Well, after a really miserable Christmas I was determined to have a spectacular New Years. I had bumped into Aaron Hartz earlier in the week and he mentioned going up to SkiBowl on Mt. Hood for New Years eve because the mountain was going to be open until 2am with fireworks. So, on sunday morning Aaron came over to my place and we both looked up places to stay for the night and found a hostel right at the base of East SkiBowl next to the chairlift for only 20 bucks a night! Naturally that got us pretty amped cause it meant we didn't have to drive anywhere and could drink as much as we wanted to!
We made it to the mountain around 5pm after picking up some beers (including Hams beer) and deli meat and salad to save money on dinner. We checked in to the hostel 
with an extremely drunk man who Hartz said is a lifty there. The guy said "I can't even crow" which totally confused me until Aaron explained that the crazy dude crows like a rooster incredibly loud when he sees people he knows coming down the hill.... Pretty cool local ski bum! Anyway, after he barely made it through checking us in we both went back to the truck to shotgun two hams and down another while
eating sandwiches. We then stuffed our pockets with Hams beers and hit the slopes. It was a beautiful night with clear skies and we could actually see people shooting off fireworks all over Mt. Hood at Timberline as well as at Meadows. Skiing at night with the full moon glow of Mt. Hood towering next to us was pretty amazing!
I've never skied so drunk before in my life. It was a blast. After slamming down two more beers on the chairlift to empty our pockets we actually hit up the terrain park, and the key word for us in it was "sloppy", although somehow we were both able to spin 3's off the first kicker in the park. After a bunch of more runs we made it down
to the warming hut at mid-mountain to have 3 rounds of 16oz 7.8% imported beer. That's when I also got a very drunken call from my girl Emily in Philly where it was New Years there (still 3 hours to go for Hartz and I). We managed to finish up the rounds and ski some more but it seemed like the drunker we got the ballsier we got off 
ledges. Everybody on the lift was getting torn-up as well so whenever Hartz and I found ourselves on the edge of a cliff ban we kept hearing people yelling for us to huck them.... which in our stupor we actually did... sometimes successfully, sometimes
crashing into a yardsale at the bottom. I'm still amazed that we didn't break something jumping on to boilerplate snow like that. The impacts were amazing and hip-checking barely helped. But as it goes with Aaron and I... if one of us does it, the other pretty much has to follow (male pride).
At around 11pm we made it to the base and walked inside for a few more rounds of booze where we met up with some people who were staying at the condo's mountainside. After a truly spectacular fireworks display while I called Emily we 
chatted with them for a bit then took off with them in their Forerunner to their place. When we walked in we found about 5 people passed out in the garage and about 8 more kids passed out upstairs (all of them had missed New Years sleeping). The kitchen had about 20 bottles of booze strewn all about which explained the devastation of the place and the people sleeping there. So, being awake and drizzunk we all decided to bust into the condo hot tub even though it was closed for the night. I, always thinking, had thought to bring my bathing suit for just such an opportunity so I was prepared! Aaron ended up in boxers! I think somebody must have poured detergent or something in the tub as a joke because there was mountains of suds in the other end! We we arrived there was already a couple in the tub (not really a tub because it was the size of a pool!) who had already broken in. While Hartz got his groove on I ended up taking off back to the hostel.
Damn! I was locked out. The hostel had locked the doors at 3am and it was 3:30am when I got back to the place.... so I essentially paid a drunk guy 20 bucks on New Years to Sleep in my truck in the parking lot! Hartz came back about 30 minutes later and crashed in the passenger seat next to me. I managed to grab a pillow and sleeping bag from the back before I passed out... It was a very cold walk back from the condo's to the hostel as well.
Hartz and I woke up at around 10am and headed to Government Camp to get some grub. Man were we both hungover and had some funny shit to talk about. I got a huge omelette and powered through most of it. When we got back to SkiBowl it had begun to rain so we both decided to bail for the day based on the weather and our stomaches.
Overall it was one of the best New Years I've ever had! Very drunk, and skiing... only thing missing was my girl Emily, but atleast we both got to talk to each other!
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