Spring Break Ski Trip

We spent Spring Break skiing Copper Mountain with Travis and his two sons. Despite some minor injuries, we had a great time. Read on for my summary, journal-style. Also, in case my account is too long and boring to get through, I’ll point out that there’s a pretty cool 90-second video at the end of the post.

Spring Break Skiing: Taos

We drove to Taos for skiing last week and had a great time. Here are some photo highlights:

These and more pictures can be seen on my album page. I’ve also got a couple of videos, but I’ll save those for tomorrow.

Looking Forward to…

(in chronological order):

• arrival of Aperture 3.0 that I ordered
• Spring Break Skiing in Taos
• obtaining an iPad

That’s all for the near term.

Snow Bird 3

As I previously mentioned, we took Tuesday off from skiing. However, due to Marci’s injury we decided to cancel the snowmobiling. Instead, we pretty much just sat around all day. Sometimes it’s good to get some actual relaxation during your vacation. 🙂

Today, the weather wasn’t as nice as the previous ski days, so I decided to let the girls hang out in the morning while I went on a few runs by myself. It was cold, very windy, and quite icy (it got a bit too warm on Tuesday). I explored the mountain to try to find some runs that the girls would enjoy. They joined me after about 90 minutes and we skied for a couple of hours. McKenzie in particular was very cold and wanted to stop. At first, I had planned to drop her off with Marci while Brittney and I continued skiing, but then I decided we should take a lunch brake. The sun had started to peak out of the clouds and so the girls both decided that wanted to ski some more after lunch.

Meanwhile, Marci treated herself to some time in the spa. Among other things, this meant that she would not have been available for me to drop of McKenzie anyway. By the time we were done with lunch it had started to snow. Marci was back by then and we decided that I would go ski alone some more and the girls would wait until night skiing (not available every night, but Wednesdays is one of the nights). I did several fairly vigorous runs — lots of moguls, some of which were icy making them that much more work.

When I got back to the room I was fairly tired and we found out that “night” skiing started at 5:30 (while the sun was still up due in part to the early start of Daylight Saving Time). I wanted to rest a bit more so Marci took the girls down at 5:30 and then I met them at about 6:30 for some dinner before joining them for some actual night skiing until 8:30. The only active lift for night skiing was the one right by our hotel which I would say only ran about 200-300 yards. Pretty small ski area, but it made it easier to let the kids go off on their own.

All-in-all, it was a busy ski day for me with a lot of enjoyable runs. The cold didn’t bother me too much — the wind was much worse but still worth the trouble. We are hopeful of getting some snow tonight but I think tomorrow will be another cold day. We shall see.

Snow Bird 2

Today was another beautiful day for skiing, if perhaps a little too warm toward the end of the day. The day started with Brittney dropping one of her poles from the first (and longest) lift. We were planning to ski over to another area of the mountain, so coming back for her pole was certainly going to be an inconvenience. Additionally, it was right in the middle of a fairly difficult black run. New plan — Marci and the girls went ahead and skied over to the other area while I skied down to get the pole and then rode the lift back up to ski over and join them. This went off without further difficulty.

On our last run of the day, Marci had to perform a quick stop to avoid an oncoming snow-boarder (coming down the run while she was going side-to-side across it). Somehow during this maneuver she apparently fell backward and hurt her knee. At first, she thought she would rest it for a while and try to ski down. However, she found that any attempt to get her boot back into her binding proved too difficult. She eventually got a ride to the bottom of the mountain from the ski patrol and they then took her to the on-site clinic. The girls and I had our own little adventure while this was unfolding which included me carrying McKenzie’s skis, poles and eventually McKenzie herself down the a black run she was simply done with. We caught up with Marci just as the ski patrol got her to the bottom and then we met her again in the clinic.

They took some X-rays (which I considered uploading, but I see nothing interesting in them so I’m skipping it) and found that she has a torn ACL and a sprained LCL. She’ll be in a brace for at least a week. No more skiing, obviously, but she’s not really too bummed about that. She is disappointed that she won’t be able to do the snow-mobile ride we have booked for tomorrow. I may end up doing it twice so that each girl gets an opportunity to ride. All-in-all I get the impression that her injury isn’t too serious — she’s not on crutches and may only need the brace for a week. She did mention a concern that she has a business trip in two weeks to a location that is on the 3rd floor of a building with no elevator (in Germany). Not sure exactly how that will end up working out….

Snow Bird

Our Spring Break trip this year is a ski trip to Snow Bird, Utah. Just the four of us this time and we flew for once. We’re staying for the whole week and skiing for four days. We flew in late Friday night and then spent Saturday sleeping in, renting skis, exploring and swimming. It was snowing pretty much all day but the forecast for Sunday and Monday is clear.

We spent today (Sunday) skiing in sunny weather though we cut the day a bit short because Brittney tweaked her knee a bit and was having trouble skiing on it. It doesn’t look swollen or anything so I think it will probably be fine for tomorrow. This is a much bigger mountain than we’ve been on in quite a while with a large variety of runs. One of the girls’ favorite features is that there is a ski tunnel through the mountain. It’s about 200 yards long and you just ski onto a moving belt and it carries you to the other end. There’s music playing and a few monitors along the way.

On Tuesday we are taking a day off from skiing and we have booked a two-hour snowmobile ride and we may try some night skiing that evening. This place is really nice and though they are fully booked the mountain is not very crowded. It may be because there are some conferences going on, so perhaps the number of skiers is less than it might otherwise be. I could definitely see coming back her again, though probably not next year — it’s a bit pricey for us to do every year I think. Of course, that’s partly because we’re staying the whole week….

End of the Year Skiing

After weeks (maybe months) of trying to plan a post-Christmas trip, we made a last minute decision to drive to Ruidoso, NM, for some skiing. Along with my parents and my brother and his family, we drove up on the day after Christmas and will be driving home on New Year’s Eve.

All of us went up the mountain the day after we arrived with all but my parents and my 2-year-old niece skiing. It was the first time skiing for my sister-in-law and her 4-year-old son and the first time in over a decade for my brother. Only the bottom portion of the mountain was open and it was pretty cold, but it was nice to get in some skiing.

My brother joined my family for more skiing the next day. The sun came out and the skiing was nice if a bit icy. The lift lines, however, got longer and longer as the day went on. We got tired of waiting before we got tired of skiing, so we left early. Still, it was a pretty good day of skiing and a very nice trip — good to spend time with the family.