AS THE BULLWHEEL TURNS – TIME FOR MY ANNUAL ROAD TRIP
AS THE BULLWHEEL TURNS MONDAY – JANUARY 26, 2015 NASAJ West at Purgatory at Durango Mountain Resort Rise & Shine! Yes another beautiful day with blue bird skies at the base of Purgatory at Durango Mountain Resort. Thank goodness for in room coffee service in the condo, but also had another cup in Purgy’s before meeting our NASJA West group and guides to tour the slopes of Purgatory. The meet time was 9:15am and we were early, so we were able to take a run and be back at the bottom and when we got back down, the groups had left. So, since Dan and I were already familiar with the mountain, we decided to have Dan lead our group and keep things small and comfortable. Long-term NASJA West members, Charlie Coane, Dino Vournas and Jerry Hoffman joined us for the morning of cruising groomers all over the mountain. The snow was in great shape and even though the spring-like weather was upon us, the snow surface was still very carve-able and super fun to ski non-stop “zoomers”… Dan has an uncanny sense of direction and has no problems interpreting trail maps and cross over’s and led our group to some familiar and also unfamiliar runs, doing laps from one side of the mountain to the other. Always great to ski with friends that can keep up, except for photographers like Dino Vournas, who seems to take forever to set up shots, but well worth the waiting as he does create great skiing images with his camera. We broke for lunch at Paradise Pizzeria & Ice Creamery in the Purgatory Village. Nice salad and Pizza Buffet bar offered that was very tasty and with great service. Always fun to compare notes with other journalists members as to where they skied and ask how those runs were, etc… We skied a few more runs after lunch and got off the hill somewhat early to be able to clean up and attend our NASJA West General membership meeting set for 5:00pm. The meeting was held in a nearby building, the Durango Mountain Institute and President, Dan Giesin opened our meeting as all our members were in attendance. Our hosts Kim Oyler & Greg Ralph from Purgatory, updated us with the future plans for the resort and Anne Klein from Durango Tourism Office also welcomed our group and gave up highlights of...
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