Day 2: The Barn

15 March 2010

7:15 am. We leave the condo in Avon and head back over Vail Pass to Copper Mountain, home of the infamous "Barn." The Barn is an indoor snowboard/ski/skate facility with trampolines and jumps into foam pits. We get to Copper at 7:45 and The Barn is still closed. We drive over to the east base and I get my lift ticket. By the time we get back, the facility is open.

The temperature is 4 degrees Fahrenheit in front of The Barn.

We get Dylan signed in and take a look around. It's pretty awesome.

The word is just drop me off...

The Barn is large.

I hang for a bit and then head for the car to get my ski gear since I know it's going to take a while for them to get going. I take the five-minute stroll from the parking lot to the Amercian Eagle lift and hop. First thing I find out (just as I remembered) about Copper is it's big. Really big.

The views are also really big.

The views are stunning.

At any rate, I hop off and and hop on the Excelerator. I choose the groomers to skiers right under the Super Bee lift. These are long runs compared to what I'm used to--easily three and probably four miles. I nonstop down Encore and take Treble Cliff at the bottom. Treble Cliff seems familier--probably because it was the I got most familiar with during my racing days--we had slalom races on Treble Cliff. The run gets its name from the three sharp drops. Fun.

I do a couple more laps and then head back to The Barn to get some video of Dylan hucking into the foam pit.

The staff waters down the plastic with some kind of silica compound to make it slick.

Dylan works the trampoline.

12.00 pm. That goes on for a couple hours and it's lunch time. The break for lunch, I break for the mountain, hopping the bus back to the Super Bee. I do a couple more laps down the Bee and then head over to American Flyer to meet ski buddy Tom and his wife Katie. I find them right where we agreed to meet: in the AF line at 1pm. After we get done with our greetings, Tom says Dylan is about 10 yards away putting on his gear to get into line. We all jump aboard and we tag along with Dylan through the Catalyst terrain park.

This thing isn't even on the same planet as the pathetic excuse for a park at our local area. It basically extends from the top to the bottom of the run and has four separate feature groups--including some of the biggest jumps I've ever seen. Dylan charges and has a good set off the little jumps at the top.

There's really no pedestrian access to the park, so we peel off and head back up the American Flyer lift to the Sierra lift. We take a lap down Kaboom--a steep mogul field to skiers right of the lift. We get to the bottom and decide that we really should do Union Bowl. So we set about getting there. We end up having to take three lift rides (Rendezvous to Blackjack to Mountain Chief). We pole over to the top of Union Peak (12,313 ft/3,753 m) and to the face of Union Bowl.

I. Tom and Katie with Copper Bowl in the background

II. Tom and Katie

Tom shredding down union bowl

Union Bowl was definitely the highlight of my day, and it's getting late so we head down. Unfortunately, we end up on Coppertone, an long gully full of gapers. We finally get back to the Flyer and head up again to try and local Dylan over in the park. I bolt and lose Tom and Katie. I get to the bottom and head for the bus stop to get back to The Barn. I get on the wrong bus and end up in Union Creek where a large heard of gapers boards and starts conversing in funny accents. About the time they are making me crazy, most of them bail, and I finally end up back in Center Village... exactly where I started. Great.

View from the bottom. Union Peak is the little white mountain in the far distance in the middle.

Fortunately, I see Dylan at the stop jump off and start talking to him. Then we get right back on the same bus which eventually takes us back to The Barn. Dylan collects his gear and we head back to the car sharing stories about our awesome day. Union Peak looks kind of small from down here.

We roll over to the Alpine lot to say by to Tom and Katie and put an end to an awesome ski day. We enjoy some good conversation and an invite to visit his vacation home in Southern Colorado. We'll think seriously about that offer.

4:45 pm. We head back over Vail Pass and end up back at the condo around 5:15. What a day!