(click on any photo to enlarge) I'm sitting in the Denver Airport waiting to finally go home after a two week road trip that had me at the Outdoor Retailer show in Salt Lake City, then the SIA show in Denver and ended with three nordic demo days outside of Winter Park, Colorado. The new job is hard (travel), fun (c'mon-I sell skis, wax and apparel) and most of all challenging. Keeping all of my dealer base in order is a bit overwhelming sometimes, but the more I keep at it the easier it becomes. On Monday Jan 17, my life got a whole lot easier as I had my Picc Line removed and was able to go to oral antibiotics. Yippee. I really don't want to take antibiotics at all but I must go another six weeks to make sure the infection doesn't return. But, taking a pill is WAY better than injecting myself. So the day after the Picc Line came out, I hopped on a plane for SLC. The show was busy and I had appointments every hour all day long. I got back to the hotel room every night pretty wasted. After being down for a couple of months I didn't have my same endless energy supply. So after four days I caught a cold. Gimme a break! Not a major thing and I almost expected it as you shake so many hands and meet so many people, its impossible to wash your hands enough. I went through an entire bottle of hand sanitizer and still got sick! So after four days of appointments I flew home for two days and waxed twenty pair of skis. I loaded all of my Demo fleet (20 pair boots, 20 pair of skis) into gear bags and promptly returned to the airport to head to Denver. The SIA show is primarily an Alpine (Downhill) ski show but I have a few accounts that go so I had to be there. The main reason I went was because after the show there is a Demo for all dealers to ski on next years product so they can decide what is right for their store. So after four days in Denver, I loaded all my gear up and headed to a nordic resort called Devil's Thumb, just outside of Winter Park, which is about 2 hours west of Denver.
The Front Range was in the grip of an arctic cold blast that came down from Canada. I have been in some pretty cold temperatures before but nothing like that. It never got above zero the entire four days I was there. In the middle of the day during the Demo it was about -10F as the HIGH! This morning when I left Winter Park to head down to the airport, it was -40F at 4am! YES MINUS FORTY! I can say that is the coldest temp I have ever experienced. You cough with every intake of breath. It was pretty amazing. When I arrived at the airport around 7am it was -16 and almost tolerable. I can't wait to get back to my beloved Sierra Range and temps in the 30-40 degree range. It will feel like summer! As soon as I get home I will kiss my wife and hug my dog, the things in life that really matter. Cheers.
(click on any photo to enlarge) I'm sitting in the Denver Airport waiting to finally go home after a two week road trip that had me at the Outdoor Retailer show in Salt Lake City, then the SIA show in Denver and ended with three nordic demo days outside of Winter Park, Colorado. The new job is hard (travel), fun (c'mon-I sell skis, wax and apparel) and most of all challenging. Keeping all of my dealer base in order is a bit overwhelming sometimes, but the more I keep at it the easier it becomes. On Monday Jan 17, my life got a whole lot easier as I had my Picc Line removed and was able to go to oral antibiotics. Yippee. I really don't want to take antibiotics at all but I must go another six weeks to make sure the infection doesn't return. But, taking a pill is WAY better than injecting myself. So the day after the Picc Line came out, I hopped on a plane for SLC. The show was busy and I had appointments every hour all day long. I got back to the hotel room every night pretty wasted. After being down for a couple of months I didn't have my same endless energy supply. So after four days I caught a cold. Gimme a break! Not a major thing and I almost expected it as you shake so many hands and meet so many people, its impossible to wash your hands enough. I went through an entire bottle of hand sanitizer and still got sick! So after four days of appointments I flew home for two days and waxed twenty pair of skis. I loaded all of my Demo fleet (20 pair boots, 20 pair of skis) into gear bags and promptly returned to the airport to head to Denver. The SIA show is primarily an Alpine (Downhill) ski show but I have a few accounts that go so I had to be there. The main reason I went was because after the show there is a Demo for all dealers to ski on next years product so they can decide what is right for their store. So after four days in Denver, I loaded all my gear up and headed to a nordic resort called Devil's Thumb, just outside of Winter Park, which is about 2 hours west of Denver.
The Front Range was in the grip of an arctic cold blast that came down from Canada. I have been in some pretty cold temperatures before but nothing like that. It never got above zero the entire four days I was there. In the middle of the day during the Demo it was about -10F as the HIGH! This morning when I left Winter Park to head down to the airport, it was -40F at 4am! YES MINUS FORTY! I can say that is the coldest temp I have ever experienced. You cough with every intake of breath. It was pretty amazing. When I arrived at the airport around 7am it was -16 and almost tolerable. I can't wait to get back to my beloved Sierra Range and temps in the 30-40 degree range. It will feel like summer! As soon as I get home I will kiss my wife and hug my dog, the things in life that really matter. Cheers.
