Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Feb 19 – Breckenridge and Vail

We spent 5 day skiing in Colorado. Four of the days were at Breckenridge and one day we took a bus trip over to Vail.

When we got there it was after dark and I remember feeling very lethargic.  We both had a lot of trouble sleeping that night and felt constantly out of breath. The next day we realized that the base of Breckenridge is at over 8000 feet and that it was just the thinness of the air getting to us.

The weird thing was that during the entire trip the altitude never bothered me when I was skiing, even at the peak at over 12000 feet. As soon as the skies came off and I tried to walk anywhere my feet felt like lead and we were both huffing and puffing. It got better later in the week but we still noticed it every time.

I also remember that on that first night the room we got was very small and the heater would not turn off. We were roasting. Part way through the time I couldn’t take it any more and went down to the desk to request some help. They offered us another room and it was so bad that we moved immediately to finally get some sleep.

The weather was beautiful for all but one day of the trip.

This is the view back to the village from part way up one of the lower lifts.

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And up to the peak.

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Getting closer

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The top of the highest lift. Note the altitude and the view.

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Some of the more fit people climbed even higher to get to the more virgin snow in the bowls off to the sides.

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It was quite windy up there.

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My favourite run was the bowl you can see behind the sign.

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It was a bit of a traverse to get there.

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A look back at the peak from the top of the bowl.

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The views were amazing.

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Down I go.

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Looking back up at the tiny specks back at the top.

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The only real tow line-up I remember was at the very bottom before everyone got dispersed on the mountain.

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There are no pictures of Jennie at Breckenridge because she didn't want to ski where I did. She stayed on the groomed trails but not this one because of all the moguls.

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One day the wind picked up even more and it snowed so the visibility was pretty poor but the skiing was still great.

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The day at Vail was another bright sunny day.

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We mostly skied on the west side of the mountain which is very open.

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A great trip.

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