The End...Again

Crested Butte Mountain Resort will close tomorrow. Snow is plentiful and the conditions are excellent, but the resort has a lease with the U.S. Forest Service that mandates its closure. As I sit in my recliner pecking away at this laptop I can see it is going to be a sunny and warm day today. The radio said it might get up to 50 degrees today. The struggle for spring to overtake winter is in full swing. Car windows were frosted over this morning, but the solar heat has cooked it off of the south and east facing windows.

This is the end of my sixteenth season here. This winter has blown through with the quickness. Working with the kids and pouring a lot of energy into finding a new home have helped this time warp. I am ready for the warmth of spring and feel grateful for the longer days post-daylight savings.

Having had a lot of struggles with the snowboard team this winter, I have been enormously pleased with the end of the season. We had an excellent showing at the USASA Nationals and brought home two snowboarding and one ski national title. We have stepped it up every year for the past three and that is very gratifying from a coaches perspective. The kids who did not qualify for nationals stayed here in Crested Butte (and a quick trip to Copper) with me and worked their asses off to get as much video footage as they could. Video footage is like money to these guys. Each of the more serious riders will put their clips together and burn it onto a dvd and send it to potential product sponsors.

So, a successful end to the 2005/2006 season fills me with swirling memories and thoughts of the future. Katie and I cleared a couple more hurdles towards getting into the duplex in Skyland yesterday. We have to move out of our Riverbend home in less than two weeks. Katie is going to visit Grandma Hanson in Mt. Angel, OR and I am going to visit the Hoys and some other friends in Carlsbad, CA for next weekend. When we return we will have to move all our belongings into the garage of 19 Arctic Court, then find a place to stay until the county gives the Pitt family a Certificate of Occupancy. We are cautiously optomistic.

8:06 AM. Second cup of coffee going down fast