Weekend Shred-fest AKA Rippin' in the Hills

I pretty much rode bikes this weekend, and notta lotta anything else, with downhilling all weekend starting at Keystone on Saturday, then Vail on Sunday.

Saturday was excellent conditions, I don't think the track at Keystone has ever been better. I feel like I slowed down, concentrated on being smooth and flowing though each of the sections, and wound up being way faster overall. It probably helped that I was also chasing Yeti factory rippers Ross Milan and Jared Graves down the hill! There's one part where you have to "navigate" down three burly steps packed tightly together, then gap from a stump to backside of a big rock, while missing that tree just on the left of the rock. I came in smooth and on target, weight low and centered, and for the first time ever, just let go of the brakes and floated down it. It was way cool! Ross was at the bottom and cheering me on, saying I came through that section faster than he did, and that I looked über smooth and fast. Nice! It's not everyday you ride that at the end of it you can say... "I am a better rider than I was when I woke up" but Saturday was certainly that for me.

Other Saturday action was seeing blogger-stylish E.Monsma on the lift at Keystone. That was pretty hysterical, seeing a fella that I don't know and have never met, other than through voyeuristic blog-reading. I thought about giving him the big shocker wave, but decided on a simple "what's up?" style greeting instead. I don't think he recognized me at first, but I know he figgered it out after a while. Later Saturday I got to hang with my friend Ryan who I graduated college with. Way cool, fun time. Low-key, graphic-designer-laden house party with great people, tasty snacks, and cold beer.

Vail on Sunday was for fun, not pushing it and just relaxing. Several breakout rain showers made the trails really tacky and grippy in some places, and really teacherous and slippery in others. Magic Forest with it's crazy rock hip jumps, flowing berms and steep, rough runnout stepdowns gave way to steep, North Shore-style trail Old 9 with lots of off camber, wet roots, butt-cheeks-on-the-rear-wheel descents, and a few wooden bridges thrown in for fun. At the bottom of Old 9, hook in to Mainline and it's a berm-rallying pedal-fest to the bottom. To mix it up some, throw in a run on the '94 World Cup DH Course and get your turn, turn, root, bump, bump, turn, root on. Or for an Epic DHâ„¢ hit the Matterhorn which swoops way out into West Vail, with loads of fun, high-speed corners, some steeper skid-fest chutes and lots of fun woodsy singletrack.

Ah yes... Riding! It's weekends like these that make me happy to have a job that I can go back to on Monday and catch up on some rest!