Shortly before Christmas 2004 a friend of mine started planning a ski trip to Colorado, and invited all of her friends to come. She expected to have perhaps eight positive responses; instead, she got twenty-seven. This was a great trip.
While there’s lots of skiing to be done at Copper, the most immediate things to see are the mountains themselves. If I had to choose between mountains and beach, I’d probably take mountains; I’ve seen the Appalachians and the Alps, but this was the first time I’d actually been up into the Rockies. The resort area itself was nice, and not as fake as theme parks tend to be.
Skiing and snowboarding is what it’s all about, though. And for that, sometimes the weather was good, and sometimes not so good. Even when the weather got nasty, though, there were plenty of eager skiers. I did manage to get in one run on a snowboard, despite being severely depleted by oxygen deprivation. (Something about the base of the mountain being 9700′ above sea level.) My friends were mostly spared that problem, and spent three complete days flinging themselves down the slopes.
While we were there, it snowed most nights, and often during the day. Sometimes it was just grey and bleak (especially up on the slopes) but other times it was picturesque.
There’s a free bus that runs between Copper Mountain, Frisco, Silverthorne, and Breckenridge. Several times we hopped on this bus and had a look around, went shopping, or had dinner.
There were a few group shots…
And one last look at Denver, on our way to the airport.
This was enough fun that I think I might do it again next year. Certainly I needed the vacation this year.
