April Powder

As the old saying goes, “April powder brings May. . . ” Actually, I think I may be mixing things up a bit. And rightfully so! I made a quick trip out to Colorado to snowboard on some fresh powder (that’s how they say “snow” in the biz) and it has been on my mind. Not like intrusively on my mind, but obviously enough to try and come up with a cool “April powder” saying that nobody actually says.

“April powder brings May. . .”

-Jai Johnston -Michael Scott

Inspired by a solid snowboarding trip with my brother his [now] wife, I needed to go out West as soon as possible. An opportunity presented itself when I remembered my company has Good Friday as a paid holiday. So I booked a hotel on resort property, purchased my lift ticket, almost waited too long to purchase a flight, then waited nearly two weeks. That Thursday I left from work to the Nashville airport and headed straight to Denver. Unfortunately, there were delays, but I finally landed in Denver and there was still daylight. That’s a win in my book.

Oh, and if you have a Costco membership and aren’t using Costco Travel, you’re missing out! I booked my rental car last minute and they still had something for me within 24 hours. Then again I could be mixing up recent trips and that didn’t happen at all. Either way, Costco Travel is awesome. And I’ve had great experiences thus far with Alamo (the car rental place). Renting with Alamo using a debit card has never been an issue at any of the airports I’ve been to. Alamo is most often the cheaper option on Costco Travel too!

The night quickly fell on my drive to the Rockies and as I increased elevation there was snow. Talk about a blessing! This has been a historically warm winter for the Rockies and they’ve struggled with keeping show on the slopes. Praise the Lord for a fresh dump [of snow]! For those wondering, I ended up at Copper Mountain. This was the mountain I learned to snowboard on in 2010 and I’ve not been back since 2019 (shoutout to the Hopper gang!). Granted, my visit was going to be short, but it was great to be back.

Here was the itinerary:

Thursday	Fly to Denver
	Drive to Copper Mountain
	Check-in and walk around resort
Friday	Snowboard
Saturday	Find something local
	Fly to Nashville

My one-day snowboard adventure was smashing success. I can’t say how many runs I did because I lost count. I also didn’t know until Friday night that the Copper Mountain app has a feature that will track your day. That wasn’t turned on. No stats. Sad face.

What made Friday a smashing success? Just the fact that there was an opportunity to go snowboarding and I got to take it. Yes, it was by myself. Actually, I invited a couple people with the expectation they couldn’t make it and that’s okay. Also, in case you’re wondering, they couldn’t make it. With runs being less snowy than usual, this was definitely not the best snowboarding I’ve seen. There were some runs and lifts closed and the snow definitely felt different. I went up the American Eagle lift with the gondola for my first run because it was familiar. However, the way down was different because the typical way I would go had ice and little trees poking out of the melting snow. Not a great first run to be honest.

The following runs were off the American Flyer lift. It has a good mix of blues and greens and allows you to still end up at any of the villages you wanted to end up at. I was there to ride so I didn’t seek the thrill of any tricks or tougher terrain (black diamonds). Lest we forget the terrain on familiar runs was already making things tough. So I found my groove, found the runs that would make the ride last longer, and put it on repeat. Probably the coolest part of going by myself was the ability to end a run at at the lift line and immediately go back up. No waiting on anyone.

Since it was just me, I put earbuds in which I’ve not done while snowboarding before. It made boarding different because I wasn’t just listening to myself breath or the snow beneath me. The verdict is still out whether or not I’ll do that again, but for my one-day snowboarding extravaganza it was great. There is a new live album called Like No Other from The Worship Initiative and Cross Con that I had on and it just repeated over and over. What a cool way to experience God’s creation! The most impactful part of having the music on was during the song All Glory be to Christ (track number two) when I was carving through the snow and looking out at the snowcapped mountains. Who knew you could have a worship jam session snowboarding down a mountain while simultaneously trying not to crash into anything/one? Not me. It was a cool moment.

By the time Friday was over, I was exhausted. It was great to have my room walking distance from the slopes so I could easily stop by during the day for a break and didn’t have far to go when the day was through. The next morning I ended up visiting the town of Frisco on my way to the airport. It had a really cool museum and I grabbed some coffee down the street. The trip down the mountain was otherwise uneventful. Denver International moved the USO to another area and it was really nice. The flight went smoothly and as quickly as I was off to Denver, I was back in Nashville–just in time for Easter!

I did visit another church on Easter Sunday because that church is one we are partnering with as a revitalization project. The church has a lot of potential and I am excited for what the Lord will do there. More details on what all that means another time.

In case you wondering, since it’s been 10 months from my last post, I made a move over to Human Resources at Ramsey Solutions. Additionally, I’ve been able to travel quite a bit (mostly for the Marines) and still have more travel coming up. Oh, and government shut down for a while. That was a weird couple months. As far as events in the Middle East go, I’ve no indication that our unit will be mobilized in the immediate future. You never know though. Here to serve. 🫡

For the ones who have made it this far, thank you for reading about a random snowboarding trip. I hope to be able to do more trips for fun in the future. Some things don’t need a 3-6 month lead time. There’s a thrill in the spontaneous. For those praying, please pray for continued safety on these work trips. Please also pray for our church revitalization. Hit me up if you have questions on what that means. Until next time: Be strong. Love God. Love others.

rejoice.always