First injury of the season....

Dugan, Steve, and I spent a day skiing at Breckenridge this past weekend. There was powder around, but we had to search hard for some fresh stashes. There really weren't many people there, but everyone was trying to take the new imperial express lift. So we decided to go play around on peak 10. We made a few challenging runs and spotted a slope (Bronc) that had not been touched more than 3 times. We couldn't get to it because a downhill course was blocking our entrance, so we headed into the trees and found a path to the slope. It was going to be our last run of the day. The powder was shin to knee deep. Dugan and I started hammering down the slope, loving the fresh powder and our new K2 seth vicious skis. I was hugging the left tree line and came over a larger hump when I unexpectedly got my weight too far forward. I quickly found myself barreling head first towards the trees and attempted to bail, but my right ski caught and quickly ripped my right leg one direction and pivoted my right foot the other. I am still not sure how I sprained my ankle in a ski boot, but I guess it can happen. I was not about to go down the hill on a sled, so I sucked it up and skied down with most of my weight on my left ski. At that point I was more frustrated with ruining a great powder run than injuring myself.
After taking my foot out of the ski boot, I couldn't put any weight on the ankle and Jennifer made me (and most of you know how stubborn I can be when I get injured) go to the urgent care center to have it X-rayed. Luckily nothing is broken and I should be back on the slopes in no time. I thought some of you might enjoy some gross pictures of my foot. If not, stop reading here :)

Three days post injury. The swelling and bruising is finally starting to go away.

My air cast. This thing is a life saver. I can actually put some weight on my ankle when wearing this. I think I will be keeping this thing around in case I need it again in the future.

Bathroom Remodeling

Our Guest Bathroom

Jennifer and I got bored on Monday, so we decided to paint our bathroom. Somewhat of a disaster on most accounts, but I think the final product will work out alright. It is now one week later and we still haven't got it put back together yet....we'll probably get to it right before our next guest visits.

Stephanie and Angie's Visit

Stephanie, Angie, Jennifer, and me

Jennifer's friends Stephanie and Angie came out to visit us MLK weekend for Miami and Los Angeles, respectively. They headed up to Vail on Friday morning and took 3 days of skiing lessons with their Bulgarian ski instructor Victor. I think they had a great time. I joined them for skiing on Saturday and Sunday. We stayed at Sun Vail condos which were really conveniently located next to the pedestrian bridge in Lionshead. It was an abnormally warm weather weekend and the snow got a little crusty on Saturday....but how can I complain. I think I am spoiled by this great season of snow, and like clockwork more snow started to falling Sunday afternoon for our last 4 hours of skiing.

Angie and Stephanie showing off their skills.

Angie, Victor, and Stephanie

SCCM Meeting - San Francisco

I attended the Society of Critical Care Medicine Meeting in San Francisco from January 7-11th. This is probably my favorite meeting of the year. It has lots of great lectures from some of the top critical care practitioners in the world. It was in a great city too. We did a lot of the tourist attractions including the trip to Napa, seafood on the Fisherman's wharf, and hot fudge sundays at Ghiradelli Square.....good stuff! We stayed at the Stratford Hotel, which was located right on the cable car line and accross the street from a bar that has live music everynight. Not exactly the best accomidations and I wouldn't recommend it for light sleepers, but a good low priced alternative in the heart of San Francisco.
I presented 3 different research projects at this meeting. They have been published in the journal Critical Care Medicine (you can view the titles by searching by my name, but sorry a subscription is required to view them). I won't bore you with the details of the projects, but the abstract/poster presentations went well. I got some good feeback to help with the jounal article publications.
This should be my last meeting until May, I hope. Not that I don't enjoy the traveling....I just have been gone way to much the past few months.

Napa Valley Winery Trip

Prior to the SCCM meeting in San Francisco Paul, Jim, Doug, and I took a trip to Napa Valley, California. We only had about four hours for touring and tasting, but we were able to get in 6 different wineries prior to 6pm. We spent most of our time in the Oakville, Rutherford, and St. Helena areas, visiting the Robert Mondavi, Grgich Hills, Rutherford Hill, ZD, Beaulieu Vineyard (BV), Esquisse Winery, Sequoia Grove, and Peju Wineries. Most of the wineries give 3-5 tastings for around $5. Mondavi only gave us one glass for $5, so we were out of there quickly. Search this website before you go and plan your day around winery closing times, etc to maximize the fun. Most wineries are open from 10am-5pm. We tried many wines that day, but our favorite by far was the Boone's Farm Strawberry Hill (Just Kidding!)....really my favorite wine of the day was the 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon by Grgich Hills. I tasted a lot of good wines after that one, but after the second wine tasting my senses steadily declined and it became hard to differentiate between different tastes. The most unique tasting wine I had was at the Esquisse Winery. It was a wine called the Malbec. An article said the following about the Malbec: Malbec is one of the traditional blending grapes of Bordeaux, but it's better known now as Argentina's hottest wine. We'd guess many people wouldn't much like this, to be honest, and it's hard to describe in a way that sounds attractive, but we'll remember this wine long after we've forgotten most. It's like meat juice and mint, medium-bodied, with a strong hint of cinnamon and very earthy tastes that simply demand another sip to try to place it somewhere on a taste map. It's quite different. As Dottie said, "It sort of tickles my brain." The winery said it made only 60 cases of this, and we felt lucky to have it.
Thankfully the ride home was uneventful.....We were glad that Doug brought his spare liver with him so we could navigate our way back to San Francisco. When we got back to San Francisco we stopped at the Beach Chalet brewery for dinner. The had some good microbrews, two of which I tried: The Riptide Red and the Presidio Indian Pale Ale. They had some good food too.
Not a bad Saturday.....

Denver Heat Wave - Biking in January

Dugan and I hit the Cherry Creek reservoir today for approximately 30 miles of good training. It was almost 70 degrees today here in Denver. The weather is crazy out here, but I love it. We were skiing powder on Monday and riding our bikes on Friday in shorts and short sleeves. The resevoir still had a good layer of ice on it and the mountains in the background were snow covered. The sunset was also really cool tonight. It was a great day to skip out of work early and hit the bike. A good jump start to cycling in 2006.

Powder Day at Vail

Dugan catching some air in Blue Sky Basin.

The camera man (Me) was a little late snapping this one.

Casey, Steve, Steve's son Dan and his friend Ryan, and I enjoyed 8 new inches of fresh powder last Monday at Vail. We skied hard all day tackling the cliffs in skree field, jumping off the rocks in China bowl, and hitting every fresh tree run we could find. It was a great day out there with a lot of good skiers doing crazy things. Look for some more pics coming soon. We had a mostly safe day, although I had my bell rung pretty hard on one of my landings as my chin found my left knee. Had the helmet on, but didn't really help with that one. Don't worry, no permanent brain damage....at least I don't think :) Other guys weren't so lucky and several found their way off the mountain in a ski patrol sled.

New Years in Wyoming

We spent New Years Weekend with our Friends Fred and April at Fred's Elk Mountain Ranch. We also made some new friends Dave, Leigh, and Scott. The ranch is approximately 33,000 acres and has everything you can imagine. We enjoyed watching Elk, riding 4 - wheelers, snowshoeing, playing poker, and of course...indulging in a few cold tasty beverages.

Jennifer and I enjoying a break during our snowshoeing trek.

The snow was pretty deep with some sections around 4 feet in depth. Snowshoes were a necessity.

April and Jennifer with the four-wheelers.

We road all over the ranch on the ATVs. They did really well under some extreme conditions. Jennifer and I accidently turned ours over when trying to clear a deep section of snow, but luckily it was soft powder so no one got hurt, so we turned the fourwheeler upright and were quickly on our way again. Jennifer was a great sport. I thought she might have my head after that one. But we were well prepared with all the necessary safety gear.

Me, Jennifer, April, Fred.

He were are between the cabins on the ranch. Great accommodations with some great friends. Good times were had by all! We will be looking forward to our next trip to the ranch...hopefully sometime in the near future!