Breckenridge Day 24

Friday 24th February

I have finally caught up! Today dawned bright and sunny, so we went out to see if I could do a bit better than my previous efforts. The snow was beautiful, and I really enjoyed it. We kept to the green runs, but went higher up the mountain. For some reason today the steepness did not trouble me so much and we had a number of good fast runs down.



You can see what a nice day it was, though it was very windy. You can see how the wind is blowing clouds of snow off the hill in the distance. However, today the wind was blowing up the hill rather than down, so it wasn't nearly so worrying. Two to three hours is enough for me though, my knees ache and my leg muscles wobble, so then it's time to go home. After lunch, Paul went out on his own, but didn't have an entirely successful time because some of the runs he had hoped to do had been closed.

After he came back, we walked up to the Inn to see some friends, and later we had dinner in the local Chinese restaurant with them. Paul thinks I should have a ski lesson tomorrow, but I'm not so sure; my left knee is aching a good deal.

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Breckenridge Day 22 & 23

Still trying to catch up!

Wednesday 23rd February

We are back again in the original condo we had when we first arrived - the building is called Val d'Isere.

We set out in the morning to see what progress I might have made during our time at Copper Mountain, so we started at Beaver Run, as usual. On the way up on the big 6 person Quicksilver lift, I noticed that the 'A' chair was running, so we skied down to that, and went higher up the mountain. This chair is very slow and has no footrests, so your legs just have to dangle, but it does take you a bit higher up, and it wasn't terribly busy.



As you can see, it wasn't a very nice day. You can probably also see that there is only one person on this run, and he or she has fallen over and is lying in the snow.

I managed that long run without too much trouble, so we skied right down to the Beaver Run chair, and went even higher up the mountain. Although I have done this run before, it is a lot steeper and I suddenly found it difficult; the wind was very strong and seemed to be pushing me along, much faster than I really wanted to go, and the snow was blowing too. I did not enjoy it.




Paul took this picture for me, and didn't include me in it, which is just as well, as I did not look happy. I made it down though, without falling over, and I managed to avoid all the other skiers. My legs and knees got very tired and sore, so we went back home to lunch.

After lunch, I was still very tired and stiff, and Paul hadn't really recovered from his exertions the previous day, so we had a rest. We made another food shopping trip later in the afternoon - when you have no car and have to carry everything, you can't shop for a week. This is on the walk to the Supermarket, it's the Blue River, which these days is probably more of a stream.




Thursday 24th February

My poor knees had still not recovered from the previous day, so I had a day off. There was quite a snowstorm anyway, so I had no desire to go out. I didn't get up until 10.30, and read a book all day.

Paul went out and joined a Level 9 class, and was gone all day. Photos were impossible because of the snow which fell all day; there was a white-out most of the time. When Paul got back, he was so exhausted he fell asleep almost immediately. He woke up for supper, had a shower, and then went back to bed. So much for the après ski!

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Copper Mountain to Breckenridge

I don't seem to have written anything for about 5 days, so here are some bits to bring us up to date.

Monday 20th February

Monday should, by rights, have been our last day at Copper, and it was also a Bank Holiday. So I decided not to go out to ski until after lunch, when I expected most of the crowds would have gone home. Paul went out on his own in the morning, and skied frightful slopes. He brought me back some pictures, so I could see just what I was missing.

I cannot imagine even walking down this slope in the summer, let alone skiing down it.




I think he took this next photo from the lift, of a slope down which he proposed to ski. I wouldn't even have got off the lift if I'd seen a slope like that!



This shows the sort of slope he likes - steep, with lots of deep snow, and no tracks in it.

He does not, however, go off-piste. He doesn't have an avalanche alarm or an air bag, so he uses the recognised runs.

The runs are groomed by big machines, which you can see in the early morning or the evening.


I went out in the afternoon, and found the higher runs nearly empty, so had a much better time.



I failed to take any pictures because I couldn't get my camera to work, and supposed it was the cold - it was a really cold day. However, when I got back, I discovered the camera was failing to take pictures because I had it switched to 'Display'.

There were still quite a crowd of people on the lower slopes, so coming right down at the end of the afternoon was a bit hazardous, but I managed to avoid everybody - and keep away from the ones that fall over right in front of you.

Tuesday 21st February

This was meant to be our last day at Copper, and check-out time was 10 am. But the owner of the condo had told Paul to ignore the check-out time, as no cleaners would come in until the following day. So Paul decided to take him at his word and have a full day of skiing. He wanted to attend a ski clinic to be told what he was doing wrong. I didn't go out, I concentrated on packing and tidying up, hoping Paul's class wouldn't go on to long so we would be back in Breck to see the Mardi Gras Parade at 4.30. Unfortunately, everybody was enjoying the class so much that it didn't stop, and Paul wasn't back until nearly 4.30.

He hadn't ordered a taxi, and at first we couldn't get one. Copper has no taxi service, and the Breckenridge taxi said they were too busy. Eventually, I found a taxi service in Frisco, and they were able to pick us up about 6.30. So we were back in Breckenridge by 7. Fortunately, we had food for supper and breakfast, so we didn't need to make an immediate Supermarket trip.

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Copper Mountain and Frisco

Sunday 19th February

As my knees were a bit sore, I decided not to ski today. Paul went out very early in the morning and exhausted himself by about 2 pm. I copied my photographs from my camera to Paul's laptop, then I formatted my camera card so I would be able to make more photos. Then I caught a bus into Frisco, where I paid a visit to the Heritage Park, a collection of historic houses which have been transported to the area round the old Schoolhouse.



This is the schoolhouse from the back. The building was built as a Saloon in 1899. It was purchased by the school district and converted to become Frisco's second school. It operated as the school from 1901 to 1963. The bell tower and bell came from a school house in Breckenridge, and was added about 1909. It is now a Museum.

Inside is a wonderful diorama of the town and area around 1900.



There's a train going round the area as well. It's hard to photograph, as no flash is allowed. There are old school desks



as well as lots of relics of the original school.

There are examples of typical flora and fauna of the area.



There are some relics and photographs of the original inhabitants, the Ute tribe, and some relics of the miners from the mid 1800s.

Outside the schoolhouse, there are nine other historic houses, most full of furniture and artefacts. I was quite fascinated by the old Jail, built around 1880. This is one of the cells inside it.



There is a one room cabin that was built in the 1930s as a summer holiday cabin. It is set up so it is rather like our current condo, except that we have a bathroom. This is the kitchen area



The Wood's Cabin is the oldest building, dating from 1860



It has been a family home, a post office, a bank, a madam's house, a saloon and a general store.

There is a little one roomed Trapper's cabin, full of skins.



There are a couple of larger houses, one which is an example of a middle-class mining family home and was lived in by a Norwegian who started a ski jump. His 8 foot home made skis are still in the house. This was really the beginning of the ski business in the area.

There is a typical 1890s two storey home, constructed of hand-hewn logs and good quality furniture. Some of the walls still papered with old newspapers as insulation.

There is an old ranch house, the residence of a family who had a dairy farm. It has areas set up as a saloon, and is stuffed with old artefacts. One corner is even set up as a whore house.




There are other buildings, all of which I photographed, though many of them are dreadful photos. The street next to the Historic Park is also full of old buildings.



There's a lot more to see in Frisco, but I was quite tired after nearly 3 hours so I caught the bus back to Copper. I'll try to visit again on another occasion.
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Copper Mountain Day 3

Saturday 18th February

It was the most beautiful blue sky day today, and we set out earlier than usual; it was the start of a Bank Holiday weekend, so there were expected to be thousands of people arriving for the holiday. Also, a little snow had fallen overnight, and I hoped to get onto the new snow before it was all skied off. The resort had laid on extra buses, of a kind we had never seen before - the driver sat in a little truck in the front.



The lifts were certainly a bit crowded, and we had quite a wait at the first one. The one we took higher up the hill was a little less crowded. We went up to the area I had skied successfully on Thursday and took a run called Roundabout, which has steep parts, but only short ones. Because it was quite early, the slopes were not yet crowded,



though those who were there were of the type who fall over just in front of you. I had some good runs down, and the views were fabulous.


Later, I tried another run called West Ten Mile. That was less steep, but full of people, mostly beginners, and it was sometimes hard to avoid everybody. As it got later, it also got busier and further down the hill, Paul was wiped out by an out of control snow boarder. My legs and knees were tired, so we went home to lunch.

Paul went out again after lunch and skied the 'expert only' runs but was disappointed to find the most difficult runs were closed - they need another couple of feet of snow, apparently. He was able to walk across to the Super Bee lift just behind our condo, and he skied right back to our patio. This is a very good condo as far as he is concerned - it's only me who has to make use of the bus.

We took the bus along to Center Village to visit the small supermarket, as we had run out of milk and a few other things. There is a skating rink there which seems quite popular.



The main street was not so busy




Although it was only around 5 pm, many people were making their way to bars and restaurants.




People seem to eat very early here. We went out to eat last night with somebody Paul knows who had to drive over from Breckenridge and was delayed by the holiday traffic. We went to the restaurant at 8, and found it almost empty; we were the last in, and the last to leave, at 9pm.

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Copper Mountain Day 2

Friday 17th February

I haven't really had a very successful day today. We decided that the climb up the hill to the ski lift we took yesterday was really too much. This is about half of it.



So we were directed to further easy slopes by the recommendation of one of the instructors (who I am looking for to kick with my ski boots on) and we took a different lift, which was much easier to reach.




We went quite high up the mountain, and it all started out as a very easy run. I stopped to photograph the Terrain Park where the snow boarders practice their acrobatics




It's not easy to take the photographs, because they move so fast, so I didn't manage to capture any acrobatics.

Shortly after that, the slope became a lot steeper than I care for.



I had a lot of difficulty getting down it, and had to do a lot of side-slipping. It wasn't so much the steepness of the slope, it was the fact that it was steep for a considerable distance and I found that quite worrying. I can cope with short steep areas, but there seemed no end to this one. Paul has since discovered that there are easier ways down than the one the instructor recommended.

Anyway, it took me a very long time to get down the very long steep slope. After a couple of hours, my leg muscles and my knees had had enough, and I called it a day. I seemed to be very breathless as well, so perhaps my body is not reacting well to going so high up the hill. I'm not sure about tomorrow - it's President's Day weekend and there are likely to be thousands of people on the hill, making it somewhat hazardous.

This afternoon, the Tubing was opened outside our condo. There are four tracks which you slide down on an inflated tube.



You can see one person coming down in my photo, one solitary person dragging his tube back across the photo, and on the right you can see the procession of people walking back up the slope to have another go. There's a carpet or some such thing going up the slope for them to walk on, so they don't slip down backwards. You can probably see the man at the top of each track pushing them off. I could hear them screaming with joy and excitement when I opened the patio door to take the pictures.
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Copper Mountain Day 1

Thursday 16th February

Well, I have been proved correct. The lift that is near to our condo in Copper Mountain gives access to Black runs and a couple of challenging Blues, so is of no use to me! One of the difficult blues, which looks impossibly steep to me, is called 'Oh No'. Enough said! Paul was able to use the nearby chair lift this afternoon, so it should mean he doesn't have to catch a bus when he is out on his own. This will be a lot better for him, so no time is wasted waiting for a bus when he could be skiing.

Copper Mountain consists of three villages, East Village, Central Village and West village. The more difficult runs are on the East side of the mountain, and are easily accessed from the East Village, where we are staying. The easier runs are to the far west of the West Village, unfortunately. So poor Paul has the boredom of stumping 200 yards to the bus stop with me, waiting for the bus, having the longest ride, then having a long walk up a steep hill to the first lift. And if I were a better skier, it's about 100 yards to the lift near our condo. I'm afraid I'll never be a good skier though - I am far too frightened of steep slopes. So Paul is condemned to skiing slowly down the easy slopes when he's with me.

All the buildings in this resort are newish, since the resort only opened in 1972, so it makes quite a contrast to the historic part of Breckenridge, where we have been staying. This is the view I took while waiting at the bus stop.



You can see the kind of building there is - quite different from the area of Breckenridge where we have been staying.

We collected our lift tickets - there is a lift ticket office in the East Village - then took the bus to West Village, where we had the long climb to the first lift. The lift was the old type, with no foot rest for your skis, so your legs just have to dangle. The lift was also slow, which gave me opportunities for photographs on the way up. There are some very nice new apartments just adjacent to the lifts which really are ski in, ski out.



Actually, I am not at all sure whether these are apartments or millionaires houses. They seem in a very good position, just beside the long Green run, and a short distance above the lift.

I went down this slope a couple of times, before taking another lift which went higher up the mountain, so the slopes were a little steeper, but I managed without too many panics.



The slopes are wonderful when they are empty like this. But you might notice two tiny specks much higher up the slope. The chances are that these are beginners, possibly snow boarders, who will career straight down the slope totally out of control, windmilling their arms and shrieking and apparently irresistibly attracted to me - or anybody else on the slope having a nice breather at the side of the run.

The run is quite a long one - this was taken about two thirds of the way down.



You can just see the village below in the distance.

After some time on this slope, my knees were starting to complain so I judged it time to stop, and we skied right down to the foot of the hill and waited for the bus home. As we had made a rather late start, it was 2.20 by the time we got home for a very late lunch, then Paul went off to the nearby lift and had some time to enjoy himself without having to babysit me.

I couldn't resist taking another photo of the wonderful view from the windows of our condo.



This one is looking east from our windows, towards a newer area of the resort. The one I took last night from our patio was looking south towards the mountain and the Super Bee chair lift.

East Village on Dwellable

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Breckenridge to Copper Mountain

Wednesday 15th February

This morning we had our last cooked breakfast for a while. We are not likely to make ourselves egg and bacon, I'm afraid. We will miss the camaraderie round the table at the Inn - this is the breakfast table, where we sit and eat our eggs and bacon, and where we sometimes eat our supper, if the other table near the fridge and microwave is full.



We said goodbye to everybody - though we will be back again for a week and a half in early March. We will also miss Gapode the wonder dog!



The other dog, Angua, is harder to photograph, she won't stand still. I only have one photo of her, and she decided to shake herself just as I clicked the shutter, so the photo is all streaky. I'll try again when we go back.

Clearing the snow from around your property is quite a chore in Breckenridge, when there's this much of it. It soon becomes hard packed and icy, and you need a thing not unlike a hammer drill to break it up into chunks.



Then you need a big shovel to sweep it all together




and the little tractor with the snowplough on the front to push it all out to the kerb. You do this in time for street cleaning, then the big snowplough sweeps it up while clearing the pavements (sidewalks) and gutters and it is taken away in a big truck and dumped in meadows down the valley. The dredgers dredging the river for gold and silver in the 19th and 20th centuries left huge sterile areas, which are now used for dumping the town's snow. It all melts in the summer and it's already in the river valley, all ready to flow away.

I didn't ski today because my knees were too painful. Paul went out on his own once we were organised to leave, and had a good time, meeting some of the instructors and skiing with them. He couldn't stay long though, as he had to be back by 2.30 so a taxi could pick us up at 3 to go to Copper Mountain. We arrived at 4, and have a nice studio for 6 days.



It looks lovely because we have just arrived, no doubt we will make an awful mess of it by spreading stuff all over the place. Our breakfast table is neither so large nor so friendly as the one at the Inn



However, it would appear we can ski out of this apartment, and possibly even ski in again.




Knowing my luck, the chair lift you can see will take expert skiers up to impossibly steep slopes, and the slopes I feel I can ski are probably miles away. Paul says he will get maps tomorrow, and we will work out where to go. This photo is a bit gloomy looking because it was nearly 4.30 when I took it and it is getting dark.

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Breckenridge Day 21

Tuesday 14th February

Yes, I did get a Valentine card this morning at breakfast! It was a very amusing one, so I was slightly tempted to photograph it, but I haven't.

I went out to ski this morning, but not for very long. My knees were very sore after yesterday, and today has not improved them. I decided to stick to Peak 9 today, having not enjoyed Peak 8 the previous day, so we did one quick run down the long green slope and then caught the Beaver Run Chair higher up the mountain to the steeper slopes. I wasn't going to post any more pictures of chair lifts, one chair looking much like another, but couldn't resist this one of two almost intersecting lifts - it's a sort of spaghetti junction of chair lifts.




We skied down a blue run called Bonanza, which is quite long and steep in parts and really tried my leg muscles and my poor old knees.



It was a most beautiful morning and there is a wonderful view from high up the mountain. You may be able to see where I am going in the far distance. Paul was hoping I would find it easier than I did, I found the upper part quite steep, though the lower part was easier and I managed far better where it wasn't quite so steep. However, it was obvious my knees wouldn't manage another run down, so I did another three runs on the lower slopes and called it a day before my knees dropped off altogether. We were back to lunch just before 1, and Paul went off on his own in the afternoon to ski the more difficult slopes that I can't even contemplate.

The afternoon turned dull, so I didn't much mind not being on the slopes. At 3.30 I set off for the supermarket, and Paul arrived around 4.30 to help carry things back.

I took this picture while waiting at the bus station. The streets are cleared by snow plough once a week, and snow is taken away. Car parks are also ploughed, but here the snow has been piled up for a while, I don't know how long.



We leave Breckenridge tomorrow for Copper Mountain, where we have a condo for 6 days. There isn't a decent supermarket in Copper Mountain, so we shopped to make sure we take plenty of supplies. Paul has already packed his suitcase, but I still have to do mine. We need to check out at 10 am tomorrow, so the majority of the packing has to be done tonight.


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Breckenridge Day 20

Monday 13th February

It snowed all last night and continued all today, so there was lots of good new snow. I went out to ski, in spite of the fact it was snowing, because I hadn't been out yesterday. It wasn't particularly cold, about 20 degrees F. We started off by taking the bus and the Gondola to Peak 8, and going up to one of the steeper slopes that I did on Saturday. I had hoped to take some good pictures from the Gondola, because the countryside is beautiful, but the perspex viewing panels are too scratched so you can't take a decent photo.

We used a different chair lift up mountain the from last time, and I didn't like it at all. It was old and uncomfortable, and there was no footrest to put your skis on, they just have to dangle. The lift goes up past the Snow Board Park



There weren't a lot of people on it today; it was hard to photograph, because of all the trees, and when the lift got to an area where there were no trees, there was nobody on the slopes. Even if there had been several people, I don't believe I could have photographed them successfully, they move so fast!

I found the slope worryingly steep today, for some reason, and did not ski well.


The visibility wasn't great, and I found I was far too far back in my boots, which makes turns difficult, not to mention making you unstable. So I decided to go back to Peak 9 and practice on the slightly easier slopes so I could concentrate on steering with my toes and not my heels. Paul said I was skiing a lot better there, so I did quite a number of runs, choosing the steeper way, until my legs gave in and we had to come back to a rather late lunch around 2.

Paul intended to go out again in the afternoon on his own, but in the end decided he was too tired and went to bed for the afternoon. I think he really needs a rest day.

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Breckenridge Day 19

Sunday 12th February

I did not go skiing today. I decided to give my legs a rest, and I needed to go out and buy a boot bag and various other things. This gave Paul an opportunity to go out on his own and do more interesting skiing than he can do with me. He does the more difficult slopes.




This is the sort of slope I have no intention of descending!

I caught a bus to the village and went to the Outlet store, where they had a special on boot bags. I had a little wander round the shops; I rather liked this one.



Later, I had lunch in town before catching a bus back to the Inn.

At 3.30, I set off to walk down to the Supermarket, where three or four days meals weighed me down rather a lot - I am still very breathless. I walked to the bus station and caught a bus back, as I doubted my ability to climb the hill back to the Inn with a huge heavy backpack on my back and other bags in my hand. I even had to have a rest before climbing the stairs to our room.
Our room is up some stairs beyond the hot tub, and the stairs can get quite wet if people splash a lot. I have bought some slippers so my socks don't get wet - my current slipper socks are no good.


It is a very nice way of soaking your aching muscles, so it is quite popular in the late afternoon. The other popular part of the afternoon is tea and cake, which is provided at 4 pm when most people get back from skiing.



People chat over the cake, and there is usually more chat around the table at supper time. There were so many people eating in this evening that this table wasn't big enough, and the big breakfast table had to be used as well.

There have been one or two snow flurries during the day, and it snowed for longer up in the mountains, so there should be some fresh snow and I am hoping that my legs will have sufficiently recovered for me to ski tomorrow. We only have a few more days here, we go to Copper Mountain on the 15th, though we'll be back on 21st.

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