Breckenridge 2009
Friday 13th February - We boarded our United flight for Chicago at lunchtime. It was a long, but easy flight.
We changed to flight to Denver with a short delay whilst Air Force 1 landed for a visit by Obama. The flight to Denver took around 3 hours and then another couple of hours collecting luggage and collecting our ride (a Chrysler PT Cruiser). It was a slightly stressful drive up I70 in falling snow with me fighting to stay awake and I was extremely happy to see Frisco exit and take the short drive to Breckenridge, although I suspect we would have all died in our sleep if I'd lost the fight on I70!
Check in at The Village, Breckenridge was smooth and then we were straight into bed at around 11:30 local time or 6:30AM UK time, having been up for around 24 hours!
Saturday 14th – After a late start, we picked up lift tickets from the office and arranged skis for Lauren and Ryan, Mandy and I were still on our early carvers, bought in Lake Louise, Canada many years before.
We bought a lift pass for us all to ski the afternoon and stuck to the Greens and Blues as Ryan refamiliarised himself with skis, but he seemed to remember a lot from the previous year, which was pleasing for us all. For a change we all signed up for 3 days ski school.
Above : I think Lauren and Ryan both enjoyed Colorado
That night we ate at Rasta Pasta, but a mix of tiredness and possible altitude effect left us (me especially) unable to really enjoy the excellent food (We took some away in a box to eat the next day, though, something else you couldn't really do in France and mine was my dinner the following night, our 'room' being a small appartment with a full kitchen).
Sunday 15th – Our first day at ski school. I signed up for the Level 9 (top) group but had to convince the skeptical instructor – Thankfully I did and set off with the rest of the group, who were mainly locals taking advantage of the exceptionally cheap 'all season' passes the Ski School offers to them. Lauren and Mandy were in classes 8 and 7, whilst Ryan was in level 5 at the kids ski school.
Above : Badger, at Keystone, was a fun run through the trees
Level 9 ski school does feature the odd exercise, but mostly it was a tough, but exhilerating mix of double diamond tree runs (such as Windows) and steep open runs (including the wonderful Magic Carpet) - Exactly what I'd hoped for.
Monday was more of the same, but we were all less tired and/or jet lagged by now, so we enjoyed it more. I trecked to the very top of Breckenridge and tackled the 45+ degree runs in the Lake Chutes - Extreme skiing by anyone's standard and the climb up from the highest lift was almost enough to render me incapable!
Above : Did I have fun? What do you think?
On Tuesday, Ryan continued at Ski School, but the rest of us skied around Breckenridge. Sadly, though it was cold, windy and snowy, which restricted us mostly to skiing the lower runs in the resorts, although with some judicious use of the lifts we did manage to squeeze in a few runs on some of the tougher runs.
We ate out at a very nice Italian restaurant (I think it was Michael's) where we shared two huge Pizzas between the 4 of us! Very good and great value.
As our lift pass included skiing in a number of other resorts and we had the PT Cruiser, on wednesday we all went to the nearby resort of Keystone.
Above : Unloading our 'dream wheels' at Keystone
There was lots of fresh snow and more falling. We noticed that, compared with Breckenridge, the runs were generally steeper. The Blues here were definite European reds, rather than blue-reds seen at Breckenridge.
Above : Ryan coped well with his first taste of deep snow at Keystone
Powder on the edges of many runs was up to our shins, giving me some fun, but Ryan coped remarkably well with such deep snow, which he'd never encountered before.
Above : Lauren enjoys the fresh powder
Badger sticks in the mind as a great run through the trees.
Above : Old Mining Town 'look' to Keystone
On Thursday, we ventured out again, this time to Beaver Creek, about an hour away, and home of the Golden Eagle Men's Downhill World Cup run (Everyone warned us off of Aspen with talk of dull, flat runs - Local experts told us only the bowls are worth skiing in).
We declined the offer to pay $33 in village parking and stopped at Bear car park (which was free) and rode the local (free) bus up to Beaver Creek Landing and then rode lifts above Bachelor’s Gulch. Mandy and Lauren set off to Beaver Creek whilst Ryan and I skied down Bitterweed to Elkhorn lift, then back up to ski down to Bachelor's Gulch where we marvelled at the lifts to reach the restrooms.
Next we rode the lift and skied down Gudren’s to pick up the upper Beaver Creek lift back to Beaver Creek.
Above : Ryan and I pause to take in the mountain scenery at Beaver Creek
We started down Beaver Creek Expressway, a slow Green route, but strayed onto Paintbrush, a blue with a mogul field, which was a first for Ryan (which he again impressed me by tackling calmly and carefully, making his way to the bottom with no problem and no fuss) and then picked up Cinch (another Green track).
On reaching Spruce Saddle Lodge, we rode the Cinch lift and then down Centeninal, a wide open Green piste than, unexpectedly, switches to a rather tame Black above the lodge. Ryan and I met Lauren and Mandy back at the lodge and had a good, but pricey lunch.
Above : Icicles on the window at Saddle Spur Lodge, Beaver Creek
After lunch Lauren and I set off for the famous Golden Eagle run – the men’s downhill course. We joined at the top and had a great time, dropping down the Brink, tackling Talons Turn and then on down to the Golden Eagle, Red Tail And Harrier Jumps before reaching the bottom of the run. After a quick run on Screeching Owl (on Grouse Mountain) we returned via the Birds of Prey lift and tackled the run from the Super G start (which enters just above the Talon turn across an icy stretch, near impossible to edge on as many found as we skied down it, carefully!)
Above : Lauren tackles the Golden Eagle - A tough run!
Our second run was faster and even more fun than the first. By now time was running late so we headed up Larkspur lift to return to Bachelor's Gulch and Leav The Beav to get back to the car park.
Somehow we got slightly lost and ended back at Larkspur lift after skiing Yarrow and avoiding Ryan’s mogul field on Paintbrush via a trip through the trees. On way back to BG on green track called Primrose we spotted Ryan and Mandy take a wrong turn and head back towards to Beave Creek, we chased after them and told them they’d gone the wrong way.
Fortunately, we had time to ski down Intertwine to Strawberry lift (which didn’t close till 4, most closed at 3:30) and returned along Primrose and down Gunders to Bachelor's Gulch and then to Beaver Creek Landing and the short bus hop back to the car park.
It had been a great days skiing, mostly in sun, although higher slopes had had cloud in the morning.
On Friday, we all decided to go back to Ski School and I rejoined my group and had a highly entertaining day. Even the climb to the top of the resort to tackle the Lake Chutes again seemed less of an effort this time (I only had to stop 2 or 3 times and could still breathe at the top!), suggesting I was adjusting to the altitude a bit better.
In the evening I fancied a Burger and we found that Empire Burger in the centre of town served excellent ones - As one online review says "Nothing fancy, just great, no-nonsense Burgers" - Highly recommended.
Saturday was our last day's skiing, but the lift queues were busy as locals flooded in for Mardi Gras.
In the morning Ryan and I skied on peak 8 and 7, but were hamstrung by 5+ minute lift queues, especially on 7, where there’s only 1 lift.
Above : Ryan tackles the Race Course
Ryan did a couple of runs on the Race Course, too, showing he's gained a lot of confidence in his skiing this year.
In the afternoon, Lauren and I first skied the steep , narrow and moguled Devil’s Crotch, but queues prevented us reaching Tiger (which had looked good all week). So we, skied around a bit trying to find a lift with a smaller queue and finally ended up pounding up and down Peak 10, although they closed the double diamond blacks just as we reached them.
We skied Grits and a steep black called Bronc, as well as the blue/blue-black runs and Cimarron (A black).
Above : Lauren pauses at the bottom of Devil's Crotch - Steep, eh?
We finally got to Quicksilver lift in time to catch one last run down the oh-so-tame greens, but every run was a bonus by now.
We were surprised at how busy the lifts got, as the slopes themselves seemed fairly quiet and it had not been as busy the previous Saturday, which started the 3 day President’s Day Holiday weekend.
Sunday saw an early start for our return home. We checked out smoothly and drive to Denver passed without incident.
Online check-in for United had proved impossible and we had problems with passport reader in the airport, so it took a little time, but we were checked in baggage for our flight home (via Washington) before 9.
Our change at Washington was fairly stress free (kids enjoyed having their photos taken with Barrack Obama – just a cut out) and the flight home to UK was too.
We hadn’t been given a ticket at Purple Parking, so it took us a while to get car back, but we did and the drive home was fairly quiet, going against the M4/M25/M3 flow on the whole.
For me, this had been one of the very best skiing holidays in years and, in terms of cost, it had probably worked out cheaper than a week in France (although I think the lift passes are dearer in the States).
Ski school had been challenging and taken me one great runs I wouldn't have skiied on alone or with the family - If I have my way I will be back in Colorado soon.
