As much as we love the mountains of Colorado, we've *only* hiked and backpacked them. The only skiing Sarah and I have done has been in Arizona, either at Snowbowl, in the San Francisco peaks north of Flagstaff, or Sunrise, in the White Mountains of the Apache rez. Though they are pretty good slopes, the season for them is usually only around 4 months, and sometimes they can get pretty icy.
It was a rare holiday season for me, as I didn't have to work Thanksgiving or Christmas. Sarah hatched the idea of us surprising her parents by showing up on their doorstep in Colorado Springs the week of Christmas, and I went along with it.
We of course couldn't go up there solely to surprise Betty and Sheldon, we had to get some Colorado skiing in as well!
Based on price and reviews we decided to start with Arapahoe Basin, about 150 miles west of Denver just across the Continental Divide. A-Basin is in the same general vicinity as Breckenridge, Winter Park, Loveland, and Keystone ski resorts, but is considered the "local's" ski resort--the rest are for coasties to deposit their money into Colorado coffers.
The weather that Monday was bitterly cold--highs in the teens and windy. We even hit some snow in the early morning hours on I-70. I learned two things on that trip out: 1. Colorado DOT likes to put some serious schmutz on the road to keep it from freezing. 2. This schmutz (something chloride) sticks to every inch of your car like paste, including the windshield, and 3. Make sure whoever services your car doesn't take shortcuts like putting cheap washer fluid in the reservoir. Right as my windshield became coated in heavy interstate traffic I learned the washer fluid sprayers were frozen up because the assholes at Firestone had put some lame mild alcohol/water mixture in the reservoir.
Anyway, by reaching out my window with a water bottle while driving down mountain roads, I was able to keep the windshield clear. We made it to A-Basin in a bit more than the 2.5 hours Google promised. Time to hit the slopes. Donning every layer we had outside the car, we buckled on rented skis and headed up the lifts.
Look cold? It was...
Pretty great views from the slopes. Turns out Colorado mountains are just as pretty in the winter!
Like a boss...
The overcast skies made seeing bumps in the snow a bit tricky.
I risked winding up with ski poles stuck in orifices by skiing and photographing Sarah at the same time. Probably not the brightest thing to do, but hey, I did get some great action shots of Sarah! As we shall see, I can pull this off skiing but not snowboarding.
Yay! I'm cold!
Sarah handles a steep blue...
All smiles!
We reversed roles and Sarah took some photos. In my head I looked cooler than the photos turned out.
Look out Bode Miller!
It was so cold every inch of skin had to be covered or it started to loose feeling in a hurry. Fortunately, our lift ticket price included a bloody mary made with bacon-flavored vodka. What a country! (said in Yakoff Smirnoff accent)
After Christmas, the weather warmed up, and we decided to hit Monarch Mountain, in central Colorado between Gunnison and Salida. We also decided to try snowboarding, since we had obviously become experts in skiing. I recalled my only previous attempt at snowboarding (in upstate NY my freshman year of college), in which I decided I didn't need a lesson. After falling off the lift, then falling about 2 dozen more times, I finally got moving, then realized I couldn't stop. I literally ran into the side of the ski patrol building at the bottom, then went inside and nursed several scrapes and other injuries. So we started with a lesson, taught by a friendly ski bum with dirty white-guy dreads. We also wisely accepted the helmets they offered us with our rentals.
On the bunny slope lift. Much warmer!
After the lesson, we moved on to some green slopes. Getting off the lift was much harder than with skis, and resulted in some bruising. But we got going and managed to get a few shots of one another carving it up.
Whoa! Trees!
I mentioned before that I had skied alongside Sarah taking pictures at A-Basin. I outdrove my headlights a bit and tried to do the same on a snowboard, and promptly wiped out, almost losing my new iPhone in the snow. I have no idea what this picture is of, but it was inadvertently taken during the fall.
Happy but beat up, we headed back for Salida, where we were staying the night before the long drive back to Phoenix. After dinner we kept up our tradition of visiting great craft breweries and stopped at the tasting room for Elevation Beer Company (Elevation Beer Co.) in Poncha Springs. They had some great dark beers, including an imperial stout aged in bourbon barrels. Highly recommended!
We were sore as can be the next day, but it was all worth it to be able to experience our beloved Rocky Mountains in the snow!