Breckenridge Days 49 & 50

Monday 19th and Tuesday 20th March
Finally catching up!

On Monday, we at last heard back from the insurance company, to say we definitely weren't covered for skiing! I can't quite understand how you can get winter sports insurance without cover for skiing - or, it turns out, snow-shoeing either. We presume there is some problem with their software, and that, in un-ticking the cover for ski equipment, that somehow de-selected the ski cover as well. Once we are back home and don't have to pay for expensive transatlantic calls, Paul intends to pursue this.

Paul had an overhaul of his ski clothes, throwing out some really old shirts, and did all his packing. Then we went out to look at replacement top layers, trying almost every ski clothing shop down Main Street. It was a lovely bright day, cool but not cold or windy, and a real pity not to be able to be up on the hill skiing. The snow wasn't lying in the town, though it probably was up on the slopes, in fact it seemed to be snowing again from time to time up there.

We had a long conversation with a man in one shop, who strongly recommended taking chlorophyll to cure AMS. I suspect, from much reading about this on the web, that this could be an old wive's tale, but I suppose I could try it. Ginko Biloba is also suggested on the Web. If I had seen these suggestions after I finished the Diamox, I would have tried both, but it's too late now, as we leave on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, I completed my packing, and we packed up our skis and other odds and ends in the ski box and weighed everything. Two years ago, we had left skis and boots and some clothes with our friends at the Inn, and we are now trying to fit everything in without going overweight. I've had to pay extra for the ski box, but as long as our suitcase weighing machine is accurate, we should be OK.

After lunch, we set off to see the Barney Ford House Museum which honours Barney Ford, an escaped slave who prospered and became a prominent entrepreneur and black civil rights leader in Colorado.



Barney Ford was born into slavery in in Virginia 1822, and was instilled with the importance of learning to read by his mother, who inspired his lifelong quest for education. After escaping via the Underground Railroad, Ford established various businesses in Chicago, the West and Nicaragua, eventually making his way to Colorado and Breckenridge.

In 1880, he became Breckenridge’s first black businessman when he opened Ford’s Restaurant and Chophouse. He had the house built in 1882 by a prominent local craftsman, and he lived there with his wife and 3 children.


It was quite a large house, because by then he was quite a wealthy man. It was comfortable inside, and the walls were lined with muslin and then wall-papered.



The house has been restored and furnished in the original Victorian style



One room has the original panelled doors from Ford's Chophouse




Because the Chophouse was nearby, the house had no kitchen! There is now a 19th century cooker



but the Museum shuts at 3, and it was after that, so I wasn't able to ask the staff member on duty why there was a cooker there now. Maybe they had one there to boil water.

There were other interesting buildings near the museum. This one was next door.



It is currently a gallery.

Opposite is a restored building, which was moved here from elsewhere.



Next, we went to make another attempt at photographing the Rotary Snow Plough, which was slightly more successful this time.



The giant fan blades blew the snow off the line. Sometimes, when the snow was deep, it would take up to six engines to push the snowplough.

Before we left, I couldn't resist another photo of the old 19th century Engine No. 9, this time from a different angle.



You can see there is still some snow about, though much of it has melted. If you saw the post of this engine on March 10th, you will probably notice how much snow has disappeared.

As the afternoon advanced, the wind became very cold indeed, and we were glad to catch the bus back. Tomorrow, it is supposed to be well above freezing again, and the weather forecast is that the sun and hot weather will be back later in the week.

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Breckenridge Days 47 & 48

Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th March
I see I have got behind again! This is largely because we haven't been skiing, so there is less to write about.
On Saturday we booked ourselves for another historic tour, with tea this time. It was a warm and sunny day and there was almost no snow in town. I got another photo of the horse and buggy

You can see there is no snow in the streets.
The tour began by being somewhat similar to my first one, but I did get some different, and charming details. Our guide took the character of Katie Briggle, a 'leading lady' in Breckenridge in 1910, so we learned some specifics about life in 1910. We viewed one shop which had been a boarding house in 1910, and were delighted to know that the landlady was very particular, so she insisted on no more than 5 to a bed!
We saw more of the old buildings. These two were originally a saloon (the one on the left) and a pharmacy (on the right).

We were recommend to the pharmacy for our laudenam and other opiate requirements! Of course, in 1910, people believed this stuff was a medicine and good for you.
After looking at a some of the historic buildings on Main Street and Ridge Street, we walked up the hill to the historic houses which we could go inside. The first one is called the Alice Milne house.

The first two rooms were built in 1880, and it was enlarged by 2 more rooms in 1886, but it is still very small.
Alice Milne had 4 children and her husband was a railway man, so they weren't wealthy. Part of the house is wallpapered with newspapers.

The expensive furniture and elaborate stove came from a different house. Every house in Breckenridge needed a stove, preferably in every room.
There was a cold cupboard in the kitchen, cut into the thickness of the wall.

There was only a screen dividing it from the outside, so it was considerably colder than the interior of the house.
The Briggle house next door was considerably larger because William Briggle was chief cashier at the Exchange Bank (the photo of which is in last Saturday's post). However, it was hard to photograph from outside on account of the large trees. The Briggles were leaders of society in Breckenridge. The house was built in 1896 as a one roomed cabin. The Briggles bought it in 1898 and immediately enlarged it by six rooms downstairs and three rooms upstairs. It has been restored to its original Victorian style.

There is some wonderful Victorian furniture, like these button backed chairs. Below is the morning room

Please notice the wonderful old telephone on the wall. The old sewing machine is there because dresses were made here, usually by a seamstress rather than by Katie Briggle herself.
Through the door, you can see a trunk which is in the dressing room, just outside the bedroom.
This is the main bedroom

Note the stove for warmth. Through the door is the dressing room, which had closets full of period dresses and boots.

The kitchen was very interesting, with a wonderful old cooker and a huge cold pantry.

This is part of the original kitchen with the cold pantry beyond.
After we had explored the house thoroughly, we sat in the dining room to have tea, with cakes and scones, which were delicious.
On Sunday, it started to snow again! We still couldn't ski, as we weren't sure whether we were insured to ski, not having heard back from the insurance company. We stayed indoors keeping warm, reading and using the computer. In the evening, our friends at the Inn had invited us to dinner. This time I managed a better photo of the other dog, Angua.

We had a very pleasant evening, playing silly games and chatting after dinner until it was quite late. The pavements were covered with snow again when we walked home.
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Breckenridge Days 42 - 46

Tuesday 13th - Friday 16th March

Good grief, it's days since I've written anything!
This is largely because I had nothing to say, having not skied at all this week. It has been really warm, the snow is all melting, and the slopes are not nice to ski on. The slopes I can tackle are hard and crusty if they are high, and slushy lower down. I decided that I wouldn't ski unless some more snow were to fall.

Paul skied here on Tuesday, where the snow was not nice, and in Copper on Wednesday, where it was a bit better. We did think of both going to Copper on Thursday, but ended up not doing it, which in retrospect is just as well - of which, more later.

One of the things I have done this week is trawled through Paul's camera to see if he got any shots I missed, and found a few.

Paul managed a much better photo of the Terrain Park than I did, and this is it.



Even on a small screen, you should be able to see the number of rails there are, and he has even managed to capture one person in a jump. The Terrain Parks are popular with snow boarders, but also with some skiers.

On a day when I wasn't with him, Paul also managed to get a closer photo of the half pipe.



There don't seem to be many people actually using it, so I don't know if this was because the conditions weren't good, or if he just chose a time when it wasn't busy.

He also managed a better photo of the Gondola than I did



This was taken from inside one of the little cars, so it isn't a good photo because of all the scratches on the windows. But it does give you a good impression of what it's like. This was taken at one of the intermediate stations, so you can see that the doors on the car on the side facing away from us are open. It isn't all that easy, clambering into a moving gondola car, wearing heavy boots and carrying your skis and poles!

Every day this week we have woken up hoping for some more snow, and every day, it has been hotter. Most of the snow on the roads and pavements in town has melted, apart from any that was piled up really high. Every time you go out, the gutters are running with water from the high piles of snow that are melting and there are puddles and mud everywhere. Apparently, today it has been 75 degrees F in Denver (24 degrees C), and it has felt as if it is not much less up here. We discovered when we went out today that no coat was needed and even a long sleeved shirt was too warm. It is predicted that the temperature in Denver for Saturday will be at least 78 degrees F (25.5 C) and east of Denver, it will be 80 degrees F. There have even been a couple of wildfires near Denver. This is very odd weather.

We ended up not going to Copper to ski on Thursday because Paul spent Thursday morning getting the final paperwork emailed so we could claim my medical costs back from the insurers. Later that day, the insurers called him back to say they would not pay because we had no ski insurance! Paul nearly had a fit!

To cut a long story short, after a lot of shouting they have now agreed to pay my medical costs, since the bronchitis, sinusitis and acute mountain sickness all happened before I put a foot on a ski. However, they still maintain we have no ski insurance.

This seems very peculiar. Paul completed forms on-line defining what he required of the ski insurance, and quite how you can fill in forms about the sort of ski insurance you require and end up without any is beyond me. Moreover, it was certainly expensive enough for ski insurance; he paid about double for two months in the US than he paid for four and a half months travelling round the world. It all seems very peculiar. He has requested a contact at the insurance company with whom he can discuss this, but so far nobody has contacted us.

So this means neither of us can ski until it has been cleared up. We can neither of us risk skiing with no insurance.The snow is awful at present anyway, so this hardly matters. But the weather is set to change at the weekend, with snow perhaps coming on Sunday, and we would like a definitive answer. We are leaving here on Wednesday at noon, so there isn't much time for skiing anyway, but we would like to ski for a couple of days next week if there is any more snow.

There have been a lot of reports in the UK press recently about how hard it is for the over 60s to get travel insurance, and this has certainly been our experience. I think I said in a much earlier post that most insurance companies seem to feel that, once you are over 65, you should sit quietly at home and watch TV.

Tomorrow, we will probably go on another historic tour of Breckenridge, as we can't ski. Goodness knows if we will hear anything from the insurance company.

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Breckenridge Day 41

Monday 12th March
We needed to pack and be out of our room by 10 this morning, and check-in time for the condo is 3 in the afternoon, so our baggage was stored in the barn. Having not had a very good day yesterday - I felt my skiing got worse rather than better - I decided to give today a miss. I was also expecting somebody to deliver our ski box, and somebody else to take away my oxygen concentrator, so I though it might be a good idea if I stayed behind in the Inn to see if either of these people arrived.

We will miss staying in the Inn, there is always somebody to chat to and everybody is very friendly. Paul finds lots of people to ski with, and makes lots of new friends. Also the bed is very wide and very comfy! This is a picture of the Inn from the side, in Wellington Road.



The chimney to the left of the big pine tree is for the fireplace in the lounge. We often sit there round the fire, there are always people chatting and lots of bookcases full of books to read, if you get tired of talking. There are board games too - Pictionary has been popular this morning with a family who are here, and another family played cards this afternoon. Our current room is above the lounge, so the first floor windows on either side of the chimney are those of our room. The room we stayed in last time, the one near the hot tub, is at the very back of the building.

The ski box arrived at lunch time, swiftly followed by the man to collect the oxygen concentrator, after which I though I could go out for a walk and take some more pictures. While I was on the historic walk on Saturday, I learned a bit about some of the historic churches. There are apparently 3 historic churches in Breckenridge. This one, the Methodist church, is often called the Father Dyer Church. It is opposite the Inn, so I didn't have far to go!


Father Dyer was known as the "Snowshoe Itinerant Preacher," because he spent his winters on his twelve-foot-long wooden skis (probably home made ones!) traveling between mining camps to preach. He began his ministry in 1862, and walked and skied his way through the mountains, visiting the different mining camps. Carrying heavy canvas sacks of mail over the snow-packed mountain passes, he earned enough money to build this, Breckenridge’s first church, in 1879 or 1880 (sources differ as to the date). It is now located on Wellington Road, though it was moved there from its original position on French Street when the foundations were found to have rotted. (Most original buildings had no foundations at all, so they are easy to move.)

Just a block away, on French Street, is the Episcopalian church.


This is another early church, originally built as a Congregationalist church in 1881, on a different site in French Street. It was bough by the Episcopalians in 1891, extended and moved to its current site.

On the other side of the road is the third early church, St Mary's Catholic Church. I couldn't take a photo of it because the sun was in the wrong place, and I can't find out its history because the web site has a section called 'History' which doesn't open!

It was a beautiful day, so it was good to be outside in the fresh air, even if I wasn't skiing. I had a good walk before it was time to go back to the Inn around 3.45 to wait for Paul, who returned about 4. He was rather tired, having skied hard on the slopes for experts. He said there was a lot of snow high up, and not many people.

I am indebted to him for these pictures. I am not quite sure how anybody could ski down this slope without hitting a tree.


There was certainly a lot of snow, and in the picture below, you can possibly see how difficult this trail was, being narrow and full of bumps.


I don't imagine I will ever be able to ski anything like this! Although there is clearly lots of nice snow this high up, Paul said that the blue runs were crusty and icy and the green ones were slush, so it is just as well I didn't go out. I don't think I am likely to ski again until there is some more snow, so I am hoping for some soon - we leave in not much more than a week.

We collected all our belongings - far too many - and our friend was kind enough to drive all our baggage down to the Val d'Isere building, saving multiple trips. We chatted with some of the downstairs neighbours and their dog as we dragged suitcases and skis upstairs and went down to the laundry room with all our dirty washing. The dog was very amiable and friendly, but not as pretty as the fox we have been used to seeing round the Inn in the evenings.


We are now installed in the same condo as before - for the third time. It is very comfortable, and so far the clog dancers upstairs and their noisy dog have not disturbed us. It's nice to have so much space, but we will miss the camaraderie and friendliness of the Inn - not to mention the lovely cooked breakfasts!
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Breckenridge Day 40

Sunday 11th March
With it being Spring Break here, the Inn is absolutely full at present, so breakfast was quite crowded.


This was partly because the US clocks have gone forward onto Summer Time. So breakfast was moved from 8 o'clock to 8.30 for one morning only, so as to prevent very severe shocks people's systems. For some reason, everybody arrived together, so it was very busy for a while.

We didn't go out too early, because we though the slopes might still be very icy, but I still found them icy even at 11 am. The weather is very warm and sunny, and it melts the snow, which freezes overnight. Also the slopes are very crowded, which removes any loose powder and leaves you skiing on a hard crust into which I find it difficult to get my edges. I spent a lot of time skidding around on the hard crust and cursing.

Because there are so many people here for Spring Break, the queues were bad at the lifts - this was Beaver Run lift around 11.30.



Because of the crowds, there are frequent stops on the lift for people to fall getting off, or even to fall getting on. Our first lift stopped half a dozen times, and a woman fell off when trying to dismount from the chair in front of us. Usually, nobody is hurt in a fall of this type, it just stops the lift while the lift personnel run about picking people up. You have to remember to lie down if you are close to the chair when you fall, otherwise the chair hits you. This is a group of 4 people getting off the Quicksilver lift after me. It is a bit more crowded if the group is 6, as there is more opportunity for skis and sticks and boards to get muddled.



One of the lift men is standing by the central pillar, as the woman who fell off the chair in front of us, fell beside the pillar and had to lie back before the chair hit her as it went round.

We went higher up the hill, where the snow was slightly better and the slopes slightly less crowded. However, with it being a Sunday, there were plenty of people about.


As this slope is favoured by those who, like me, are not very good, it is often full of people trying to find the courage to move, those skiing out of control in wide snow ploughs (like the man near the trees on the right, who is doing the splits) and quite a few children. The child in the middle of the slope has fallen over and is refusing to get up, in spite of her mother's exhortations. I skied round her in the end.

I usually like this run, and the snow was good on the top part. But further down, a lot of runs merge as you approach Ten Mile Station.



You can probably see that five or six runs merge here to quite a narrow track leading towards the top of the lift, and that part of the track was quite icy, and full of people travelling quite fast.

We lunched at Ten Mile Station, which was busy, and skied a bit more, but the snow was gradually turning to slush in places so I decided I had had enough around 3 and we went back to the Inn. We needed to pack, because this was our last day there - they are full. We go back to the condo tomorrow.

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Breckenridge Day 39

Saturday 10th March
Today Paul got up at some ungodly hour and missed breakfast so he could go to Copper Mountain where he wanted to attend a ski clinic. I arose at the usual hour and ate breakfast! I thought it would be a good idea to rest my knee today.
Later in the morning I went out to take some photographs round the town. There is an old railway engine near the Ice Rink which I really wanted to photograph. The railway arrived in Breckenridge in 1882. South Park & Pacific Railroad Company laid narrow gauge railway tracks over what is now Boreas Pass Road. Narrow gauge is apparently cheaper to build and easier if the route twists and turns. The town relied on the railway, but with the decline in mining, the railway was not profitable and closed in 1937. Today you can view the original narrow gauge railway cars, including a rotary snowplow, an engine, a coal tender and two boxcars. This is the rotary snow plough from the back - I have no idea why I didn't take a decent photo from the front of it, I'll have to try again some other time.



The rotary plough is a circular arrangement which you may be able to see sticking out sideways at the front of the rail car. It was like a big circular fan - it had, at times, to cut a way through many feet of snow.
Engine No. 9 below is apparently a good example of a late 19th century steam engine, built in 1884 and in use until 1937.

You can see it has a wedge shaped snow plough on the front. It also has a special smokestack, installed in 1917, to catch sparks and cinders and prevent fires along the track.
At the nearby Ice Rink, there is an interesting sculpture.

The snow was several feet deep around it, so I failed to get near enough to read the plaque and see what it represents.
I took the bus into town and looked at shops before having lunch. Then I went to the Welcome Centre which is also a museum. I need to go back there, there's a lot more to see. However, I had a walking tour of some of the historic buildings, which was fascinating. There are quite a number of buildings dating from the 1880s and 1890s, some on Main Street and others up the hill behind it. This is one of the oldest, dating from 1880, on Main Street.

Main Street was so busy, with it's being Spring Break and warm weather, it was almost impossible to take photographs because there were so many people and so much traffic. I did find a quieter spell to photograph this old building.

You can see it's the 'Gold Pan Bar'. Apparently, I need to look inside too, it has many original features, but there wasn't time today.
We walked up the hill to Ridge Road, where there were also interesting old buildings. This was one of the original banks; it was called the Exchange Bank.

The lady outside is the tour guide, who leads the walk.
Nearby was a building that was originally an assay office, where the miners took the gold they found.

This is the office where the biggest nugget ever found in the area, Tom's Baby, weighing 13.5 lbs, was taken to be assayed in 1887. The building was recently a restaurant, but is currently for sale.
Further along the road is the house that belonged to one of the foremost citizens of Breckenridge around 1900.

It's the big blue one you can see on the corner. It has had the windows changed, and a strange circular verandah built on the left, but is otherwise substantially the same. When this solid citizen's son grew up, he ordered him a house in kit form from the Sears Roebuck catalogue. It's the little yellow one on the left of my picture. It isn't very beautiful, but I just loved the idea of ordering a house kit from a catalogue. I wonder if you can order one on the Internet today? I know you can buy a house in kit form today - I watched it on 'Grand Designs' but I think the buyers on the programme went to Germany to see what they were getting, they didn't buy it from a catalogue.
The walk lasted from 2.30 to 4, and then I walked back to the Inn for tea, being quite tired.
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Breckenridge Day 38

Friday 9th March

I had intended to have another lesson on Friday, but we didn't manage to get out in time, so I was too late. Instead, we went to Peak 9 where the 'A' Chair was running again, so I was able to get higher up the mountain.



This is the rather steeper bit at the top, just after you get off the lift. The runs weren't busy at first, though it got much busier later. This is Spring Break here; the slopes are likely to be very crowded, and many of the people have not skied much before. Further down the slope, I was skiing quietly along a narrow trail with trees on one side and a fence on the other, practicing my parallel turns. Then there was a swishing sound, and I found a beginner on either side of me, both in a wide snow plough, and neither able to turn, just going straight down. They were so close to me, there was no room for me to turn, so I had no option but to put my skis together and go far faster than I wanted down the slope, just to get away from them.

At lunch time, Ten Mile Station was very busy indeed, and people were sitting in chairs on the snow enjoying the sun, as it was really very warm indeed.




I didn't stay out too long during the afternoon, as it got more crowded and hotter, and my left knee was starting to ache again.

The snow is melting everywhere, so though everybody enjoys the wonderful weather, it would be nice to have some more snow - preferably overnight!

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Breckenridge Days 36 & 37

Wednesday 7th and Thursday 8th March
On Wednesday we went out with a Chinese girl who had been staying in the Inn and trying to learn to ski. It was a beautiful day, and we went up to Peak 8, where she had never been before. She wanted to find somewhere steeper than the beginners slopes on Peak 9. We took a slow chairlift up to a green slope, but she felt it was a bit steep for her; we went down to a beginner's slope where she was able to practise and we were able to ski the steeper slopes.



We are about to ski down to the left of this picture. The beginners' slope is straight ahead. The snow was very nice and I was able to ski quite well and quite fast. We returned to this point several times to check on our Chinese friend, and on one occasion persuaded a man who had brought his wife, a woman who had never had a pair of skis on in her life, to try the beginners' slope as well. The slope on the left was far too steep for a complete beginner. It is amazing that people think they can put on a pair of skis and just do it. I suppose there are a small minority of people who find it easy to learn - naturally athletic people who have strong sporting ability, good balance and no fear - but most of us have to start on beginners' slopes and take some lessons.

We came down when our Chinese friend got tired, and as it was still early, we changed our huge heavy boots and our helmets for walking boots and wooly hats and went down to the supermarket again. As it was early in the day, we were able to get the 5 pm bus back.

On Thursday, I had another lesson - on Peak 8 this time. Paul says I need to move in to Level 5 lessons, but I really do prefer to be on the easier slopes. He felt I didn't get any teaching in the lesson, because I am already skiing mostly parallel, and the rest of the class weren't. But I am reluctant to be on much steeper slopes. There was another woman in the class who was 80. She too could ski better than the rest, but didn't want to be on the steeper slopes in case of accidents.

On the way to the lesson, I took pictures of the terrain park.


This is the best picture of the humps people use for jumping. My camera just wasn't fast enough to catch them jumping, though there were quite a few, both on skis and on boards. Some just jump, while other jump and twist or somersault when in the air. The terrain park has other features too.



This shows a rail that people can jump up and ski along. In another part, there's a flight of stairs with railings. The park was quite busy, with it's being such a lovely day.

I also took some pictures of the much higher slopes where Paul likes to ski.

That triangular peak at the centre of my picture is where he likes to go. The slope at the bottom of the picture is where I prefer!

Once my left knee had started to protest about the wear and tear, I knew it was time to stop. I managed to get some pictures of the Terrain Park and the Half Pipe on the way down in the Gondola, though they aren't good pictures because of the reflections.

This one shows the two Terrain Parks and you can just see the Half Pipe in the background, between the trees.
This is a clearer picture of the Half Pipe.

Again, you can see all the reflections, and this is taken from more than a mile away, with a lot of digital zoom, so it isn't all that clear. One day when I'm not skiing, I need to see if I can get up the hill to the Half Pipe and take some better pictures.

Paul was able to spend the last part of the afternoon skiing on his own, and had a much better time than following my class.
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