It is always an exciting time when you get the opportunity to do something that is novel and really challenges you mentally and physically. On July 7th Tom and I decided that we were going to find some snow and go skiing and snowboarding. One of our goals is to ski and snowboard ever month this summer. It was time to notch off July. We had herd stories of this bowel that hold snow into August. It sits about half a mile off of trail ridge road (the road that runs through the park).  Sundance bowel is the name of this run.
So at about eleven o’clock we ventured our into the park in search of this run. It was about a 30 min drive up to the place that we park. After we parked, we took a quick walk with none of our gear to see if there was even snow. We get to the end of the trail were the bowel lies and what lay before was one of the greatest sights that I have ever seen in July. We were staring at a strip of snow that was deep and went of for a long way and off beyond were we could see. Tom and I eagerly scampered back to the truck to get ready for our adventure. We geared up and headed back to the top of the snowfield. On our way to the snow we could see some threatening looking clouds in the distance. It put some concern into our minds but one thing I have learned while living out here is that the weather here changes every five min. So we preceded on with out question. Being the fact that it was July people were offering up some pretty funny looks as we past them on the trail. The last people we saw on the trail before we bounced off the trail told us that we were crazy, and yes maybe we are.
So now we stand on the top of a path of snow that we knows goes at least 200 yards, beyond that it disappeared out of our view. There is a fear that sits deep in your stomach when you are about go down a ski run that you have no idea where it really goes. Tom and I had a backup plan that we could just hike out if it got really bad, but that would be one of the most grueling hikes I would ever have to do. So here we stand ready and waiting, without further notice Tom takes off, I watch him go about 100 yards making a few turns, testing out the snow. All looks good, I take off eagerly. The snow was hard and quite bumpy, but being July, the snow was awesome! I go to the spot where Tom had stopped, we exchanged grins and took off down the slope. As we booking it down the mountain, the slop gradually got steeper and steeper, and before we knew it we were on a 50 degree slope with bumpy snow and no room for error. If we fell the only thing to stop us from sliding was a boulder field and some bushes. This gave us quiet the rush. I got to the bottom first, I looked back up the slope and saw tom making some sweet jump turns down the slope.
Past all the rocks and bushed, maybe 300 yards further down the slope past where the snow ends, there is a road. Tom and I made the call to try and hitch hike our way back to the truck because we really did not want to hike back up a 50 degree slope.  When we both reached the bottom of the run we saw that there were a few cars that had stopped to take pictures of us coming down the run. When we saw that we had high hopes that they might wait for us to bushwhack and offer us a ride. Unfortunately they did not wait, they took off once we where done. After we saw them leave we took off our skis and board and started down through the bushes. We could not see where we were putting our feet as we walked down the so called path, made for an interesting hike down. Once we got past all the bushes we were greeted by a small river that we had to cross. We found a fallen tree that was about as thick as my leg to cross the river. On the other side of the river we had a small rock ledge that we had to climb up in our ski gear, and that led us to the road.
We had thought that there would be almost no traffic on the road and had little hopes of getting a ride. We were pleased to see that there was a fair amount of cars and SUVs that were driving on the road, so our hopes where high for getting a ride. We started to walk because we wanted to make as much ground as we could and we would just thumb it when cars past. So we started walking, and we walked and walked and walked. What we thought about getting rides fast was not turning out quiet as we planned. More as we walked more people were interested in talking to us about what we did and getting our picture then giving us a ride. I think in total 5 or six cars slowed down to take our picture, because we were deemed as the crazy Coloradan that was snowboarding in July. We walked about 3 miles or so before we got our first ride. The only reason we got picked up was because it happened to be someone that Tom knew from last year. He took us I think about 2 miles or so.
From where he dropped us off we continued our walk, at this point we had maybe 8 miles or so to get back to the truck. As we walked the thunder started, made for a really interesting walk. I think we walked maybe another mile or so and them we caught our second ride. We got picked up by this tiny Subaru  with three people in it already. Just as we got settled in this little car the sky opened up on us. It started hailing and raining and lots of thunder and lightning. Boy, we where very thankful for this ride. They took us all the way to the Alpine visitor center. From there we had maybe 6 miles or so to where my truck was. It was still raining a little when we started walking down trail ridge road. This road is really busy so we thought we would be picked up in like rather quickly. We were wrong again. I think we walked for about and hour and car after car past us and would not pick us up. Finally we see a small Pontiac Vibe pull over about 100 feet in front of us. Tom and I jog up to the car and a nice old man gets out and helps us load our gear into the car. Now if you have ever seen the vibe it is one of the smallest cars that you can buy on the market. The ironic thing about this was, maybe 30 SUVs with just 1 or 2 people in them pasts us and did not even give us a second look. We crammed all of our stuff into the car and jumped in.
As we got in tom and I apologized for possibly making a mess of their car. The couple in the car told us not to worry about it, it was a rental car. We never got the names of them, but the couple who were maybe in there 60s or 70s told us that they were on vacation from Oregon. We talked about what Tom and I were doing out there in the rain with winter sports gear our summer jobs and where we were from. They took us all the way back to my truck were we thanked them gratefully and wished them a safe trip.
All in all the journey tom and I took was a great experience and worth every second we spent in the rain, just because we got to snowboard and ski in July in the united states, nothing better!