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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