Vail, Colorado  Feb. 4 – 10, 2012

I got hassled at the airport, man!

The very cool fire / water fountain, Vail Village.

Lover’s Leap, a great, steep run in Blue Sky Basin. There were some exposed rocks up top but once we got past those it was a great run.

The view looking down from near the top of Lover’s Leap.

The mascot outside of Two Elks Lodge.

Part of the crew. A few guys are missing from this shot.

The Shot Wheel at Garfinkel’s. Spin it if you dare!

Even the moose party at this place!

Happy hour at the Red Lion. My “dinner” in the foreground, Bill and his martini, Ted reaching for an onion ring in the background.

2/9/12  We got about 6 to 8 inches of beautiful, fresh snow our second-to-last day which meant BOOT-HIGH FRESHIES ALL DAY, OH YEAH!!!

Ken, wishing he was back in his office – oops, I mean having a blast in the powder!

Your humble guide and narrator, having a blast in the powder!

Me again, in the Shangri-La Glade.

Oops, how did this get in here?! Oh yeah, we watched a great football game, Super Bowl XLVI. NY Giants 21 NE Patriots 17.

A great tree run. Ski good or eat wood.

Ken in the trees.

We also hung out at The George, another great bar/restaurant in Vail Village. The walls of the joint are covered with pictures of famous people named George.

The very delicious duck Quesadillas at The George.

Their sesame crusted Ahi tuna.

It was a sad trip this year without JD, but we appropriately honored him. Here he is having fun in the trees at Blue Sky Basin in February of 2009. We left some of his ashes on one of his favorite runs, the Shangri-La Glade. We also left some out of bounds (another one of his favorite places!) at the top of the mountain near Belle’s Camp. Everyone said a few words about him as we poured some of his ashes out of the small, glass bottle and onto the snow. There was a steep drop-off in front of the out of bounds rope and everyone was like be careful, don’t fall, don’t set off an avalanche and Paul D. nailed it when he said, “It figures, John is making us do something dangerous again!”