Small-town Colorado and Lake Tahoe

The town of Crested Butte hosted me for a whole 5 days last week for yet another stop of the Freeskiing World Tour competition. This resort was the birthplace of this tour 20 years ago, so there was a lot of love surrounding the entire event.

I flew in and out of Grand Junction, Colorado, which isn't too far from the Utah border. And just 20 miles from Crested Butte is the town of Gunnison, whose basketball and volleyball teams we played many-a-time during my years of high school athletics at Rowland Hall. Small world.

The highlight of my week was undoubtedly the amazing home-cooked meal I enjoyed with the VP of Marketing and Events for the Mt. Crested Butte Chamber of Commerce. He's organizing a mountain biking competition in town this summer, and rather than doing a standard business call or meetup for drinks, he invited me into his home. His wife made homemade pasta with alfredo sauce, and then we dug into homemade berry cheesecake for dessert. Now THAT is the way to do business!

Here are a few pics from the awards ceremony...the one of the three female winners swigging their Sierra Nevada Pale Ales is probably my favorite photo of the season thus far.

Now I'm finally local, with the next two weekends in Kirkwood, CA. A huge storm is predicted to blow through tonight and tomorrow, so we'll have some fresh "pow" for the weekend. I've got an event at Squaw Saturday night, and I'm hoping to get in a full day of snowboarding on Sunday with a few friends for a welcome day off.

And just because I work for Sierra Nevada doesn't mean I can't enjoy other brews. In case you're looking for a seasonal recommendation, I had a super tasty beer from Deschutes Brewery up in Oregon. Their Red Chair NWPA is definitely one to try while it's on the shelves.