I suppose I must tell you all about my spring break in Colorado. First off, I must say that it was a fantastic way to spend my break. I had a great time with all the lovely people in an amazing part of the country. We left Decorah on a Thursday morning at six - not bright yet, but still early - and drove for around 18 hours. It was a long, partially boring drive. The scenery was quite flat until we got into the mountains, but by that time it was dark, so we didn't see much. I was one of the few who could drive a stick shift, so I did a bit of driving, considering that is what kind of car we had. We rented a couple hotel rooms in a city called Carbondale, which is about 30 miles from where we did our skiing and got a good night's rest.
The next morning we got up early, as we would for the next 3 days, and headed off to Snowmass mountain. There are four mountains that make up the Aspen ski area, and we visited two of them during our three days of skiing. We arrived at Snowmass right as the lifts were opening, and spent most of our time at the top of the mountain, skiing on very nice light snow, whereas the bottom had a little wetter snow (it was spring skiing after all). I was on skis the first day, and felt pretty good about it. The second day, we also spent at Snowmass but I switched off halfway through the day to a snowboard. I kept that for the third day, which was when we head to Aspen Highlands - a different mountain. The main reason I switched to the snowboard was because on the second day we got a really nice snowfall of about 4-5 inches, and it is really fun to snowboard in powder. So I split it half and half between the two modes of transportation, and I was really glad I did that.
The last day at Aspen Highlands was cut a bit short. Typically we skied from about 8:30 or 9 to 4 or 4:30, but there were rumors of a nasty storm hitting the area, and we wanted to outrun that on the way home. We left about 2:30 and drove for about 8 exciting hours before settling in for the night in Nebraska. We rose again early and drove the remaining 10 hours through the flat country and lots of rain before finally reaching Decorah and having a nice warm dinner in the caf. What a treat.
The skiing was fantastic, but something that was really neat and should not go unmentioned was the time spent with the people on the trip. The car rides, dinners, ski and hotel time were really great because of the conversation and developing friendships. I rode in the car with some really cool people and that made the trip fly by in a way it would not have if I had been making the trip alone. That is one thing all you prospective students have to look forward to. There are some really amazing people at Luther, and when you meet them and spend time with them, it really can change your outlook on things. You can make invaluable connections with the most unlikely people. It is fantastic.
I hope you all had a great couple of weeks. This is just a taste of something that happens at Luther that is available for students to take advantage of. Like I said, it was a fantastic trip and I would go again in a heartbeat. So all you students coming in the next years, hook up with the Backyard Wilderness Pursuits (BWP) group. It is a great thing with which to be involved! See you next time.
Peace,
Collin
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