Skiing 2008

Another year, another great vacation in the mountains.
This year started off with an unexpected passenger, Phoenix the Dog. She is being transported to her new mommy in California. She went across the state with Rachel and I, the first leg of her trek.
Once we got to KC, we stayed overnight at George and Julies. Saturday morning, we all piled into the truck and headed to Colorado. I drove the the whole way out, while George and Julie kept Phoenix company in the back seat.
Upon reaching Denver, we dropped Phoenix off with the next person. For the entire time we had her, she was great. Fun and happy when out of the vehicle, and very calm in it.
The drive from Denver to Silverthone was fun because it was snowing. Slow going got us there.
We had planned eat at our favorite pizza place, but it was no more, so after driving around for a while, we gave up and went to "Old Chicago".

For our first day, Sunday, we went to Loveland. We started off on a the bunny slope to get our ski legs back. After a couple quick runs we were off to slopes. There was a lot of new snow. Ah the powder, well actually, the powder kinda sucked, as none of us had really skied on powder, so we (I mean George and I), had some difficulties. (Some may say maybe it was the skier that sucked rather than the powder, but I beg to differ ;) Once we where back on groomed, or pre-skied snow, we where doing great. George had some issues with his boots, so that evening we went and replaced them.

With new boots in hand, George was skiing up a storm on Monday. After making breakfast at the condo, we went to Copper Mountain.

Rachel had to sit today out do to migraines. She just can't catch a break. She stayed at the ski lodge and we swung by several times to check on her.










The snow is flying on our drive.



This was a good day of skiing. This year I brought my hand held GPS and had it attached to my right forearm so I was able to create track logs for all of our runs. Also, I was able to tell how fast we were going. It was amazing that when it felt like I was barely moving, I was cruising at 7-10mph, and when I really opened it up, I was normally doing about 25mph. Only once did George and I hit 30mph.


For Tuesday, we made breakfast again, and then headed back to Copper. It was another beautiful day for skiing. Helped Rachel get the hang of cutting. As the day went on, she managed to earn her nickname 'Speed Demon'. She managed to get herself pointed straight down the mountain. Once George and I noticed she wasn't slowing down, we bolted after her. According to the GPS, she was screaming along at 25mph. Luckily, she finally just sat down and came to a stop without injury.

Julie, Rachel and George resting between runs

During all of our escapades over the three days, Julie managed to stay upright the entire time. She gets the 'No Falls' award for the year.






The drive home Wednesday was uneventful, but long. About 11 hours back to Kansas City, then another 3 back to St. Louis. In Kansas, there is a big wind farm outside of Salina. That was a beautiful sight to see. Which reminds me, that on all the Copper Mountain Ski lifts there was a sign stating that all of the lifts are powered by wind farms.