Kimmyt
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
https://kurt.hoffmann.net/holidays/IMG_0510_small.jpg
Mama Nature was getting ready for my visit! (Picture from the storm before Christmas, Colorado Springs)
I made it out to Colorado with surprisingly little trouble. Despite all the problems with flights and people getting cancelled and stuck, I only had one minor delay of ~30 minutes from my connecting flight in Chicago. I think flying into Colorado Springs was the key, because it’s a smaller airport they had the snow cleared much quicker than in Denver (also I don’t think they got as much snow as Denver did).
Day 1, Sunday was a resting day, and a good thing too because I had woken up feeling like someone had shoved a baseball down my throat. The previous night I’d had a slight headache and was very exhausted. I put it down to the elevation, even though the Springs is only at around 6,000 ft. I come from a much lower elevation and hadn’t been feeling well previously.
I was amazed at the extreme temperature fluctuations possible in Colorado, and The Boy acted like going from sunny and 50 to snowing and 20 in a few minutes was quite the Norm.
https://kurt.hoffmann.net/holidays/IMG_0514_small.jpg
(Here, a picture of me doing my Atlas impression.)
That evening we drove out to our hotel in Silverthorne, which would be our base camp for the next few days while we played around in Summit County.
https://kurt.hoffmann.net/holidays/IMG_0515_small.jpg
(We took the back way out to Silverthorne… it was quite pretty!)
Day 2 (Christmas Day) We decided to head to Vail, figuring that since it was so large, and Xmas was supposed to be pretty uncrowded at the resorts, we’d get a lot of terrain to ourselves. We were right.
The Boy and I are first-lift kind of skiers, we’d rather get out and ski nonstop in the morning before the late-risers get out on the slopes. We did a few minor runs on the front face of the resort before following a line of lifts up to the back bowls. To our surprise it looked like they had gotten fresh snow, and there were very few people enjoying the bowls that were open that early in the morning.
https://kurt.hoffmann.net/holidays/IMG_0516_small.jpg
https://kurt.hoffmann.net/holidays/IMG_0517_small.jpg
(Me and then The Boy in the back bowls…. Look at the crowds!)
I was having some difficulty getting adjusted to not only skiing again (this was my first day on skis this season), but also skiing at a higher altitude and skiing way ungroomed loose stuff, which I don’t really get much of a chance to ski on being as that I’m from the midatlantic.
The afternoon clouds began to roll in after a good (but rather expensive) lunch at the Elk Mt. Lodge or whatever that lodge is called at the top. I was thrilled with the décor, but not so thrilled with the idea of a $11 personal pizza. I guess it was our fault for leaving our lunchmeat in the car overnight so that it froze solid come the next morning when we tried to pack our lunches. On a related note, though, frozen grapes are pretty good! Until they thaw and start to turn into grape jelly!
https://kurt.hoffmann.net/holidays/IMG_0519_small.jpg
(Threatening clouds, and look…. More people!!)
It started to get colder and more crowded, so The Boy and I headed back to base camp around 3:30.
Day 3 we decided to check out Beaver Creek. I was already feeling unsure of it, because of the reputation it had as a rich-person resort. Maybe I had turned my mind against it before I even got there, because I found this the least enjoyable of all the resorts. It didn’t help that with the colder temps and no new snowfall the groomed runs felt icy. I also thought that the blue runs down the front of the resort felt exceedingly steep. Of course it didn’t help that I felt uncomfortable and insecure about my skiing. My boots felt too large, and once again I noted that it was quite possible that either my feet had shrunk since losing weight, or my boots had packed out, and I felt like I was sitting in the backseat way too often.
In other words, I wasn’t having a good day at BC.
https://kurt.hoffmann.net/holidays/IMG_0520_small.jpg
(The good thing about early morning skiing…. no traffic, despite the signs! The Boy at BC on our first run)
Despite my troubles, we found a bumped up black bowl-like area to play in (the story of the week is all the same…. Me going down runs I have no business being on. Sigh. I suck at ungroomed… but I was feeling a bit better at bumps by the end of the trip!)
https://kurt.hoffmann.net/holidays/IMG_0522_small.jpg
(Us with a rare moment of sun… the lifts to the top of the mt. were closed most of the morning due to winds)
Mama Nature was getting ready for my visit! (Picture from the storm before Christmas, Colorado Springs)
I made it out to Colorado with surprisingly little trouble. Despite all the problems with flights and people getting cancelled and stuck, I only had one minor delay of ~30 minutes from my connecting flight in Chicago. I think flying into Colorado Springs was the key, because it’s a smaller airport they had the snow cleared much quicker than in Denver (also I don’t think they got as much snow as Denver did).
Day 1, Sunday was a resting day, and a good thing too because I had woken up feeling like someone had shoved a baseball down my throat. The previous night I’d had a slight headache and was very exhausted. I put it down to the elevation, even though the Springs is only at around 6,000 ft. I come from a much lower elevation and hadn’t been feeling well previously.
I was amazed at the extreme temperature fluctuations possible in Colorado, and The Boy acted like going from sunny and 50 to snowing and 20 in a few minutes was quite the Norm.
https://kurt.hoffmann.net/holidays/IMG_0514_small.jpg
(Here, a picture of me doing my Atlas impression.)
That evening we drove out to our hotel in Silverthorne, which would be our base camp for the next few days while we played around in Summit County.
https://kurt.hoffmann.net/holidays/IMG_0515_small.jpg
(We took the back way out to Silverthorne… it was quite pretty!)
Day 2 (Christmas Day) We decided to head to Vail, figuring that since it was so large, and Xmas was supposed to be pretty uncrowded at the resorts, we’d get a lot of terrain to ourselves. We were right.
The Boy and I are first-lift kind of skiers, we’d rather get out and ski nonstop in the morning before the late-risers get out on the slopes. We did a few minor runs on the front face of the resort before following a line of lifts up to the back bowls. To our surprise it looked like they had gotten fresh snow, and there were very few people enjoying the bowls that were open that early in the morning.
https://kurt.hoffmann.net/holidays/IMG_0516_small.jpg
https://kurt.hoffmann.net/holidays/IMG_0517_small.jpg
(Me and then The Boy in the back bowls…. Look at the crowds!)
I was having some difficulty getting adjusted to not only skiing again (this was my first day on skis this season), but also skiing at a higher altitude and skiing way ungroomed loose stuff, which I don’t really get much of a chance to ski on being as that I’m from the midatlantic.
The afternoon clouds began to roll in after a good (but rather expensive) lunch at the Elk Mt. Lodge or whatever that lodge is called at the top. I was thrilled with the décor, but not so thrilled with the idea of a $11 personal pizza. I guess it was our fault for leaving our lunchmeat in the car overnight so that it froze solid come the next morning when we tried to pack our lunches. On a related note, though, frozen grapes are pretty good! Until they thaw and start to turn into grape jelly!
https://kurt.hoffmann.net/holidays/IMG_0519_small.jpg
(Threatening clouds, and look…. More people!!)
It started to get colder and more crowded, so The Boy and I headed back to base camp around 3:30.
Day 3 we decided to check out Beaver Creek. I was already feeling unsure of it, because of the reputation it had as a rich-person resort. Maybe I had turned my mind against it before I even got there, because I found this the least enjoyable of all the resorts. It didn’t help that with the colder temps and no new snowfall the groomed runs felt icy. I also thought that the blue runs down the front of the resort felt exceedingly steep. Of course it didn’t help that I felt uncomfortable and insecure about my skiing. My boots felt too large, and once again I noted that it was quite possible that either my feet had shrunk since losing weight, or my boots had packed out, and I felt like I was sitting in the backseat way too often.
In other words, I wasn’t having a good day at BC.
https://kurt.hoffmann.net/holidays/IMG_0520_small.jpg
(The good thing about early morning skiing…. no traffic, despite the signs! The Boy at BC on our first run)
Despite my troubles, we found a bumped up black bowl-like area to play in (the story of the week is all the same…. Me going down runs I have no business being on. Sigh. I suck at ungroomed… but I was feeling a bit better at bumps by the end of the trip!)
https://kurt.hoffmann.net/holidays/IMG_0522_small.jpg
(Us with a rare moment of sun… the lifts to the top of the mt. were closed most of the morning due to winds)
