D19

This particular night started out as a glass of wine at my house with Jen and Heather and then a search for a place to eat, preferably at the bar. It took a while but eventually we settled on D19, mostly because we had tried everywhere else in Aspen and there wasn't a table or a bar stool to be had. (On a Wednesday??) It turned out to be a great choice because hands down, it was the best meal I've had in Aspen.

The manager, Jason(who also happens to be my next door neighbor) seated us at the only available table and helped us pick out an interesting bottle of red, the name of which I can't recall but it was so good that we ordered another one shortly thereafter. Jen had the Angry Mussels and said they were fabulous, while Heather and I both had the chopped salad, followed by the ravioli. Every single bite on our plates was consumed. Heather's comment was that she rarely enjoys both the first course and the entree, but in this case at D19 she loved both. I absolutely loved everything and even ordered dessert, a first for me in Aspen. The service was friendly and efficient(especially when I knocked over my glass of wine).

Can't wait to go back and try more... Thanks Jason!

www.d19aspen.com

What to do when you can't ski

Glenwood Hot Springs:

About an hour north of Aspen, the pool bills itself as the largest hot springs pool in the world. I went with Jen and her friend Heather on one of the few sunny days we've had lately, and it was well worth the drive down rt. 82. There are also natural steam caves across the street from the pool; part of the same facility. We sat in the pool and enjoyed the quarter-fed mini jacuzzi chairs for a while but the best part was the view of the mountains, the cold air, the sunshine and the mineral water we were soaking in. More fun and much cheaper than physical therapy at thirteen bucks for the entire day(you can leave and return with a hand stamp). http://www.hotspringspool.com/

Lunch at Juicy Lucy's: yummy and juicy- had a reuben sandwich and it was DEElicious.

Snowshoeing at Ashcroft: okay, maybe not such a great idea less than a week after tearing an ACL but I was done sitting down and it seemed safer than cross country skiing. Wore the brace and it was fine...a little slow, but fine.

Lunch at Pine Creek Cookhouse: Good, but not as good as the first time...we all had the caesar salads and I tried the asparagus-tomato soup. (Jen changed the name of the soup to AssMato soup after she tasted it. )

The Pine Creek Cookhouse caesar salad with toasted quinoa and pine nuts

Pop goes the ACL

It's true; when it goes there is an audible "pop" sound. It wasn't as painful as I remember it being 30 years ago, when I tore it skiing, and I'm not totally out of commission. No more skiing, obviously, but I'm heading to the gym today to get on the bike. Went snowshoeing at Ashcroft on Thursday with a brace on, a week after I did this so I think I'll be back to almost normal activity in a few more weeks. Until surgery, that is...

It happened at Snowmass, and I was having a great run until I caught an edge with my left ski and my right tip dug in really hard. I didn't even try to stand up because there was an immediate feeling of "jello" in my right knee after the pop. Went down to the clinic in the sled and the doc told me that he didn't feel an ACL in that leg but I probably needed to get an MRI to be certain. Had the MRI the next day at the ER and the results were confirmed along with torn meniscus and a bone bruise(that could have happened when I hit a tree stump the day before!)

XGames

Start of the finals of the Skier X event.

So back to me...I would like to say that by volunteering for the XGames I was an indispensable cog in the wheel but the truth is that I was demoted to the "position" of gatekeeper for the second day. It's kind of like on the Apprentice, when the team manager gives someone "busy work" to keep them out of trouble...

I asked Ryan, our volunteer coordinator, if he was discriminating because I was female. He said no, that wasn't the case. Then I asked him if I was relieved of my slipping duties because I wiped out on the course the other day. He said yes. I should have stopped there, but I couldn't help myself.

I had to give him some honesty points for that but the conversation went downhill from there, literally. Whatever. Maybe I'm just bitter because I got up at 6:30 am on a Sunday to stand around all day and do nothing, or maybe I'm bitter because they saw me after I went down but didn't see me trying to avoid the snowmobile, but I do believe in giving fair warning before ousting someone. Or maybe I'm bitter because my volunteer coordinator was kind of cute in a chauvinistic sort of way, and I know he was doing his best.

I did show up, after all, and I wore the dorky yellow vest. I expected to be given some sort of a job to do, or maybe send me an email so I could have had the day off if I wasn't needed. They organizers had emphasized that we needed to either show up on the days we were assigned, or let someone know if we weren't going to be able to make it, so where was the reciprocal courtesy?

Oh yeah, and you guys call that stuff breakfast, lunch and dinner??

Bottom line is that for the most part it was fun, and I did get to see the XGames from a great seat. But I would have done a few things differently if I was in charge of volunteers.

Sara D., my partner in crime.

Fun with Photoshop on the Big Air course midday Sunday

OAKENFOLD

I just crossed Paul Oakenfold off my List of Things to Do Before I Die. Last night at Belly Up, I finally got to see and hear the guy who is responsible for the bulk of my CD collection. I have no words to describe how much fun it was.

Next on the list is skiing Highlands Bowl....

Winter XGAMES

I thought I'd try a little volunteering action for the XGames and see if: a) I could actually be useful, and b)what the hoopla was all about.

So yesterday, the first day of XGames, I was assigned to the X-Course/Big Air and to me that sounded really, really cool. I was going to bring my camera but since I'll be volunteering on Sunday as well I wanted to check out the situation first in case cameras weren't allowed.

I had signed up for volunteering with ski equipment because I thought that would be more interesting than standing around checking backpacks, and they put me in a group with a guy named Ryan and a few other guys- we went up to the top of Buttermilk and skied down to the venue. At the venue it was actually practice for the XCourse which entails skiers and boarders racing down in groups down a course that has several "small" jumps and bumps. The event is filmed by a fly camera which is basically on a pulley system and that's how they get those great videos going right beside the athletes.

Our job was to "slip" down the course to try to smooth out ruts that the athletes had created in their runs. The image that I had in my head of this was of us skiing to a part on the course and slipping downhill slowly with our skis and then stopping and starting and doing that in different spots on the course. I was wrong.

What we actually did was to ski about half speed down the course in either a snowplow or sideways. I actually caught some air a few times and wiped out once as I was trying to avoid a snowmobile coming at me in reverse. One of the ESPN guys picked me up because I was laughing so hard I couldn't get myself up. I think I embarrassed Ryan. We did several runs this way, and at one point we were pulled off the course to wait for snowboarders and got to stand about five feet away from one of the jumps so they were basically flying right over our heads.

After lunch we headed back up to the venue and we were handed large rakes and shovels. This equipment was to help modify the course because the mono skiers had their qualifier event at 2pm and they needed to be diverted in several areas. Unfortunately someone made an executive decision to station me at the top of the course(discrimation! boooooo!) instead of shoveling with the guys so there I sat for the next two hours. I did meet a few new friends and I got to see the monoskiers start their qualifiers so that was really fun. Those guys are awesome- they were hitting the jumps from a couple of feet off the ground, and one of their trainers was telling me that they could easily break their necks if they wiped out because they are strapped in to the chairs. It takes a lot of nerve; more than I have!

Back in the Saddle

It's been COLD. So cold that for the last week, my living room-which is directly over a carport- never gets above 60 degrees inside even when I have the heat jacked up to 80. That's when I know that there are below zero temps in the morning, so I'll check my emails, watch a little Plum TV, tell myself that I'll ski in a couple of hours when it warms up. But I don't...even though I'm a Buffalo native I just don't enjoy skiing when it's subzero. So it was probably a good week or more that I hadn't skied.

Anyway, Sunday was awesome. Sunny, warm(almost tropical at around 30 degrees) and the snow was still great. Skied with a friend from the Hamptons, Sara, who's at about the same ability I am so it was really fun to ski all over the mountain and have fun with it instead of worrying that either I was holding someone back, or they were holding me back....funny how that works. Also, I skied for most of the day instead of just a couple of hours.

We cruised the first one down Silver Bell to the Ajax lift, then over to Buckhorn which had all the bumps groomed down; kind of sad as these are my practice bumps. Did some FIS runs, then down to Ruthies lift, then Roch Run a couple of times. The thing that I love about Aspen is that the blue runs here are blacks or double blacks back on the East Coast. Roch is bumps, but over towards the left not as big but to me it's a miracle if I can get down it without wiping out at least once or smacking myself in the face with my knees.

We stopped at the top and had a hot chocolate with Bailey's...always a courage inducer...and after that headed over to the Gent's Ridge lift and did Glade #1. At this point I got confused about the trail rating system because the trail map indicates that Glade #1 is a double black, but to me it was the same degree of difficulty as Roch Run. Maybe an expert can explain this to me.

Somehow we ended up towards skier's left at the end of the day and didn't want to do a double black, Silver Rush, so we started to head over to Magnifico Road and I accidentally hit a ridge at the catwalk at medium speed and vaulted. Luckily there was no one beneath me and I'm told that for an accidental jump I went down very gracefully.

We called it a day at 2:30 and enjoyed the rest of the sun down at the Tavern- it was a great day of skiing!