Aspen Collision

the past few weeks have been a little hectic. along with working at the restaurant and coaching, ive had my parents and a string of people come to visit. last night three college buddies left after having been here since thursday. since being here i have relaxed tremendously on my previous style of snowboarding which involved hitting the mountain from open to close. my body just cant handle doing that day in and day out. my normal routine is arriving on the mountain around 9:30 or 10 and leaving by about 2:30. but, i understand the weekend warrior mentality and those guys definitely had it. so, my body is telling me to take some time off. but, we had some great days on the slopes. i think a couple of my buddies may hate me for taking them on the hike up the bowl, but it was a gorgeous day and it had the best snow on the mountain.

im absolutely loving coaching. the kids, for the most part, are great. i seriously hope i can be as cool as these kids when i grow up. we recently had our first slope style and half pipe competitions. its pretty amazing to watch 9 and 10 year olds clear the wall of an 18 foot half pipe or witness 14 year olds pull multiple 900s down a slopestyle course.

however, i nearly had a heart attack on saturday when one of my kids, 9 year old Jacque, got plowed over by a 15 year old brazilian. i was watching 5 kids at the time so i only saw this explosion out of the corner of my eye. then it all disappeared over a rolling hill just in front of me. i was seriously thinking that someone may have just died. jacque's gloves and goggles were at least 10 feet from his body when i got to him. he was in shock, shaking and crying, and just basically freaking out, and bleeding from his right nostril. the other kid was 15 yards down the mountain and not moving. im holding on to jacque, trying to calm him down and get him to lie still, while glancing down at the other boy yelling to him to acknowledge me. thankfully a ski instructor showed up soon after and called patrol. at some point later i remember looking down and seeing someone with the other boy...maybe a friend or brother. patrol arrived after what felt like an hour but was in reality less than 5 minutes. they were worried that jacque had broken some ribs and may have a concussion. the other boy was having difficulty breathing. patrol loaded both on to stretchers, securing the head and neck in case of possible injury, and took them to the on-mountain clinic by snowmobile. as if things had to get worse, while jacque was being examined, another young boy was brought in with a broken clavical. he was riding up to a box (its like a rail, but wider...like a box) when his ski popped off and he went shoulder first into the corner of the feature. a doctor or nurse was giving him a shot and he was screaming bloody murder. at this point, jacque was more scared than anything. the doctors found no serious problems at the clinic but recommended he be examined further at the hospital. jacque's parents took him to the hospital. the other boy was taken in an ambulance to the hospital hooked up to oxygen. the good news is that jacque is ok. just incredibly shaken up and bruised. i dont know much about the other kid. i think he may have broken ribs, but i havent heard more about him. but, it was probably the scariest moment of my life. im not sure what i would have done or what i would have told the parents if something serious had happened to one of my athletes on my watch.

outside of coaching, my life is interesting as well as quite boring. my job at the restaurant/bar as a host, coat checker, and ID checker has its ups and downs. the biggest up being the people i work with. coat checking is ridiculous. drunk cougars think its hilarious that i am doing it, but tend to tip really well. older, usually slightly intoxicated, men love to make the joke "Wow, the coatcheck girl really got ugly" and hardly ever tip me. foreigners, i think, are confused about me being in the coat check closet and are hit or miss on tipping. checking ids may be the worse thing on the planet. our bar only accepts passports, us drivers licenses, and military ids as valid identification. most foreigners, as i did when i was traveling, rarely go out drinking with their passport. but, at least bring a copy people. its not hard. instead, they insist on arguing with me...the incredibly intimidating coat check/id guy. aspen women are difficult when it comes to carding. the young ones are annoyed and agitated by my asking for it, and go insane when they dont have it and expect me to either know them (because if they are going out in aspen they must be hot stuff) or have me believe that they know the owner, whose name is also the name of the restaurant. most of them just walk in any way as i try to find the coat of an exiting customer. so, because i have to card people while i coat check, i get many people who stiff me on the tips. and, dont even get me started on what happens when coat check becomes mandatory when the restaurant and bar get too full! hosting is ok, it just doesnt pay anything. the good news is that i work 4 nights a week (which means i get a free dinner those nights) which prevents me from going out and wasting money. and, since i work at the restaurant tues, wed, thurs, and sat, the only "happening" night i really could go out is friday,but i coach at 8am every saturay. and, saturdays suck...i work from 8am to 2:30pm coaching, then i coat check/check IDs from 5:30pm to 2:30am, and every other sunday i have to coach again from 8am to 2:30pm. so, my life is incredibly boring outside of coaching and working at the restaurant...unless you count snowboarding.

im riding still almost every day. i think ive taken off about 8 days (including today) since the mountains opened. im getting better at all mountain riding and doing some small tricks on natural terrain, but im still a little sissy girl when it comes to the park. i have pulled frontside and backside 180s off the smaller kickers, but i have also found myself starring back up the hill as i fly down the mountain 10 feet above the landing. but, being out on the mountain almost everyday is a treat i cant tell you about.

the winter x games starts on wednesday here and two buddies from high school are coming out for them. im sure that alone should providef or some interesting stories.