So December 14th was a very important day here in Summit County...we received anywhere from 2-3 feet of snow over a 7 day window. It was my first true snow storm experience. I loved it! And I'll have to credit the next round of visitors...Shan Helton and John Lyons. They flew in and brought the pow pow (or gnar pow as in gnarly powder). Shan arrived Friday and we hit Keystone for some afternoon skiing. Literally, lights are on and snow begins to come down as we are hitting the Summit. We probably clear 10K in vertical and then have a few beers and relax as we have a big week of skiing.
Shan and I went over to Copper Saturday as my brother was not arriving until that night. It was my first trip to Copper Mountain and we had a great time. Awesome mountain and Jacks at the base is a great spot for some Apres ski beers.
My brother John showed up early evening and we hit the Snake River Saloon for some beers but were all tired and looking forward to Vail the next day.
Now I have to call out my little brother a bit. For starters, we discussed prior to the trip him maybe wanting a lesson but John said he though he could save the money and pic it up quickly if I taught him the basics. Wellllllllllll....with that in mind we pop up the Eagle Bahn Gondola and are trying to make our way over to Chair 15 for some beginner practice. Now I am not that familiar with this area and we get on Coyote Crossing which looks like it may take us where we need to go. I give John a high level lesson on edges, stopping, turning and off we go....well uncontrollably off he goes. I did panic at once because there is a pretty steep drop off into some glades and John was heading for them. Luckily he bit it (not a full yard sale) but he pops up and gets organized and continues flying down the mountain of which he bit it again. At that point the decision is made that he will probably not make it off the mountain alive if we don't take drastic measures...which means taking off our skis and hiking back up hill. Holy crap...what a pain...but we made it and we immediately buy John a lesson:) So for the next 3 hours he will be in camp and I can go ski on my own. I would be remiss if I did not mention the weather...wow...snow everywhere, wind whipping around, limited visibility and freaking cold. Here is a picture of John during his lesson...photo is not brushed, that is the snow blowing across the picture.
Being the good big brother I am...I also gave John my goggles and helmet so I am skiing in a beanie and sunglasses which I might as well been skiing in a tissue hat and X-ray glasses from a Cracker Jack box. Nevertheless, they just opened Game Creek Bowl and I skied back there while John got his lesson periodically checking in on him. Click below for a video of the future Olympian...
Honestly John was a great sport!!! And received a well needed early Christmas present from his brother with a lesson. So with that done, John told me he loved it and wanted to ski more which is all I could have possibly asked for. We met Shan down at the Red Lion where we had an opportunity to get a head start on the Apres ski. When I arrived though Shan suggested I probably should drive home and as we are in a blizzard, I agreed. Thank God we took is rental car, although on the way home I'm white knuckled as I'm driving a rental over Vail Pass in a blizzard and we witnessed no less than 6 cars in accidents. A normal 40 minute drive took 2+ hours...but we made it home and finished the night with a large bowl of chili and and a room that may or may not have been able to be weaponized.
On Monday Shan left and we were sad to see him go (and honestly I think Shan was not too excited about leaving either). I took John over to Keystone for his second lesson of the week and I had a major life moment. As we are cruising down Highway 6 John makes the comment "You have been driving awesome in this weather"...to which at that moment I learned what everyone had been telling me about rear wheel drive two wheel drive vehicles. We skidded a few times, turned a few times and ended up facing the wrong direction in the road with an 18 wheeler barreling down on us. No time to panic (read between the lines, we needed new boxers) thank god we were able to get the car in a safe spot. It was at that point that I decided not to drive the rest of the blizzard. Poor John...I did pick him back up from his lesson but the rest of the trip he and I bussed it. To be fair, when his skis needed to be returned to Sports Authority by 8:00 am, I got up early to learn the bus route and catch it down into town and returned his skis for him while he slept. But he did have one freezing walk back after the Breckenridge trip. He's a tough kid...
So anyway, Tuesday we headed over to Breck in the afternoon for a visit and some food. John and I went up the gondola to the base of Peak 8 and just hung around watching the scene. I felt bad, I had some stuff for work I had been dealing with so I spent my time on my laptop wrapping that up, but again, John is a great sport and once I was done we enjoyed ourselves. We did lap around Breck and John did some Christmas shopping. Once back home, I treated him to some pizza and wings and of course a beer or two:)
Our final day is Wednesday and John is ready to master the mountain with no ski lessons. Of course he gets up at 10 as usual and we are finally out on the hill around 1:00. We hit the gondola up to Ranger lift at Keystone and keep in mind folks...it has been snowing like crazy for the past 5 days so this is the best picture we could do.
So the final beginners test...the top to bottom run down SchoolMarm. John passed with flying colors!!! Today was our final day together in Colorado tomorrow is our flight back home together and 6 days of Christmas with the family. Thank you so much John for coming out and thank you mom and dad for getting him out here and ready for the weather! What a great trip!!!
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