First order of business is the Spring Break Recap. For some unknown reason I feel it is important to have titles for trips, and this year's trip will be known in my head as "The Cowboys." I left DTW on Sunday last, landed in Denver, and rendezvoused with the other cowboys - Gram, Nick, and Anthony. We met up with Anthony's friend Joe, who drove us down to his house in Centennial, CO. That evening we met Joe's family and had pizza and started to get acclimated to the altitude. Monday morning we loaded into the van and day-skiied Vail, which is enormous. They have more bowls than many mountains have lifts... there really is no comparison. That night we stayed in Denver, stopping at Red Rocks on the way home.
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were spent at Winter Park tearing up Parsenn Bowl, glades, bumps, and cruisers all over the mountain. We even hiked around the backside to Vasquez Cirque for a drop into one of WP's chutes: The Cowboys. Despite the ski-out from hell it was a great run and a defining moment of the trip.

Friday we took our 'of' day (from "4 of 5 day" passes) and drove over Berthoud Pass to Breckenridge. Breck is a huge, huge resort, but we worked our way from Peak 10 to Peak 7 and back over the course of a sunny high-speed-quad day. The snow was just about perfect for huge arcing turns at huge velocity and we lived at the limit for the whole afternoon.
Saturday was our last on the slopes, so we bumped our way through Winter Park's famous Mary Jane section and then packed up and came home.
Back on the ground in Michigan on Sunday afternoon, I showed off the collected media of our exploits, we made some awesome beef stroganoff, and I crashed early despite the time zone difference.

This morning I took my tired and sore limbs to Hale Auditorium for the kickoff of MAP. I'm not sure what the value of this morning's meeting was other than to provide a kickoff point, but now I'm in a holding pattern for the real start of MAP: MAP06P&W's first faculty advisor meeting. We are totally unsure of what to expect but with Pratt & Whitney liasons on campus tomorrow the time for uncertainty has passed.