Aspen Buttermilk

Elite '09

233

189

Gin-Chong T.

Westwood, CA

4/11/2008

Hello Employees of Buttermilk (and a shout out to those of you at Snowmass),

I would like to thank each and every one of you individually by name for being so hospitable and gracious during my visit to your ski slopes, but I think I've lost my short term memory.  You see, this was the trip where I thought it would be a good idea to learn how to snowboard--ollies, soups, poptarts, Haakon flips, cabs, indys, tail grabs--you know, what I saw all the kids doing during the X Games.

Unfortunately, it was harder than it looked.  A lot harder.

I enjoyed learning to snowboard on the trails criss-crossing the massive 3,000 acres, combined, your mountains offered, all of which being generously covered with powder--about 10% of which I probably "ate" having boarded for all of, oh, ZERO hours before I came here.  

Armed with my wrist guards, helmet and, most importantly, padded shorts, I thought I was nigh invincible.  My ass, unfortunately, told me differently when I fell the first, second, then multiple times.  Not wanting leave any part of my body uninvolved in this "learning experience", I managed to land on my chest a couple of times, once feeling like someone took a baseball bat to my lower ribs.  HOMERUN!!! My personal favorite was the 360 I pulled off. Okay, it was on my head, but from what other people told me, it was amazing...that I was still alive. And even more amazing that I was conscious.

My apologies to Steve, my snowboarding instructor, as you were an excellent teacher, but you had to work with me. I would write you a letter personally but, again, I can't seem to recall your last name. In fact, I not even sure if you were named Steve, but let's leave it at that.

When I was standing and not face down/up on some part of the mountain, I was able to enjoy some of the spectacular views and scenery offered by Buttermilk and Snowmass, two of the four mountains for which my lift pass provided me access.  Lined by many ski-in/out facilities, both of these mountains offered incredible skiing/snowboarding and were extremely well maintained, even at the end of the season.  Thus, I guess I won't bother looking for the impressions left from my many face plants when I return as your grooming team will have already regroomed the runs countless of times.

Looking forward to returning when my body heals.

--EJ

Oh yes, I'll have to remember that if I am going to stick with the very beginner lifts (e.g., Panda at Buttermilk), you won't check my lift pass (probably because it's embarrassing enough to have 5 and 6-year olds ski/snowboard circles around me while I contemplate why I didn't rent a ski pole with which to beat them without the lift operator having to try and scan my pass while I attempted to keep a vertical orientation).  I could have saved at least the cost of at least one day's lift pass had I known this.

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