Off The Mountain

I’ve visited the mountains and western slope of Colorado more than any other state outside of my home state of Michigan and my new home in California. And I’m here once again. Mona and I flew to Denver last Wednesday, rented a car, and drove to my brother-in-law’s house in Vail, Colorado for a couple of days of skiing. I love to ski and having family in one of the premier skiing destinations in the world has proven very beneficial. And additional benefit is that Stan has been the Vail Town Manager for over 10 years and often manages to score complimentary lift tickets (the price of a single day lift ticket has risen to $159…this is an expensive sport).

It’s very late in the ski season and the conditions are less than ideal. The temperature has been hovering around 50-60 degrees and the snow is rapidly melting into puddles. If you get up to the middle of the mountain at just the right time (around 11 am), the snow turns from frozen hard pack to soft skiable mush before becoming cement later in the afternoon. It’s a delicate dance to schedule a ride up the Gondola, avoid the crowds, and get in 10 good runs. But the skies are bright blue and the mountains absolutely gorgeous.

On Thursday of last week, I was out on the mountain all day by myself. I rented some performance skis and was up to the top by 10 am. And there was fresh snow. Vail had received about 6 inches of new snow on Tuesday and the back bowls were untrodden. I skied non-stop for almost 5 hours and covered over 25 miles. Winter time bliss.

Friday afternoon, two of my children arrived and we all drove the two hours to Grand Junction for a memorial service for my aunt. Annabelle Moss was my mom’s sister and a truly remarkable woman. She was awarded a Congressional Gold Medal along with all of the other WASPs (Women Airforce Service Pilots) in 2010 at the US Capitol Building. She was also remarkable because she opened the doors of her home to her sister’s four children back in 1973 after my mother’s passing (my father died 5 years before).

Tomorrow, we’re headed to my sister’s home in Boulder to close out this trip. And Boulder is the home of PS Audio. I wrote to Paul McGowan and have set up a meeting tomorrow morning at their offices. I’m looking forward to touring their facility and playing some of my favorite high-resolution tracks. I have about 30 tracks on a USB stick that I’ll share…if we can play them. He wrote back and said that his PC playback system in transit from then Montreal Show.

I also have a copy of the AIX Records 2013 HD-Audio Sampler so we can play that if we can’t pull the files from the USB stick.