Just a few words to get started;
- It's almost the end of January, 2011
- I haven't posted since last season
- I've been skiing twice, so far
- We didn't buy the season passes like we did last year; bought the Copper 5 Day Pass
- Both days were great
First Day - Copper Mountain on Xmas Eve - Sky had a bad fall in the half pipe and lost a half pint of blood. He's ok.
I took a nose dive into a tree, head first but I was able to get my hands up to break the impact. What seemed like a few seconds after hitting the tree, I sat stunned and very cartoonishly, my ski went up... and came down and hit me in the head. Next time I went skiing, I wore my helmet.
The day was very sunny, nary any traffic, pretty warm and just a perfect Xmas Eve!
Second Day - Woke early, great drive to Vail and parked in the Cascade lot. This is the lot of the hotel where we'd be staying that night. Probably not many people are aware that it costs $25 to park in their garage and there aren't any other options. So, we checked in at the front desk even though we wouldn't be back until after skiing all day.
As opposed to the hectic gondola at Lions Head or the crowede Vista Bahn at Vail Village, we rode the quiet, peaceful quad up from Cascade Village (our hotel) and started skiing pretty much right away. We had a great morning of blue skies and great cordouroy as we worked our way over to Two Elk Lodge where we have grown fond of eating our lunch. After lunch, Sky went to the big park alone and the three of us had some great runs getting back to the Game Creek Bowl area which was close to our hotel.
The afternoon clouded over and since we were tired, we downloaded to the Cascade Village, checked into our hotel room and hot tubbed our way into the late afternoon, watching the big flakes cover the view.
Our favorite Mexican Restaurant had a lull in their rush and we were able to get a booth and a margarita pretty quickly. After dinner, we walked almost all the way back to the hotel but caught a bus that took us all the way back into Vail Village before catching the shuttle back to Cascade. I almost forgot; at Lions Head, we jumped on the Gondola and rode it up to Eagle's Nest where there are bars, restaurants and activities like riding ski-bikes down the mountain with headlamps. On the way down, looking out over the pretty lights of the village, it occurred to me that I didn't know anything about the gondola accident in 1976 that I told Sky and Sierra about as we descended the mountain. I researched it and came up with the Sports Illustrated article that I posted on the 1006 Google Group.
Sunday morning, we found a great cafe for pancakes and french toast.
We dropped Sky at Keystone and headed home to the dogs who had been waiting for our return in their "Canine Canyon".
View from the lift
My companions
Dropping into Game Creek Bowl
My buddies
Wildwood
The afternoon clouds roll in (snowed that night into Sunday...)
Mexican eating buddies
