On Friday, we went snowmobiling with White Mountain Tours.  Our ride started at noon and we each had a 2017 Polaris LXT 550; they rode like Cadillac’s.  Our guide took us across a 2,000 acres private property for two hours.  We started at 10,000 feet and climbed up to about 12,500 feet.  The groomed trails where easy for Lynn and Mary to manage until they had to stop for a bio-break.  Lynn sank in the snow up to her chest and that was kinda scary.

On Saturday, Paul and Bob went skiing at Beavercreek.  Mary and Lynn spent some time in the Beavercreek Spa. The weather was supposed to be 24 degrees but it felt like -10.  The snow was groomed corduroy and very fast.  The crowds were very small all day.

For dinner on Saturday, we went to the Ski Tip Lodge.  An awesome restaurant based out of a historic stage coach stop.  The rustic feel of the lodge was ideal for a five-star meal.

Great times with the family.

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The post Guys Weekend in Colorado first appeared on LeRoy Family Blog.

Matthew and Nathan started laughing about my arms during the jumps (which were terrifying!) and this video came out of it.

I hope you laugh as much as we did.

Update:

This was absolutely terrifying for a guy over 50.

Nathan said “Dad, the faster you go, the smoother it gets.” That wasn’t very comforting. My heart was pounding out of my chest after the first jump.

The “BIG” jump was crazy. I did the “medium-sized” jump. The ramp was nearly five feet tall. The landing zone was about 20 feet downhill. He was right; going faster was better. But it felt like I was in the air forever! After about six times, it got much easier but my arms wouldn’t stop circling.

Hey, it keeps me young, right?

The post Jump Day at PerfectNorth first appeared on LeRoy Family Blog.

Saturday was skiing and boarding at Vail. It had snowed a couple inches that evening which made for great conditions. We skied the entire mountain; front-side, back-bowls, and big sky basin. It was a great day.

Mary and Paul took us snowshoeing at the Keystone Nordic center on Sunday. That was really cool. We hiked for nearly four miles. Some of the snow was very deep. Everyone had a great time.

Sunday we returned to Keystone to ride the mountain. The good news was the crowds were very small. We loved the Keystone terrain park.

The post Colorado 2015 first appeared on LeRoy Family Blog.

• Thursday 3/20 – Matthew and I arrive today. Everyone who was already there went to Breckenridge. Taylor arrived very late Thursday.
• Friday 3/21 – The group went to Beaver Creek. It was a beautiful, blue-sky day. We stopped for lunch at the Chop House.
• Saturday 3/22 – Our trip to Vail was crazy! It snowed seven inches during the day. Visibility was difficult. There is nothing like skiing the fresh powder. We got split up at noon and skiing alone on such a big mountain, in a snow storm is a scary experience.

The post 2014 Colorado Ski Trip – Guys Weekend first appeared on LeRoy Family Blog.

Date	Duration	Notes
11/28/2013	4 hrs	It was the first day of the 2013 season for Perfect North Slopes. The line to get our season passes took an hour. The snow was great, the sky was perfect and the lines are tolerable. Matthew and Jorden did some tubing and then Grandpa took Jorden for food inside while Matthew skied.
12/7/2013	4 hrs	Its a POW Day at Perfect North. After four or five inches of fresh overnight, we arrived very early. The snow was perfect all day. We expected a huge crowd but there were fewer people than we could have imagined. Great day!
12/9/2013	3 hrs	Nathan I headed out right after school/work today. It was cloudy and cool (31). The slope conditions were good but icy in some places. We found the Stokely’s and rode with them for a while. Check out the video.
12/23/2013	6 hrs	Our first day in Colorado. We headed to Vail Resorts. It was about an hour drive from Mary’s mountain house. The weather report said no snow was expected but the roads were very snowy. We arrived to discover nine inches of fresh powder. This mountain is SO BIG, we only experienced a small part of it.
12/26/2013	5 hrs	Yay!! More skiers today. Lauren and Paul joined us for some riding. We went to Beavercreek today. Conditions were very good with minimal crowds. We started out easy for Paul and then quickly jumped to the black-diamond runs…oops! Lauren is a great boarder; she makes it look so easy.
12/27/2013	7 hrs	Today we went to Arapaho Basin Ski resort. We got out early and stayed until the lifts closed. It’s a small but very technically challenging slope. The views from the top are amazing. The slopes are very close to the rocky cliff mountains. We did a double-black diamond that was crazy steep.
1/1/2014	3 hrs	Matthew and Kyle joined us for a quit trip to the slopes. We thought it would be crazy busy but it was less crowded than we expected. The conditions were very good. The only down side was our limited time (there was a football game to get seen).
1/15/2014	3 hrs	Nathan and I had a good day at the slopes today. The snow was quick and the lifts were empty. I spent most of my time on the beginner terrain park. Later we moved up to the regular terrain park and I spent lots of time working on my jumps.
1/29/2014	3 hrs	Beautiful day on the slopes. Lots of sun, low temps, no crowds. Rode lots of switch (backwards) today. It’s harder than I thought it would be.
2/15/2014	3 hrs	It snowed last night and we arrived bright and early today. It was cold but the slopes were in great condition. The only bad part was that it’s was Saturday, sunny, and it just snowed. Perfect conditions for a VERY large crowd. We only stay until noon and the parking lot was completely full; all the way to the barn. And the the line of cars to get in stretched out to route 1.
2/19/2014	3 hrs	Warm day on the slopes. Lots of sun, temps in the high 40’s, no crowds. The snow was very slow. We spent a good part of the day in the terrain park.

The post Snowboarding Log 2013 first appeared on LeRoy Family Blog.

The post Colorado Video first appeared on LeRoy Family Blog.

It was crazy crowded but we finally found a place (Peak 10) where we liked to ride and the lines weren’t as long.

The post Colorado Day 2 first appeared on LeRoy Family Blog.

The ride of the day was the Blakcomb Glacier Run; 4.7 miles long!! To get there, we rode the Blackcomb gondola, took a very long chair lift farther, then used the summit t-bar (neither of us had ever done that, ugh) to reach a point where we had to climb up about 50 ft by foot (carrying our boards) to reach the summit. It felt like we were on mars. The wind was howling, Bob had trouble breathing. Then standing at the top and looking down, it was nearly vertical. Scariest run of our lives! In the pictures, you can see the boards stuck in the snow. That’s right at the edge of a 1000 foot drop.

Later in the day, we went down to bring Lynn up the mountain for lunch. She didn’t care much for the cafeteria style food but loved the views. Together we took the Peak2Peak gondola between mountains. That’s an amazing feat of engineering. She went down by herself and Bob and Nathan stayed up for more runs.

I’m not sure how we could top this trip unless more people join us. Who’s in?

The post Whistler Day 4 first appeared on LeRoy Family Blog.

Later in the morning, we headed out for a wilderness adventure snowmobile tour. The ride lasted about four hours and was amazing. We started about 30 minutes from our hotel on the pacific side of the mountain range. Because they have more moisture, they had 25 ft of snow. It was staggering how deep it was.

They took us up the mountain through winding trails that are mostly machine groomed. The higher up we got, the heavier the snow came down. At the top is a small bowl shaped area were we could play with the snowmobiles in the deep stuff. We’d ride up one side, turn and race down. Half the hood was under the snow; it was hard to see at times. Several people didn’t follow directions on where to ride and they got stuck. You could hardly see the sled. It’s was so cool! I wish could have stayed longer.

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