I talked and talked about going skiing on the 4th of July, but I’m not sure I believed it would actually happen. Well, thanks to an inordinate amount of snow and cold weather, A-Basin declared July 4th closing day.

As soon as I saw that, I informed Matt that we would be going. Needless to say, he didn’t object. Besides, I had a 50 mile foot race in two days and Matt had a 50 mile mountain bike race in three days, it was a TERRIBLE idea!

It didn’t occur to us to leave early, because really, how crowded could it get?!? Ha. We came over Loveland Pass, still miles out, and all the parking spots along the road were full. ALL of them. And the line down the hill was moving at a snail’s pace, starting at the top of the pass…

We decided that we would attempt to get into the parking lot, and if we couldn’t, we’d just move along and skip it. When we pulled up to the lot, we hear, “the Element is the last car in.” We were in!

Shorts and a tank top seemed like the perfect attire for 4th of July skiing. We slathered on sunscreen, made sure we had sandals to change into afterwards, and to the mountain we went!

The lift line up the hill was ridiculous. Thankfully, we figured out your could just merge in at the bottom, and it didn’t take that long to get on the lift.

The only run open was a white ribbon of death full of moguls. It was hilarious to see all the people that didn’t have a clue testing to negotiate those bumps. Now, I’m not amazing at the bumps, but I can manage. Not gonna lie, it was kinda scary. Anyway, I made it to the bottom in one piece, knees intact, and called it a day. I got my bucket list item checked off.

Matt decided to go to one more time. I grabbed a spot to chill, took off my boots, and slipped into my sandals to wait. The people watching was awesome. So many costumes, so many people just laughing and having a great time… I think my favorite was the star spangled Speedo, complete with horrible sunburn on the guy’s thighs… Hilarious!

When Matt came back, we got ourselves one last Bloody Mary and called it a season. And what a great one it was!!