USA 09/10 – Beaver Creek Day 12 – The final frontier

Our final day on the slopes started at a similar time to all other skiing days so far – earlier for Ed, but about outside by about 11am for Pip and I. While we were slowed by a CSI:Las Vegas marathon this morning, we were actually more interested in the new feature of the photo software Picasa where it recognises people’s faces (automatically) and allows you to name them. As stupid as this sounds, it’s particularly addictive to get every face named… except when you realise that you’ve got 4,000 or so faces to do!

When we finally hit the slopes we realised that there had, yet again, been no new snow overnight and that the sun was shining clearly through the perfect blue sky in all directions – not a great mix for snow conditions. We headed up our usual route and went to the very top of the mountain to assess the conditions. While the snow was generally good on the main runs, as soon as you ventured too far it was a certainty that you would encounter large patches of brown, rocks and grass… not the nicest thing to come across for new (or any) skis. We skied a few runs before I decided to head back to the Men’s Downhill – which I had done a few days earlier – but this time Ed decided to tag along.

The run, surprisingly, was in good condition, but that didn’t stop Ed making comment that it “scared the living hell” out of him (or something along those lines). This particular run was steep (ok, very steep) in some parts, but great fun all the same. Although I did take some pictures the other day when I last skied it, there are a few additional ones today because I forgot how good the view was. Unfortunately the sky had developed a slight cloud covering – not enough to bring any snow – but just enough to ruin an otherwise perfect weather day.

We skied a few more runs after this (including another visit, or two, to Redtail) before heading to the Spruce Saddle for one last lunch break here at Beaver Creek. We spent a bit of time inside, but not nearly as much as some other days. I guess it was probably the guilty feeling of “oh, it’s the last day… I guess we better ski some more”. After lunch we headed back out and explored a few new runs, including Harrier – which was great for the first part, then the last half turned very bumpy and rather rugged.

From here we returned to the Men’s Downhill, but both Ed and Pip decided to take Redtail instead of the slightly-more-challenging run that was the Downhill. We headed up Grouse Mountain one last time to see if the conditions had changed and found practically nobody on this part of the slope. We only skied one run here, however, as it was a little slick in parts and other runs had been more interesting for all involved. By this stage in the day, it was about 3pm and so we made our final run choices. Another quick spin down Harrier (although skipping the lower part) before heading to the top of the mountain one last time was the choice, and by the time we finished all of this is was nearly 4pm.

We packed up our skis one final time, and returned to the room to begin packing our bags. An NCIS marathon slowed progress (as always), but by about 7pm we were heading back to the village to get some dinner. We returned to the Hyatt, as we had done once before a few nights ago, and had a very enjoyable meal. A little more shopping finished off the night, but before we returned to the hotel we stopped to get icecream – as crazy as it is eating icecream when the temperature outside is well below zero.

Our walk home was rather quick, balancing some shopping and icecreams, and upon returning we packed our skis and boots into their bags and finalised the packing of our other gear. Tomorrow we are travelling all day and so may be hard to contact (unless there is some free wifi to be had). In once sense we’re lucky not to be staying longer, as the snow conditions worsen everyday the sun shines with no new snow falling overnight; but on the other hand, it is sad to be leaving the snow country for another year.

Hope everyone is well back home, and we look forward to seeing you all very soon!

 

USA 09/10 – Beaver Creek Day 11 – Sunshine on the slopes

Today we decided to hit the slopes again – but not before catching our dose of yet another TV marathon; this time it was Law & Order: SVU. Although we woke up at the same time as every other day, we didn’t hit the slopes until 11am again because of the back-to-back episodes in nearly every room of the condo. Although Ed had hit the slopes a little earlier, Pip and I finally made our way outside into the yet again perfect weather.

We headed up the Centennial, as was our usual starting ride (probably because it was the first lift we came across that took us anywhere useful), and then headed to the very top of the mountain. Unfortunately we didn’t explore any new territory, but instead revisited some old favourites which we had come to know over the past few days here at this resort. We skied a few more runs, messing around with the helmet cam, before calling it quits for lunch. Because we had been making it out relatively late onto the slopes, lunch seemed to come far too quickly.

The Spruce Saddle was the lunch choice again, and we indulged on hot dogs, pizza and cheeseburgers (I’ll let you guess who had what) – healthy, as always, I know. We spent a little time indoors, studying the map to work out if we could get to the mountains of powder we could see over a certain ridge, before heading back out towards the Stawberry Park area – somewhere we had been before but not yet spent a whole lot of time. We did a few runs here, but found it very icy – in fact, the whole mountain was starting to get a little bald, in desperate need of new snow – so we soon headed towards the Bachelor Gulch area.

As the day was getting late, we didn’t stay around Bachelor Gulch very long, but it was long enough to do a few runs and try our a bit of new terrain – unfortunately, as above, big sections were closed as they had turned brown. At 3pm we began our 5km+ journey back towards the village via the Larkspur area, and instead of skiing straight back to the hotel as we had done every other day, we stopped to pick up a baguette to have with dinner (we were eating in tonight). While picking up the baguette itself wasn’t a particularly funny thing, the task of getting it home was a little more humorous.

I had the task of carrying the bread stick home, and couldn’t decide whether to stick it inside my jacket or just carry it down with me – by down of course I mean after we had been up the Buckaroo Gondola (a first for that too). We made the relatively short run back to the hotel with no issues, and relaxed for a while before heading to the hot tub. Ed stayed to watch the stock market, and when we returned he was still in the same position as we had left him.

At 7:30pm we began cooking dinner – pasta was the meal of choice tonight – and once prepared, was enjoyed by all. By the time we had cleared up dinner, it was well and truly time for more relaxing; Pip decided to do this by starting to pack her bags, just slightly early, while I watched some TV and Ed yodelled down the Skype line. We eventually switched back to the Law & Order:SVU marathon that had begun the day, and watched until we fell asleep.

Day after day the weather has been perfect here at Beaver Creek, but unfortunately this is certainly taking its toll on the snow conditions. While we love the blue skies, all we can hope for is a little snow overnight (much better than during the day) – but so close to the end of our adventure, it probably isn’t going to make a world of difference.

Looking forward to seeing everyone back home! Hope the heat wave has disappeared in preparation of our arrival in a few days time!

Check out the photos from today here, or have a look at the photo mash-up below instead!

 

USA 09/10 – Beaver Creek Day 10 – The day nothing happened…

Today we did nothing. No honestly, we really did nothing at all – well, that’s true for 2/3rds of us. Ed hit the slopes at the regular time, but Pip and I had decided that today would be another rest day – only our second such day since we’d arrived here at Beaver Creek.

Although I can’t report on what Ed skied during the day, Pip and I watched yet another marathon on TV – this time it was Law & Order: Criminal Intent (we’ve almost exhausted all of the shows we ever watch now). We watched until 12pm, slightly later than our normal time that we would regularly get ready to head out, but today we headed to the shops. We hadn’t had much luck on the shopping front to date (except for a few missed opportunities back in Vegas), but largely so far we’d been looking for specific things. Today we were shopping for some souvenirs and gifts, with mixed success. If anything, we’d certainly bought a few things that would certainly take the airport luggage weight check-in game to a new level.

At about 1:30pm we returned to the hotel to find Ed having lunch down at the base of the mountain, a similar thing to what we were planning. The refrigerator in the room has a terrible tendency to freeze everything. Absolutely everything. Unfortunately that meant that the food we had bought back in Avon a few days ago was largely frozen over – including carrots, ham and so on. We salvaged what we could and whipped up a plate (by “we” I mean Pip) of food, and enjoyed it – yep you guessed it – in front of the TV. (If the sugar-loaded food of the USA wasn’t enough, the TV watching certainly wasn’t helping any waistlines)

The Law & Order marathon of this morning was still going strong, and so we continued our viewing until it finished at 3pm (and switched to an NCIS one). Ed had decided not to return to the slopes, and so joined in the TVathon. Pip caught some shut-eye – obviously there is a limit to the number of episodes that can be watched in a row – before we headed back to the shops at about 5:30pm. A little more shopping, and then another dinner at the Blue Moose finished the action-packed part of our day. After dinner we returned to the hotel – feeling the definite cold of the night – and relaxed, yep, in front of the TV.

As today was so action-packed, there are no real photos (except a couple I took on my phone). Just to keep in the swing of things, I still made a photo mash-up for your enjoyment; check it out if you dare. Tomorrow we are heading back to the slopes, so we should have a few more stories and photos to share then!