Cascade Mountain Dec 31-Jan 1

Jenny, Me, Colleen, Rachelle, Steve.  Taking some turns at Cascade.

Seven of the last ten years I have brought in the new year by skiing.  It started as my first introduction to my career as a ski bum when I rang in the new century.  Since resort life meant work would be mandatory on the 1st, getting blotto drunk was out of the question.  This has led to a sober start to the upcoming 365 as a byproduct.  Now I can't imagine a better way to start the year.  I get the holiday off now and I commit myself to something physical as a celebration of the new year, to start things off right so to say.  I figure I'd rather look forward to the new year instead of hating life nursing a hangover all day.  The years that I couldn't get out to the mountains I dragged out the mountain bike and got in some single track.  Some years, just as this year, I drove up to Wisconsin to enjoy the Midwest's down hill skiing.  The crew this time around were my friends Steve and Rachelle. Rachelle was learning to ski for their upcoming Colorado ski trip (which makes me infinitely jealous).  Along with two other gals, Colleen and Jenny.  We chose Cascade Mountain which is in Portage, WI. within 3hrs of driving its the best skiing option in my opinion.  They had plenty of man made snow.  Talking to some of the folks on the chairlift they said it is the best snow of all the Wisconsin resorts.  Cascade had fireworks at 8pm on New Years Eve so we stuck around to see them, then headed into town for dinner and drinks.  The bar we chose to countdown to midnight was a local hang out for sure, it was clear that none of us graduated from the local high school.  The night was spent at a Super 8 off the highway and they had a gangbusters continental breakfast for getting us ready to ski a second day.  My buddy's wife really picked up the two sticks on her feet by the end of the second day and we hit the road early enough to get back to Chicago by 7pm.       

Rachelle, Steve and Me

I took the opportunity to see how the helmet cam works in the snow. Enjoy!