Boston

The Boston office went axe throwing! 

Chicago

Chicago DMCers had happy hour at the office with the help of Drinkbot, the robot bartender!

The Chicago office also had pizza happy hour! 

Dallas

The Dallas office had fun at Puttshack! 

Denver

The Denver office hosted the annual DMSki extravaganza! 

Denver also had their holiday party! 

Houston

A few Houston DMCers went to practice their swing at Top Golf! 

They also went to Escape It Houston and did an escape room!

The Houston office also attempted to Skeet Shoot! 

San Diego 

The San Diego office went bowling and had a nice dinner afterwards with our founder Frank!

St. Louis

The St. Louis office went to Sandbox VR and played VR video games!

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DMSki 2020 was the last YOE before the first lockdown in 2020. It was only fitting that DMSki was the first official YOE in our not-quite-post-COVID era of office re-openings. Our crew took precautions before starting the festivities – everyone had to receive a negative PCR test result prior to the weekend. Once we all arrived in Denver or Breckenridge, we took rapid tests to be safe.

New House, Who’s This?

After many years of renting the same lodge in Silverthorne, we decided on something a little different! The new house was conveniently located in Breckenridge. The majority of DMSkiers with Epic Passes were able to take one of Breckenridge Mountain’s shuttle buses to and from the slopes each day. However, the most gung-ho skiers wanted to ensure they made first and last chair every day with no wasted time. They insisted that the walk to and from the slopes wasn’t that bad!

First, we explored all 3 floors to help each other locate which of the 13 bedrooms we had each selected for the trip. The new house also meant a new kitchen to get familiar with as we cooked breakfast and dinner each day. 

As usual, our talented DMChefs did not disappoint. Morning menus ranged from breakfast burritos to more frozen waffles than we could consume. Dinners featured a spaghetti bar, pizza, and the most delicious sliders (shoutout to Oliver Reed for almost single-handedly preparing the tastiest tiny sandwiches!)

The new house featured a snazzy gear room to stash our equipment in the evenings. The boot rack was equipped with warming tubes – perfect for pre-heating our boots and gloves before chilly mornings on the mountain!

Triumphs & Tribulations 

DMSki is such a fun event, it attracts skiers and snowboarders of all levels from offices all over the country. Seasoned natives lead the charge down the more challenging slopes on the mountain. Although snow conditions were not ideal this year, the most adventurous skiers chose to brave the wind and hard packed snow to check out the Peak 7 bowls – including John Williams, who decided to bring a snowboard on the trip this year instead of his regular skis.

John recalls heading down the treacherous slope at the top of double black diamond Whale’s Tail thinking, “this would be a really bad time to fall”, only to see Nikhil sliding headfirst through a particularly rough patch. A little rattled but high on adrenaline, the adventurers made it down the challenging slope in one piece… and did not feel the need to do a second lap.

Stephen Shull successfully navigated through a challenging tree-filled mogul run called “Ore Bucket”. Needless to say, his pose indicates he struck gold! Gabby Martinez, who recently relocated from Texas to our Denver office, reports that she made it down her first-ever black diamond with the Ikon pass squad at Copper mountain.

This trip marked Ramone’s first time ever on skis. He recounted a messy “yard-sale” fall on one run on the first day, but by the last day ,“I knew my goal. I needed to finish Lower Lehman without falling. After learning parallel turns and practicing them all day, I embarked down Lower Lehman. Taking the widest possible turns, I slowly descended down the slope without falling and declared my trip a success!”

My group spent Friday afternoon perfecting our turns through the glades on Peak 7 in search of an elusive woodsy hut. In a rare moment of overconfidence, I opted to “send it” over (what I thought was) a small snow-covered log. I quickly realized the mound of snow was hiding the rest of the tree and landed hard on my face, cutting our hut hunt short for the day.

With ski patrol’s blessing, despite having no kids in tow, we took ourselves through Rip’s Ravine and found some other fun huts instead.

With a mild concussion, I thought I was going to have the worst crash/injury story of the trip – only to walk back into the house and see Tommy sporting a black eye and a chipped tooth (as well as a concussion of his own).

Tommy had also been enjoying catching some air on one of his runs and hit a bump with a kicker on it. The landing area was obscured by the jump itself which led to a miscalculation between amount of air gained on the jump and distance to the surprisingly flat landing.

Thankfully, all our DMC cohorts are smart enough to wear helmets… maybe next year we’ll exercise a little more caution to look before we leap.

On Saturday, a second search squad was successful in hunting down the smoke hut I missed out on. Despite some unpleasant odors around the hut, the interior decorations were so cool it was definitely worth the adventure to find it.

Hot Toddies and Hot Tub Bodies

The best way to nurse some tired and bruised bodies after hard days on the slopes is with some après ski beverages and a nice, warm hot tub. At the new house, getting to the hot tub required walking through the snow (note to self: bring sandals next year)!

The first crews back from the slopes got first dibs on the best spots in the tub, and front row seats to watch others slip and slide down the increasingly icy path to enter.

 
Hot to cold transitions are good for circulation, right? Maybe that’s why some crazy people chose to jump into the icy stream next to the hot tub when they started to get a little too toasty. “Just jump in the stream, Nikhil. Everyone is doing it!”

Big Hydration

After the retirement of an old favorite game called “big container”, this year’s DMSki crew invented a new game dubbed “big hydration”. The rules are pretty simple: obtain the biggest vessel you can find, fill it with water, and pass it around chanting “BIG HYDRATION.”

It was definitely a hit and we’re looking forward to introducing it at future DMC events where people could use some extra hydration.

All Fun & Games

Rejuvenated by the hot tub, hydration games, and dinner, the squad broke out into groups for all sorts of games every night. Some of our DMC game night classics made regular appearances: Blokus, Codenames, and Bananagrams.

We also tried out some new games, like ‘Skull’ – an easy game to learn. Skull involves betting, a little bit of luck, and a sprinkle of social psychology.

The layout of the new house meant quieter games that required more focus took place upstairs, while the rowdy crew of beer drinkers headed down to the basement to set up some more high-energy games. Supply chain issues made red solo cups hard to come by in Breckenridge village!

Two brave soldiers ventured out to get ping pong balls and passably suitable cups from the local convenience store so we could play stack cup and bobsled.  

“Ski” You Next Year!

With all the remote new hires and people working from home, there were many faces on this trip that I didn’t recognize on the first night! But after four days of playing games, sharing stories, and even occasionally talking about work, I can’t help but be grateful for finally being able to spend time together.

As we bade goodbye and packed up our cars to head home, we speculated about which office would be the next to throw a YOE this year. One thing’s for sure – barring any more ¬unforeseen circumstances – we will all be first in line to sign up for DMSki 2023.

Learn more about DMC’s company culture. 
 

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We kicked off the 2020 YOE calendar with another spectacular weekend in Silverthorne, CO. Forty DMCers and their plus ones took on Vail, Breck, Beaver Creek, and Copper Mountains with steeze (that’s mountain slang for style + ease).

Shenanigans on the Slopes

Blue skies and warm weather welcomed the DMC crew to the slopes each day! With a few inches of fresh powder overnight on Wednesday, we had beautiful conditions all weekend at every resort. Our crew has grown significantly since the early years of DMSki trips, and we split up to different mountains during the day. About half the group had passes for Copper Mountain, and the other half explored different Vail resorts each day.

Blue Sky Basin at Vail really lived up to its name this year. The Epic Pass gang met for lunch outside at the peak where we enjoyed the warm sun, gorgeous views, and snow angels in fresh, deep powder.

Some of us took “hitting the slopes” a bit too literally. With almost everyone skiing and riding all day from the first chair until 4 pm, there was certainly no shortage of “yard sale” wipeouts, mogul mishaps, and close encounters with trees. Thankfully, no one was seriously hurt – Jon’s jacket took the most damage, but still didn’t keep him off the slopes for the rest of the trip!

My crew, bored of the flat catwalk run we were taking down the front side of Vail, decided to take a shortcut back down to the base. We ended up on a black diamond trail called “Pepi’s Face,” infamous for being steep and icy in the afternoons, and became unwitting participants in a wipeout contest. Dozens of onlookers from nearby restaurants and base area gave a riotous standing ovation to Mike for a spectacular wipeout after hitting a particularly icy patch on our last run of the day.

Mountain Munchies

Even though our group varies significantly in skill level and fearlessness on the slopes, we all made sure to meet up for lunch each day. It was great to meet up with the whole squad and compare notes on our favorite runs while we refueled for the rest of the day.

John King made sure the entire Copper Mountain crew was aware of his favorite waffles at Flyer’s lodge.

On Saturday, part of the Epic Pass group decided to venture out Beaver Creek mountain. Rumor has it, Beaver Creek gives out free cookies every day! Sure enough, as we made the trek through the ski village up to our first lift in the morning, we were each handed a chocolate chip cookie. At 3 pm (which is official “Cookie Time”), we made sure we were at the base of Centennial Express to receive two more fresh, warm cookies each.

The Copper crew ended each of their days with an Apres Ski beer at the Ten Mile Tavern with gorgeous views and great company. 

Apres-Ski Adventures

DMC engineers are some of the biggest board gamers I’ve ever met – we all had plenty of opportunities to jump in on new games and old favorites when we got back to the house each evening. From the most intense game of Bohnanza, a bean farming card game, to thought-provoking rounds of Codenames (“Is a ship a place?”), there was no shortage of (mostly) friendly competition to join in on.

A new favorite this year was a card game called “Oh Fruck!” which combines rules from games like Uno and King’s Cup. We tried to play with more than the recommended number of players. We ended up going around for over an hour as we tried (and often failed) to remember all the special rules, which might require someone to wiggle their spirit fingers over the card they just played while saying, “I love you, Madam Diet Coke. 10-4.”

Even a “plumbing emergency” at the house that shut off our water for two hours one evening couldn’t put a damper on the fun. In fact, despite the lack of water, no one in the group stopped doing what they were doing. The dinner crew kept things cookin' to deliver mac and cheese, chili, and BBQ chicken. Board gamers still enjoyed snacks and beverages… although perhaps with a little extra moderation, since the bathrooms were off-limits. People even still enjoyed the outdoor hot tub.

DMC Directors and DMSki veterans, Jesse and Tim, made sure the late-night party crowd at the house had enough to eat by baking up batches of garlic bread and cookies all Saturday night. We were happy for more snacks after three tough days of skiing.

Farewells and Flights Home

Saturday night brought in several more inches of snow, so some people soldiered on for a fourth day on the slopes. The rest of us cleaned, packed, and rubbed some aloe on our sunburned goggle lines as we bid goodbye to our friends and coworkers from almost every different DMC office. Despite returning to work on Monday feeling like I need a vacation from my vacation, I’m already looking forward to DMSki 2021!

Learn more about DMC's Company Culture. 

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