One Day. 13 Blacks and Double Blacks. 23,000 Vertical Feet!!!
Last Saturday, I was put to the test by my friends, Ryan and Patrick, as we traveled to Beaver Creek Resort in Avon, Colorado for the 2008 Talons Challenge. The Talons Challenge is a free event hosted by the resort where they challenge skiers and riders (snowboarders) to do 13 black or double black diamond runs. The event is not timed or anything but rather a physical test. Finishers can say they skiied down 23,000 vertical feet. Pretty neat, especially for a kid from Iowa.
We registered and got onto the mountain by about 8:45am and let me tell ya, that first chair ride was pretty cold. Always is, at least in January. Most of the designated runs were located on the back side of the mountain, so we skiied down to the lifts in that area. The first five runs were not too bad, although I'd say 80% of the required runs were moguled. By about run number 6, we were starting to wonder if we could complete the runs before 4pm because the lift lines were getting long.
But, we kept at it and went to an area of the mountain where there seemed to be fewer people and knocked out those runs. We got down to run number 11 and it was brutal. Probably the toughest run of the day, at least for me. By runs number 12 and 13 I was getting sloppy with my riding and I went into survival mode.
In the end, we did it!! I was definitely feeling it by the last run and I was also definitely feeling it on Sunday morning/afternoon. I'm pretty sure that 5+ hours of riding was the hardest that I've ever snowboarded. We didn't really stop at all for 5+ hours. And some of those runs were very steep and lots of moguls.
2008 Talons Challenge Finishers - Patrick, Ryan and Ryan. (I didn't get the memo about the green jacket thing.)
The Chesnut boys, Ryan and Pat, did very well and I can tell that they are native Coloradans. They can rock the bumps. I think that snowboarding over moguls is pretty tough but I was able to hang in there.
Finishers got a Talons Challenge hat, a Talons Challenge pin and also a free beer and brat. Totally worth it and the beer tasted extra good after a tough day on the hill. Good times in the mountains my friends!!
