Friday, whoever said that you can’t have too much powder obviously didn’t only ski once a year or they were very young! as it is definitely hard work on the knees! We decided that we would go Alpine skiing as I70 seemed to be having problems so it hopefully wouldn’t be too busy but the powder had definitely attracted everyone and that plus the fact that the upper slopes were not open due to the amount of snow made it quite busy. I don’t think I have ever seen snow like it, the groomed slopes had about a foot on them when we started at 9:00 and by 11:30 it was up well past my knees, we actually decided to call it a day at lunch time as there was probably a bit too much snow, the visibility wasn’t great and the slopes and lifts were busy as the upper slopes weren’t open. While we were watching TV in the evening a Public Service announcement came up explaining where the emergency shelters were for ‘stranded motorists’ as I70 was closed. We assumed that it was broadcast at the same time on the radio as you have to assume that if people were watching TV they probably had somewhere to stay! Saturday, the snow stopped at some stage during the night although I am not sure when, they said that I70 was opened about 5am so it had probably been a long night for everyone driving up. We had originally planned to go Alpine skiing today as we felt the powder would be worth a visit but the upper slopes were still closed this morning so in the end we decided to go cross country as we decided it would probably be quite busy on the slopes, this turned out to be a great idea as looking at facebook later the queues were massive and people were talking about a 30 minute lift line. The weather forecast suggested that we have received 39 inches of snow in the last 48 hours which is great if you like powder but not great if you don’t like queues as it is a weekend and a powder day a very bad combination. The cross country tracks had been groomed but they were quite cut up where the snow shoe people had walked on the tracks, in a way it was very frustrating but you can understand why they had done it as the snow shoe paths had not been trodden down and 2 foot of snow is hard to walk through! We did a circuit and practiced a bit then I had to stop for a hot chocolate, Chris went out again while I stayed in the Nordic centre to relax and catch my breath. After lunch we set off to try out one of the tracks that go to the meadows, not somewhere we have been before, the route was nice the only problem was that with so much snow the tracks were really soft and if you were not careful you either buried your pole or your ski dug in too much so you didn’t glide. While we were out I had a bit of a breakthrough moment when I realised that I was putting my poles too far forward which was stopping me getting the momentum and glide I need. We practiced this for a bit then exhaustion set in so we called it a day and headed back to the lodge. By the time we had given our ski’s and boots back and got the bus back to the apartment it was about 4pm but it was a great day. Sunday, even though it is the weekend when we got up this morning it was snowing very lightly but the forecast was 3 – 8 inches so we decided to do Alpine again. We set off about 9:00 and it wasn’t too busy and we actually had fairly good visibility as although it was cloudy and the slopes still had some powder from yesterday but some had at least been groomed before the snow overnight. We did a few loops of Mercury chair before it got rather busy so we decided to ski down to the bottom and see what Beaver Run was like, as it turned out we were pretty much the only people using it so we did loops from the very top to virtually the bottom for a while before stopping for hot chocolate. After our break we went to see what Mercury was like and it was still busy so we set off to Beaver run again and got back up to the top, after a couple of runs we set off to C chair to try out the runs over that side of the mountain by this time the snow had started again so we got to do a few runs in fresh powder but the downside of that is that they were also bump runs so it took us a bit longer to do a run than it had when they had been groomed runs that we could just cruise. Unfortunately after each run the snow got heavier and in the end we decided to call it a day as the visibility wasn’t great and although we can just about manage bump runs and powder once the visibility goes the combination of all three makes it quite difficult! Monday, we woke to the news that there had been another 6inches of snow overnight and it was still snowing this morning, however, after the last few days of really heavy snow, the light fluffy stuff this morning hardly counted as snow but because we have had so much snow over the last couple of days there was still plenty of powder around to play in. The down side of that is that the runs bump up quite quickly so what was a nice run the first time we went down it became a bit of a bump run the second. Having said all that we has some great skiing and got to practice our powder and bump capabilities the only problem is that this makes your legs tire very quickly. We stopped for hot chocolate and lunch and did a few more runs before deciding enough was enough and calling it a day. By the time we got back to the apartment the weather was starting to close in and by the time we had had a drink it was snowing really hard so we had stopped at just the right time, according to the Breckenridge weather report we have had 62 inches in the last 7 days that is almost as tall as me! The good news is that although it is forecast to be cold tomorrow it should be clear so we may be in for a great last day skiing. Tuesday, the weather must have known that today was our last day as we woke up to clear blue skies so we set off to see how much of the mountain our knees would last! It was great I am definitely a skier that needs to be able to see where I am going, I don’t mind bumps although I probably need a bit more practice on them but as long as I can see the slope I can pretty much ski anything. We stopped for hot chocolate then skied though lunch as the slopes were really empty then we decided we would stop around 2pm for something to eat as I was starting to get cold. We did a few more runs after lunch but as the sun dropped lower in the sky it got a bit colder as a lot of the slopes we were on were in the shade so we finally packed up about 3:45 but it was a great day to finish on. We came back to the apartment to change our shoes then took the skis bak to the rental shop, had a last little look round then back to the apartment to relax before packing in the morning and heading to the airport to come back home.
