13 March, 2010, 4:20 PM. Arrival at DIA with an uneventful flight from Eugene via SeaTac. Jay and Ruthanne picked us up and whisked us off to chez Kayla in downtown Denver.
We had dinner at the Denver Diner -- a quick five-minute walk from Kayla's apartment. Good food, good conversation, and good fun. We then left Diane and Kayla in Denver while Dylan and I headed north to Fort Collins for the night. We had a mild panic attack when we were informed that seven of us were going to cram in the van for the trip to WP in the morning. We reorganized our gear and headed to bed early, since it was a double-whammy: daylight savings plus we lose an hour to the mountain time zone.
14 March, 2010 5:30 am. I awake early to the scratching of the cat in the litter box. It feels like 3:30 am... since the body clock was set to 3:30 am. We get a decent start at about 6:50am and get to the Challenger lot at Mary Jane just before 9.
The weather is inviting as we head over Berthoud Pass.
Some of us are more enthusiastic about the day than others.
Mary Jane
The wind is blowing a gale and the snow is falling. We head down to the main lodge to get our tickets and I call ski buddy Pete--he doesn't answer. I leave a message telling him what I'm wearing, then another to meet us if we don't see him. We walk up to the Pony Express and there he is standing with the rest of the crew: Beth, Catherine, Dylan, Parker, Quinn and Emma. We say howdy and he tells me our other ski buddy, Tom, is at the top. We get going.
Peeps!
Pete!
We join up with some of Pete's posse: Steve--the gracious donor of my K2 World Piste tele skis that I've been hammering all year (thanks Steve!), and Dennis the tele monster. We do some runs, and Dylan hits the park.
Our Posse: Parker, Beth, Emma, Thumb's up Dylan, Bob, Pete, Catherine, and Tom and Katie Crewdson (l->r)
Dylan is stoked.
We ski a bunch of runs over on the Eskimo since many of the lifts over at MJ are closed due to sustained 50 mph winds with 80 mph gusts. Eventually, we start thinking about heading back to the Jane. Dylan is having so much fun jibbing in the park (see last week's post about The Feature -- or lack thereof). We leave Dylan behind (at his request) and head back to the Jane where we meet up with the Posse and cousin Frank.
I. Beth
II. Pete
III. Tom
IV. Parker
V. Emma
VI. Catherine
We do a bunch more runs and finally wear down around 3:30. We stop in the Challenger lot to meet Pete's dogs and get ready to head over the pass, through the tunnel and over the other pass to Avon.
Pete, Maya and Daisy
We stop in the Sweet Shop in Empire for the biggest shakes I've ever seen. We get a little entertainment by a local folkie who is singing songs from the 60s and 70s to the amazingly large crowd. Catherine, Beth and I got a small to share... we got halfway through it. Parker finished it off for us.
We then head west on I-70 where just past Silverthorne, the road gets icy. We pass a Dodge Ram in the ditch and five minutes later another truck in front of us is careening from one side of the road to the other in an attempt to stop his mad slide into the ditch. He pulls over. We slow down and head through the Eisenhower Tunnel. The road is dry on the other side and the rest of the trip--past The Barn at Copper Mountain (see 15 March 2010 post), past Vail, and into Avon with a nice view of Beaver Creek.
Tomorrow: Copper Mountain and Dylan's big day at The Barn.
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