brief appearance around lunchtime. Medium-strength wind all day, though.

Kid two and I hung out in the village all day. In the morning, we did some shopping, purchased internet access for the day, uploaded a bunch of photos and had lunch at the Chimney Rock restaurant (taking a break from the cafeteria food). In the afternoon, the kid watched a movie on the laptop while I read a bit of the Ed Viesturs book my friend Jake lent me.

Now we are about to head back to the condo, make dinner, then start getting ready for the return train ride late Friday night (we actually leave at around 2:30am Saturday morning). Depending on the weather (and the knee), we should have one more day of skiing tomorrow too.

This year I decided to take the kids on a new adventure for spring break–riding the Amtrak Empire Builder train to Sandpoint, Idaho.

The last time I rode Amtrak was when they still had a train between the Twin Cities and Duluth. This one was very different–top speed of 79mph and a coach capacity of 266 people (which I think we actually had).

The Empire Builder runs between Chicago and Seattle, leaving St. Paul around 11:30pm and arriving in Sandpoint 22 stops and about 26 hours later.

Yeah, that was a really long time, but overall it was enjoyable. In fact, it would probably be my favorite way to travel if we had booked a sleeper room with an electrical outlet instead of coach. Our seats actually did have an outlet, but in a cruel twist of fate, it was partially blocked by the immovable seats in front of us.

The uncertainty of doing something for the first time led to a lot of stress. I wasn’t sure about the luggage (no checked baggage to Sandpoint and a weird ski bag rule), didn’t know much about the on-board food options and was afraid I’d miss getting off the train in the middle of the night.

The baggage went fine, food options were varied (although I’d bring more of our own stuff next time) and the conductor took care of getting us off the train at the right time. We were about 45 minutes late, but in general, I thought it was a good operation.

North Dakota and eastern Montana were just as you’d expect. In fact, I think this is where all old American cars and trucks go to die. The scenery improved immensely at Glacier, but that was also when the sun went down.

Up next: skiing adventures at Schweitzer Mountain Resort

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