Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Opening day for Ski Season in Colorado


My 5 yr old son Alden and I decided that we couldn't resist the chance to bag opening day at two resorts in one day today. A friend hooked us up with lift tickets to make it practical. My favorite ski shop in town Steamboat Ski and Bike Kare set Alden up with a great pair of skis and Mike Parra, one of the owners, did a fantastic hand tune for Alden to give him a fast start on the season. Mike recommend he go up to 100cm skis and they were perfect. Alden is skiing pretty fast for his first day out. I won’t be able to keep up with him for long. A few little tweaks and he will rip.

We skied A-Basin and then Loveland today for their opening day. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and the snow was very good with only a few hard spots.A-Basin was pretty crowded with long lift lines but Loveland was wide open with a perfect run that had a steeper pitch for Alden to find his carve on. Alden must have been the only little guy there because we got interviewed by the Rocky Mountain News soon after arriving and then the Denver Post a few minutes later. We had a great day and I couldn't help but picture many more with him and my 2 yr old daughter Neve on Mt Werner in Steamboat this season. We have already been in training for several week watching ski movies to inspire us for the coming season.

Here is a video of Alden skiing at Loveland - The wind noise is all our speed as it was calm today. Smooth sailing on opening day for Colorado skiing

Smooth sailing on opening day for Colorado skiing

The Rocky, Updated October 15, 2008 at 12:21 p.m. Lifts opened today at Arapahoe Basin and Loveland Ski Area. The Rocky's Julie Poppen blogged live.Alden Wade is only 5 but he's been skiing for four years. Yep, you got that right. But he's from Steamboat Springs, after all. And let's just say his dad, Realtor Jon Wade, wants to make sure he has a partner in crime. So, Alden got an unexpected day off from the ABCs and 1-2-3s of kindergarten. "I got to skip school," said Alden, as he munched pizza in anticipation of getting a few runs in at A-Basin before the two drove to Loveland. "You've got to teach kids right from the start," dad said. Steamboat, after all, doesn't open until around Thanksgiving. This was Alden's first opening day experience - outside of Steamboat. He started out skiing by hanging on to a bar and getting down the slopes with his dad.

The Denver Post used this picture and some text that shows if you mouse over the picture: Click here to see Alden. For more of my musings and adventures click back to the Steamboat Springs blog main page.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a classic line ... "Alden Wade is only 5 but he's been skiing for four years. Yep, you got that right. But he's from Steamboat Springs, after all." There is something special about Steamboat. Keep up your blogging and we will all keep dreaming about our next visit to Steamboat!

Anonymous said...

I want to be "from Steamboat Springs, after all" ... or next week.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations on the first day of the season. I hope I'm not too many weeks behind you.

It's fantastic to see children getting involved at such a young age. I do hate being overtaken my the under 6's though - it's not good for my ego!

Jon Wade said...

Thanks Everyone! "But he's from Steamboat after all" does seem to say it all. We feel fortunate to have been able to make our dream come true. It was great to get out skiing with Alden and I hope that all of you get on the snow soon.

Anonymous said...

Looks like u had fun at loveland.