Yes, these glasses are my mom’s mirrored aviators from her skiing days. In the ’70s.

In Aspen, there are four mountains to ski. One of them, Aspen Highlands, is the locals mountain. It has a place called Highlands Bowl. You have to hike 1,000+ vertical feet to get to it. In ski boots. With your skis strapped to your back.

The bowl is all double blacks: steep, deep terrain. Because it’s so high (12,392 feet in fact) and wind blows over the ridge, it almost always has fresh powder, even in mid-April.

After I skiied the one double black earlier this month, I told That Ripped Guy of Mine(TM) that I was skiing the Bowl before the season was over. Sometime around then something just clicked again: I was confident. I can control myself on skis. I can control myself even going fast. I can ski fast. Really, really fast.

This past weekend, I declared it was time to do the Bowl. That Ripped Guy of Mine(TM) agreed, SO WE DID.

Click here to see my First Ski of the Bowl!

The hike was hard. The skiing was steep, but the snow was soft and I only fell twice! One was a head-over-heels fall that caused both my skis to pop off and was pretty funny, but my neck hurts a little today.

Then we met up with our friends, had some chili, sweet potato fries, and a beer, and trekked to the Bowl again.

Yep, I did it twice.

I am Awesome. And Extreme.