"The Kings of Crested Butte"--Project Week 2011, Crested Butte, CO (Day 1 and 2)

Well, I know that I haven't exactly been particularly consistent with my blog posts, but I'm hoping to do better for the next week. In March of every year, UWC-USA takes a one week break from classes to engage in a time-honored UWC tradition--Project Week. When Kurt Hahn came up with the UWC concept in the 1960s, one of the founding tenets he left the movement with was the idea of "project week". Students take a week off from school and either plan their own project--using community service and the UWC mission as a guiding priciple--or go on faculty sponsored trips. Some UWCs have more than one project week a year, but UWC-USA only has one. For my project week trip, I was selected to go skiing for a week in Crested Butte, CO. I have enclosed the itinerary for my trip.

Friday (March 4, 2011)--Travel to Crested Butte, CO (6 hours)

Saturday-Sunday (March 5-6, 2011)--Ski in Crested Butte Mountain Ski Resort

Monday (March 7, 2011)--Ski up to David's Back-country Lodge in Irwin, CO (7 miles)

Monday-Friday (March 7-11, 2011)--Ski in the Back Country near Irwin, CO.

Friday (March 11, 2011)--Ski down to Crested Butte. Work with Crested Butte Avalanche Center.

Saturday (March 12, 2011)--Volunteer at High Country Citizen's Alliance

Sunday (March 13, 2011)--Return to UWC

I plan to blog about each day, however, during the time that I am in the backcountry, I will have no internet access. I'll prepare a couple of historical posts to go live during that time, but expect updates to wait until after I get back to civilization. All in all, this should be a pretty busy week for my blog--reflecting the increase in free time :)

So, onwards. Project Week 2011 kicked off on Friday, March 4 at noon. Prior to the end of classes at noon, I had a history test that had been scheduled as my final class before project week. The test was painful--primarily because all I could think about was project week. Once the test was over, the fun began! This first day was pretty quiet overall, because it involved driving all the way from Montezuma, NM to Crested Butte, CO! To give you some background, however, let me tell you a little bit about our group. We have two chaperones, Dan and David. At UWC, Dan is my math teacher, which makes for a pretty funny dynamic on this trip, especially because he's grading our mid-term exams in the evenings! 

Dan W.

Our other chaperone, David, is also the coordinator and leader of the trip. At UWC, David is one of the two physical activity coordinators. He focuses on more general activities, while Tom, the other outdoor guy, is head of the wilderness program. David is an amazing skier and someone I trust to get me down any slope. 

David G.

Both chaperones are really cool and pretty fun to work with. Moving on to my co-years (all group is comprised entirely of first-years), there are 7 of us (including me). I'll describe all of them briefly.

Patrick Saylor (USA-VT)-- He's one of the best all-around guys I know. As the best student skier on this team, he's always willing to lend a hand with skiing technique. Someone like Pat who will jump into anything willingly and help is rare. His nickname is "poopsie"...which has nothing to do with his bathroom habits.

Pat--"Poopsie"

Danny Heinz (USA-CA)--Danny is a great person to talk to and work with. He has a fairly unique view of the world and is never afraid to express him opinion. He is very talented on skis as well and will carry a lot of weight, if need be. Another great contribution to our team.

Danny

 Mauri (Finland)--Mauri and I got to know each other last semester when we worked shifts together at the local homeless shelter. He has an impeccable wit and is always fun to chat with. 

Mauri

 

Charles Archambeau (France/Belgium)-- Charles is probably the "most American" non-American. He's actually from France, but spent quite a lot of time in the US, so he has quite an American accent. That aside, he's a great person to hang around with, who can make almost anyone laugh.

Charles (the guy on the right)

Henrik Jenssen (Norway)--Henrik is a fun guy. Always full of energy (except when he's tired), Henrik is usually pretty intense! I'm always surprised at how gung-ho he can be sometimes :)

Henrik

 Jakob Sprenger (Germany)--Jakob is probably one of the nicest guys on our team. We're working together on this project week to cook meals and, funnily enough, we work really well together. I'm looking forward to working with him (and everyone) on this trip.

Jakob

All in all, we have a pretty good team. I think they're going to be a lot of fun to work with. Now that you have a brief idea of what we're doing and who is on our team, I'll start talking about what we've been doing. After leaving campus on Friday, we drove for six hours. Our drive took us through a very interesting part of America. After leaving the desert surrounding Las Vegas, we drove straight into the mountains. About two hours in, we arrived in Taos, NM. Once we had passed through Taos, we drove into a really long plateau. It was basically a desert--just higher than the one we had left. As we drove into Colorado, however, the scenery changed once more. This was probably the most beautiful part of the trip. In the distance we white-capped peaks, so sharp, they looked like you could pop a balloon on them. Just outside the car, however, we endless fields. It was the quintessential American image--rolling fields under a beautiful backdrop. Soon enough, however, we left the fields and entered the mountains proper. We drove on a tiny mountain road that wound through the ridges and the valleys of the Colorado Rockies. Finally, after a long, tiring drive, we arrived in Gunnison, CO--the nearest major town to Crested Butte. 

We stopped at a small local restaurant to eat dinner. Called the "Blue Iguana", the fare is mexican--but very tasty. I ate a very filling burrito that hit the spot perfect. After eating our fill, we left the restaurant and headed out to the grocery store. David had divided us into teams--as I said earlier, I was working with Jakob--to do the food shopping. Each team had to shop for two days. Armed with shopping lists and a very precise budget--$90 per day, to be exact--we entered the grocery store. What followed could only be described as hilarious. All I ask is that you picture 7 teenage guys entering a grocery store to actually shop. The number of funny looks we got is pretty high. In all, it took us about two hours to shop and we were all over-budget. But we got really good food!

After leaving the grocery store and stopping by Wal-Mart for the obligatory forgotten items, we headed up to Crested Butte. By this time, it was nearly 10 PM and we were all pretty tired. We drove straight to the hostel and unpacked. The hostel was REALLY nice (I'll have more on that tomorrow), but we were all pretty tired, so after unpacking, we went straight to bed. 

Saturday started at 7:30 AM. Jakob and I were in charge of cooking for Saturday, so we had to get up early to prepare breakfast. Breakfast was comprised of smoked salmon bagels, cantaloupe, and bananas. Everyone was enormously grateful to have such a filling breakfast. Immediately after breakfast, we packed out lunches and got ready to head out. We didn't make it to the slopes until around 10, but by that point the sun was out and I could tell it was going to be a good day. I had decided to ski with Mauri and Charles, who are roughly at the same skill level as me. Pat, Danny, and David went off to ski harder stuff, but we went off and skied some great runs. The day was absolutely phenomenal. Crested Butte has a ton of snow right now and the conditions showed it. We found powder stashes all over the mountain. The mountain itself is really nice to ski. There was one mishap where I got separated from the group I was skiing with and ended up skiing down a double-black by myself, but overall it was a really good day. My equipment was excellent and I just really enjoyed myself--not something that you can say about my last visit to Taos. I got back to the hostel around 4 PM--there are buses here that mean I can go to and come from the mountain whenever I want--and I literally crashed. The skiing was very tiring and I was ready to collapse in a heap, however, a steaming hot shower and a bottle of Coke saved the day and that is why I am writing to you now. After a delicious dinner of chicken breasts and fries, I retired to my computer, which I myself will shortly retire from to go to bed.

Look for another post tomorrow!