On Saturday, Feb 21, our intrepid leaders, Don and Curtis, took the Wilderness Exchange van up to Berthoud Pass to provide gratis shuttles for backcountry skiiers and riders. The idea is simple: Get paid to ski, while performing a good deed for the Front Range backcountry ski community. Armed with a vanful of skis, stacks of coupons, and pages of liability waivers, they drove onward to their first embarrasing disaster…
Don recounts his version of the story:
A little too full of enthusiasm, we approached the first group of unsuspecting riders, all teenage snowboarding girls, with the nefarious white panel Wildy van. Curtis and I , unable to contain our excitement, fling open the doors and approach the girls, asking if they were all 18 and if they would like a ride… Shocked, and rightfully suspicious, (I think I saw one of them putting her hand on a can of mace in her pocket) they asked why we wanted to know if they were 18, and vehemently declined our offer. Putting 2 and 2 together, I looked hard into the mirror and realized that i was a creepy old man. Demoralized, we put our tails between our legs and rode onward to the next victim. How humiliating !!!
The next ride went a little better , as they were a group of dudes who were not threatened by our greying mustaches. Not too long after, we decided that it would be integral to our mission to sample some terrain in order to provide up-to-the-minute reporting on the conditions. We dropped Floral Park and found beautiful steep shots through widely spaced trees in nice creamy snow. We were surprised by how good the skiing was considering that there was not a lot of new snow. Such is the magic of Berthoud.
Our next line was through the 120’s and we found some amazing pow a little more off the beaten path.
We will be up again sometime this month so stick your thumb out and get on the bus !!!
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