Breckenridge Ski Trip
With Dean
January 7-10, 2004

 View the Breckenridge Photos

I flew First Class from Orlando to Denver on January 7 and Dean picked me up at the airport.  Fortunately we can still use our employee passes to fly through the end of 2005 although at a lower boarding priority.  There is a ski shop within blocks of Dean's apartment and he picked up his rentals and I had my skis tuned, waxed and sharpened.  At the apartment we took down Dean's Christmas tree and decorations and he made us a taco dinner with a few Breckenridge Avalanche ales.

Of course I was up bright and early being two time zones removed from Florida. Watching TV I saw chain warnings on I-70 east of Vail Pass and at the Eisenhower Tunnel so at 0630 we were at Walmart buying chains and heading up the mountain.  We bypassed the Denver early morning commute by taking the E-470 loop south of town.  It turned out that only big rig trucks had to chain up but at least Dean now has chains for his Honda.  There was a little left over slush from the three feet of snow that had fallen this week but the driving was very good.

We have the Colorado Card which you can get for free and which gives discounts at Vail, Breckenridge, Beaver Creek, Keystone and Arapahoe Basin which I strongly recommend every skier get at  Colorado Card .  With the Card you can bypass the ticket window and go straight to the lift where they scan it and the charge goes straight to your credit card. Our price was $43 per day versus $65 at the ticket office.

We were on the slopes by 0945 in sunny weather and packed powder snow with a base of about forty inches.  We skied a blue (intermediate) or two on Peak 9 and then went over to the more advanced black diamonds on Peak 10. Other than about fifty mph winds at the top of the hills the conditions were perfect both snow and weather wise.  We skied and skied doing at least fifteen runs down the mountain on Peaks 9 and 10. My back was iffy but Ultraset kept the pain at bay.

Breckenridge is made up of Peaks 7 through 10  on four different peaks. It is really a massive place with the following statistics

                                Base Elevation: 9,600 feet / 2,926 meters
                                Summit Elevation: 12,998 feet / 3,963 meters
                                Vertical Rise: 3,398 feet / 1,036 meters
                                Average Annual Snowfall: 300 inches / 761 centimeters

                                Lifts

                                     27 Total
                                     2 high-speed 6-passenger lifts
                                     6 high-speed quad lifts
                                     1 triple chairlift
                                     6 double lifts
                                     5 surface lifts
                                     7 carpet lifts

                                Lift Capacity: 36,680 people per hour

                                Number of Trails: 146
                                Longest Run: Four O'Clock- 3.5 miles / 5.6 kilometers

                                Terrain Classification

                                     13% Beginner
                                     32% Intermediate
                                     55% Expert
By 1430 we were pooped and headed to the Great Divide Inn which is located just about thirty meters from the slopes just down from the Beaver Run lift. We had previously parked in their underground parking garage so we gathered our gear and checked in to our room.  The room was very large with two king size beds. I got an online special rate of $100 a night versus the regular rate of $260.  Next was the hot tub and indoor pool to ease our strains.  They have two indoor hot tubs and three more outdoors.  We were impressed by the Great Divide.  After soaking we almost fell asleep in our room by 1700 but finally dragged ourselves out of bed and walked the several blocks down to the downtown area. Breckenridge was founded in 1854 as a mining town and has been nicely restored as a western resort town.  Dean was on a quest for a big prime rib and after walking what seemed like miles we finally ate at Steak and Rib of Breckenridge on the north side of the village.  Dean's prime rib and my veal oscar and one drink each came to $80.  After dinner we had the hotel van pick us up at the restaurant rather than walking back to the hotel and were asleep soon after.

On Friday Stewart Woodward came up to ski with us. Stew was my lead engineer way back on the Apollo program and is an avid outdoors man who leads trekking expeditions to the Himalayas and other outdoorsy things in the Colorado area.  Stew is also an excellent skier.  Unfortunately he's not so good at keeping track of his possessions and lost his ski pass on our second run.  We skied the upper slopes where they don't check your passes and had some great runs on Peak 10 and upper Peak 9.  Dean and I wanted to see the new Peak 7 so about 1330 we bid adieu to Stew and headed over to Peak 7 which added several good blue runs.  The weather was perfect on Friday with clear "Colorado Blue" skies.  Oh yes the excellent skier, Stew, also barreled into poor innocent Steve as we were skiing parallel down a steep slope causing our skies to lock together and resulting in a rather dramatic tumble for both of us but without significant injury to either. Henceforth I kept my distance from Stew!  We ended the day with a quick trip to the hotel hot tub and then had a quick two hour drive down the mountain back to Parker.  Another early to bed for both of us.

Saturday morning Dean took me to the airport in balmy 60 degree F Denver weather where I managed to get an Economy Plus seat on a very full first flight to Orlando which left at 1021 and got me to my door by about 1720 in chilly 50 degree Florida weather.

It was a quick but satisfying trip with plenty of great skiing and good times with my son.

Steve