Both Lisa and Mark have a passion for spending time in the mountains or just in nature really. This all comes from a similar upbringing and a diligent effort from both their parents to spend time in wild places. While Mark and family made the move to Colorado when he was 9 years old Lisa grew up visiting Colorado with her family starting at a young age for camping and ski trips. Lisa and Mark wonder if their paths ever crossed because while Lisa’s family stayed in Vail run for many ski trips Mark and family stayed in Simba Run right across the street for theirs. It is hard to imagine but there is potential for Lisa and Mark making turns on Vail mountain.
Lisa as a new graduate from the University of Denver came to Beaver Creek to show off her skiing ability during a try out for Ski Patrol. Mark had been in the Vail Valley for a year at that point and was also working towards becoming a member of Ski Patrol at Beaver Creek. The stars aligned for Lisa and Mark to be at the same try out date and was the first time their trails crossed. Mark has detailed memories of Lisa skiing that day and not only did she ski well enough to succeed in the try out she skied well enough to catch Mark’s eye. In her usual red patagonia jacket she ripped down the steepest, most difficult bump run on Beaver Creek without poles. While Mark remembers Lisa’s skiing like it was yesterday Lisa has no memory of Mark from that day… Don’t worry Mark made a good impression the next time their trails crossed!
The second time Lisa and Mark got a glimpse of each other was during their shadow day for Beaver Creek Ski Patrol. Roles changed and somehow Mark was the one who caught Lisa’s eye or at least his hat had a trout on it and that caught Lisa’s eye. Later on in their relationship Lisa shared that she was hopeful that both of us got the job because she thought Mark was pretty cute!
And just as Lisa hoped for both her and Mark got the job and finally had a formal introduction in November of 2016 during the start of their Ski Patrol careers. First year ski patroller’s receive the term of endearment “Rookies” and Lisa and Mark got to spend a lot of quality time together as rookies going through training together. In the first week Lisa wore a shirt with a trout on it and it didn’t take long for the two of them to start talking about fishing. As the saying goes the rest is history! Lisa and Mark went fishing for the first time together in the snow on a very cold day on the Blue River near Breckenridge. While Lisa’s modesty kept her from making a single cast Mark had a mission to continue to build his facade of an expert fly angler and managed to catch a small brown trout on an egg pattern.
Mark finds it hilarious how many proposal stories he has heard from loved ones where the proposal did not meet the expectations of the couple. Of course he heard all these stories after he proposed to Lisa and as so many people in those stories his reality from the day did not meet his expectations for what he had planned. The first hurdle was a ski patrol party the night before the date he planned on the popping the question. While Lisa wanted to stay in bed all day after a late night involving a couple adult beverages Mark made her rally for a ski day. As they rode the first lift up it began to rain, not snow, but rain. They got off that lift and Mark was so anxious to get the question over with that they went to where Mark had planed to propose without even taking a run. A group of ski patrollers came out of the outpost displaying a banner saying, “will you marry me?” where Mark and Lisa officially met for the first time 4 years previous. Mark got down on one knee, completely forgot what he had rehearsed, and asked Lisa to marry him. The champagne he brought to the outpost, the excitement of the day and taking a couple runs helped knock off the cobwebs from the night before. The couple then went down to Glennwood Hot Springs to spend a romantic night and a couple of days relaxing. Even though things didn’t go quite as planned all that mattered is that Lisa said YES!!!
Lisa and Mark have will have been dating for 7 years by the time they get married. Those years have been filled with growth both Individually and as a couple. After their first year Ski Patrolling together and starting their relationship on snow spring came and both had their own ambitions for summer work. Lisa started her first summer of 4 as a wrangler with Black Mountain Ranch, a guest ranch in McCoy Colorado. While Lisa was wrangling horses and guests all summer Mark was wrangling children for the non-profit Big City Mountaineers as the overnight camp manager. Because Mark was working in Golden Colorado and was committed to spending as much time with Lisa as possible he became a celebrity wrangler and spent most of his days off at Black Mountain Ranch helping in any way he could. Lisa helped Mark grow that summer by teaching him how to work with, saddle, bridle and ride horses. Safe to say Mark fell in love with ranch life and deeper into love with Lisa because the following summer Lisa and him were moving into Black Mountain Ranch’s double wide trailer together.
There are some downsides to living in a double wide trailer that has been parked on a ranch for years and that is your roommates are mice. Mark will never for get a tear filled call from Lisa when she first moved to the ranch, the source of the tears was her mattress covered in mouse poop. It took us a couple years to find a solution to this problem but with both of us being animal lovers it came in the form of introducing a kitten into our lives. She is a short black haired cat with piercing olive colored eyes. When we picked her up from the Humane Society she came with the name Olive after her eyes and it just so happened that Mark’s favorite aquatic insect and trout snack was named Blue Winged Olive. Needless to say we adopted and named our cat Blue Winged Olive or BWO or just Olive. She has brought joy to our lives everyday the past 4 years with her cuddles, post poop zoomies, and overall presence. She is a great hunter and not only chased all of the mice out of the room in the double wide every night but took care of the spider/ bug problem with the benefit of some protein packed snacks.
It is hard to wrap up all that Lisa and Mark have experienced together over the years. Some common themes are spending time outside together whether that be skiing, backcountry touring, fishing, floating, shed hunting, hunting, or just having a cocktail by the river.