The roads through western Kansas were a solid sheet of ice. We saw 18 different vehicles in the ditch along our way, including an 18-wheeler. The ice was also coating the power lines, and we were guessing that the residents in this part of Kansas were without electricity.
Our scheduled 8-hour trip turned into ten hours since we averaged 30-miles per hour for a couple hours. But the long drive was worth it when we made it to the snow-covered mountains west of Denver.
We are spending the next four days with eleven of our favorite people. We're sharing a condo with our daughter-in-law's family. After spending many holidays and vacations with them, we consider these in-laws as family!
We are staying at a ski-in-ski-out condo at the foot of Copper Mountain, where a good snow base has all the runs open. We can see some of the runs from our balcony.
The first day of our trip, we tried to get acclimated to the 9,712 feet elevation where we were staying at the base of Copper Mountain. Whew! The air is thin at this altitude, and makes walking among the snow trails breathless in more than one way.
Free shuttles connect the East Copper Mountain Village to the Central and West Villages. Those of us that didn't ski the first day took the shuttle to Central Village to check out the wide assortment of shops and restaurants
That group would include both our sons and their wives, and our granddaughter, Carter. We had good quality family time!
Little Carter was quite a trooper with the cold weather and high altitude. She was snug as a bug in her snow suit. She had plenty of people waiting in line to hold her.
The evenings brought time at the lodge at East Village, just a short walk from our condo. We accidentally discovered the live music here on our first evening. We had plenty of restaurant options, but our son had organized us with a different group cooking every morning and evening. We enjoyed two home-cooked healthy meals each day at a fraction of the price compared to the resort restaurants.
Our second day started with blue skies and little wind, and we were on the slopes. Even though we were hardy skiers in our younger days, we now find that a single day is perfect for satisfying our skiing appetite. When we priced the ski lift tickets, we were convinced that a single day was all we could afford.
The picture above shows two in our group riding on that expensive chair lift. Unlike other ski resorts we have visited, Copper Mountain's lift prices increase the longer you wait to purchase them. We couldn't believe that a single day's lift ticket could cost $127! But when we checked a couple days later, they had gone up to an outrageous $154! If you wait to purchase on the day you ski, it will cost $189 for that single day during this busy time of the year!
We still love snow skiing, but it feels like retired people like us have been priced out of the market. Remember, we still had to pay for rentals of ski equipment on top of that! We hate to complain, but two of the central lifts were closed that day, making the other lift lines on the mountain really long. Seems like we should have gotten a refund because we spent more time in line than we did skiing. The runs don't look crowded because everyone is at the bottom of the mountain, waiting in the lift lines.
It's a good thing we were skiing with people we love! A kind stranger offered to take a picture of our group that was skiing together that day. Notice that we were bundled up, because the morning started out with temperatures in the single digits. Brrrrrrr!
In the afternoon, the sunny skies were gone, and it started to snow. By this time, most of our group had headed back to the condo, but Denisa and Mark were trying to wear themselves out and get as much value as possible out of that expensive lift ticket.
The good news is that we got some great mountain views, and lots of good exercise. The top of Copper Mountain is around 12,000 feet in elevation, so we weren't getting much oxygen to support this amount of exertion. We were tired by the end of the day, and glad that someone else was cooking supper!
Our last day was spent hunkered down in the condo, resting our sore muscles and enjoying time with our granddaughter. We were snuggly warm while most of the group returned to the frigid mountain top for another day of skiing.
While they worked on s-curves in the snow, Carter worked on her 4-point stance. She got lots of crawling lessons, and we were sure that she would take off on her own any day. But she still seems to prefer that we carry her.
Our youngest son and his wife helped us with baby-sitting duties that last day. Uncle Blake fed his first baby bottle that day--an accomplishment worthy of a photo.
They also did a little light reading, including a riveting tale about a rainbow fish.
Every evening when Carter went to sleep around 7:00, the rest of the group started game time in earnest. We had great evenings filled with strategy board games and playing cards, accented with delicious home-made meals and snacks to bolster our energy. We loved our time together in Colorado!
Wow! So cute :)
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