Powderhorn March 1st

Kaleb taking a break and making snow angels.

Renae and Kaleb coming down to the lift.

Renae Boarding the end of "Bill's Run"

Roby boarding the end of "Bill's Run"

Me and Roby coming down the upper section of "Bill's Run".

Renae and Kaleb skiing and boarding.

It's best to start this blog with the going's on Saturday because it will make my story much better. So Saturday morning Renae and I decided to work on cleaning the house. Renae was going to focus on the garage and I was working downstairs. We wanted to get the garage done because we have had a family of mice living and playing in the garage. They wreaked havoc in the bird seed and grass seed. Luckily we have two mouser cats and we found were they were getting in. Anywho.....at some point mid morning Renae asked me to help her out in the garage....she wanted me to cut open some plastic on top of a shelve were she thought a mouse was hiding. I didn't know why I got the glorious experience of possibly having a mouse jump out at me but I cut open the plastic and there was no mouse, thankfully. However, by this point Renae and I had already vacuumed up 4 containers of seed and mouse poop....I kept saying were going to get the Hunta Virus didn't you see that movie "outbreak" with Dustin Hoffman (of course that was a monkey). So I helped her a little more and told her since I was helping her when we breaked we had to go to Sports Authority and get her a new snowboard. She has been using her board for the last 7 years or so and while a good board has seen better days. So after going to the dump and talking with the State Patrol, we headed to Sports Authority. Of course she picks out the board that I showed her at the beginning of the season that I liked, but I wasn't jealous as my board is brand new even though it is two years old. So we got her a new board and new bindings.

So Sunday morning we get up and start loading the car and making lunches. We are to meet Roby over at his house between 8-815. This was (emphasis on was) to be Katie's last lesson which was free. We get over to Roby's house and get everything loaded in the car. Katie goes out and climbs in her car seat and nearly falls asleep without even talking with Renae who she hasn't seen in over a month (in hindsight this was pretty weird). So we swing by McDonald's for breakfast and we are headed to Powderhorn. We get there at 0915 or so and change at the car (this threw Renae for a loop because we had only done this once prior to her leaving, but Roby and I had made a habit of it). Renae took Katie who slept all the way up to Powderhorn to the Children's learning Center for her last lesson, while Roby, Kaleb, and I started getting Kaleb's ski package. Probably the last time at Powderhorn and we finally get the system down of how to rent skis. Roby then goes to buy his ticket while I go to find out where Renae is because she hadn't come in yet. I found her still standing in line at the Children's Learning Center waiting to check Katie in. I went and got her ticket and then we all met and headed over to the quad lift.

Renae and Roby both brought their new boards, since it was Renae's first time with her set up I helped strap her in because the bindings were really stiff. We decided to ride up 2 and 2 instead of all 4 just because I had been having trouble getting of the quad lift and there weren't that many people. Renae did her best to boost my confidence in getting of the lift, but to no avail I wiped out hard on solid ice it felt like. Cracked my knee on the first fall, so I worked my way over to the side to strap in. We decided to go down "Bill's Run" which has a few more steeper sections than "Maverick" the run I took last time with Roby. I did pretty well with the flat sections this time only falling once in the three runs I took with them. So we headed down and Renae and I worked with Kaleb in doing more french fry skiing (ski's together) rather than snow plow skiing. The first run I took I don't think I fell once and we worked our way down the mountain. This time I did a couple of turns on the steeper section and faired pretty well. We headed back up again, this time I indicated to the lift operator to slow the lift, still dumped, this time it was because I ended up putting my foot on my binding and was trying to reposition it while getting off. Bad Idea. We strapped in and headed down "Bill's Run" again. We all worked more with Kaleb getting the french fries down instead of the snow plow. At the end of the run I told them I wanted to go over to the EZ Rider lift and work on getting off that lift since I keep dumping.

Roby, Renae, and Kaleb all went back up the quad lift while I headed over to the EZ rider. At this point let me give you an idea of the conditions. This would have been about 1120am and the temp was about 43-45 by this time, not a cloud in the ski, a 42 inch base (although I'm not sure where they were measuring that from), groomed runs, and hardly anyone at the resort. So I head up EZ rider with a young skier. As we approach the end of the lift I see there is slush and slush water awaiting me. I do fairly well getting off until I reach the slush water, never water boarded before so dumped. Oh well. I strapped in and headed down EZ because it was the longest run. I'm not sure what they did to the run, but there were deep grooves all the way down the run in the middle of the run. So I got to practice my loosey goosey legs and did baby jumps. When I finished I went over the bottom of the run they would be coming down and took pictures of them coming down. I send them back up after getting the car keys from them and take Kaleb and we go get lunch. Well once we got to the car Kaleb informed me he really needed to go pee. I asked if he could wait 5 min to get back up to the lodge, but he was already doing the pee-pee dance. Well lets just say we got the situation handled and Kaleb felt better. We took the lunch back up and waited for Renae and Roby. We all ate lunch, then Renae and I went up for a run while Roby and Kaleb took the lunch back to the car.

I actually made it most of the way off the lift this time. Yeah, I rode about 100 feet on my board, before I wiped out. Renae and I strapped in and she kept telling me flat board flat board, finally I said I have no clue what you mean when you say that. I could tell I was tired because I fell at least 3 times hard on this run. But I was working on kicking my back leg out on turns. We made it down in about 25 min or so and Roby and Kaleb were waiting. I told them to go up without me and I would bring Katie over so she could do a run with us. Well I went over to the Children's Learning Center just to find out how we get Katie's ski's so we could take her up when she was done with her lesson at 230. They told me and I left. I sat in the lunch area looking to see if I could see Katie skiing, but never did. I went back into the CLC and she said, "it didn't even register when you were in here, Katie has been passed out ever since lunch, she didn't seem like she felt good" and there she was laid out on a mat dead asleep with kids playing all around her. Her ski instructor said she thought Katie's ear was bothering her. So I went and waited for them to come back down the hill. First came Roby barrelling down the hill and got right back in line for the lift, then come Renae and Kaleb about 7 min later. So I tell Renae about Katie and we wait for Roby to come back down. We send Roby and Kaleb back up while we go put our boards up and get Katie. When we got Katie she was running a fever and was complaining that her neck hurt. Red Flag Red Flag. So when Roby and Kaleb got down we talked with Roby about taking Katie to the hospital to have her checked.

So we dropped off Roby and Kaleb at Roby's house and Renae, me and Katie proceeded to Community Hospital ER. They took a throat culture when we checked in and before we even left the triage area told us that Katie was positive for strep throat....In the back of my head I'm thinking great I have Hunta Virus and now strep throat. You could tell Katie felt miserable. They put a mask on her and got her back in an isolation room with Renae I couldn't go back because there was only one visitor per patient allowed in the back. So I got to sit in the waiting room where there were 3 people laying on the floor moaning, one guy vomiting all over the place, one yelling/screaming child, one 17 year daughter there with her mother and father bitching about waiting for 2 hours, and several other interesting characters. Brittany (Katie's mommy) showed up around 645 or so and around 715 I went and asked the nurse to go get Renae (we hadn't eaten since lunch and I couldn't sit in the waiting room with chaos any longer. Renae came out and said they just started Katie's IV. So about 15 min later we left the hospital and Katie in the hands of Brittany and headed to Applebee's to get something to eat. I don't remember much of supper other than I was dragging as was Renae. Brittany called during Applebees and told Renae they were discharging Katie with antibiotics and everyone else that has been exposed to Katie (ie all family members) should be checked for strep. When Renae and I got home I was showing her my bruises from the day. She said whats that one on your arm, so I looked and it was a perfectly round bruise with a raised center about the size of a nickel on the back side of my arm. So I'm like great now I have Hunta Virus, strep throat, and I've been bitten by a brown recluse and my skin is going to fall off around the bruise, not to mention I pushed myself really hard today and I hurt/ache.

But it was a great day of boarding. If everyone is feeling better and on their antibiotics we are planning to go to Sunlight.


Here is the trail map of Powderhorn. I did 3 runs on "Bill's Run" (pink) and one run on EZ.