Looking down the Men's Downhill

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.

Some great weather!

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.

It only took 12 days to get #1!

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!

Ed on the slopes

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.

Pip good to go

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.

Which way did we come?

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!

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!

Pip conquers the moguls

Today we did a run up the Highlands Chair – the beginner slope – just for something different. This chair is incredibly slow, however, so we were soon off to our normal stomping ground. Once up the Centennial, we headed for the very top of the mountain yet again. We decided to have a ski through one of the kids terrain areas – Jack Rabbit Alley. While there was a warning sign indicating that it was “kids terrain”, we didn’t think anything of it and set off. About 10 seconds later, Ed had taken a fall. Luckily he was the only one to be defeated by the Alley, and no (physical) damage was done.

On previous days we had seen some information about the Crystal Grotto – a performance space made entirely of ice – which only holds performances on weekends. As it was Sunday (and out last weekend day here in the USA) we decided to find out some more information about it.

After our few runs at the top of the hill we headed to the Grotto, just by the Spruce Saddle – our regular lunch spot – and discovered that the show was on at either 1 or 3pm. Because we had had a slow start, we decided on the 3pm show and headed off to fit in a few more runs before lunch. Our plan was to ski as far down the mountain as we could to the Westin hotel – techincally in Avon.

Inside the Crystal Grotto

A run and a lift ride later, however, we decided that we actually had very little time to be heading many kilometres down the slope just to have lunch, so we decided to head back the way we came and have a normal lunch just to save some time. Before we did, however, we tackled some bumps – as per Pip’s request – as we made our way back towards the Spruce Saddle.

It was 1pm before we got back to lunch, by which time we were all fairly hungry. Kids meals were the order o the day, again, but everyone tried something new just for a change. We took some time just relaxing at lunch before heading back out into the cool, yet good conditions, outside. It was only 2pm so we had just a little time to waste before the Crystal Grotto show (or Cwystal Gwotto as Ed was saying). In order to waste this time, we took another run over to the Rose Bowl area, which was a little risky considering the incredibly slow lift that was the only way out. Luckily we didn’t get caught down here, and returned to the Grotto by 2:30pm.

An ice cello and double-bass

While waiting for the show to start Pip indulged on a Grotto hot chocolate – something not permitted inside the Grotto itself (as Pip suggests, it’s probably hard to clean hot chocolate off of ice). We entered the Grotto a short time later and were quite impressed by what we saw – the entire place made from ice (well, almost), including all of the instruments used by the musicians. The show lasted about 45 minutes, and although the music was all “from the ice age” as Ed suggested, it was enjoyable nonetheless. It was nearly 4pm as we made our way down the mountain and back to the hotel, and because of this was recorded as our latest day on the slopes so far.

Tonight we relaxed – so much so that we didn’t even get in the hot tub. Dinner was home-cooked, tacos were the go, and while Pip did the majority of the work, both Ed and I attempted to help out where possible. Following dinner we watched a bucket-load more TV (is it even possible?!) and saw the evening slip away as quickly as it had come. We all went to bed relatively early, worn out from all of the high altitude and mountain air of the past 9 days here at Beaver Creek.

Looking up the valley from Grouse

The weather was perfect, but cold, yet again, and the endless blue sky was a good sight to see (although the snow level was gradually diminishing with all the nice weather). We headed towards the Centennial chair where we encountered the biggest crowds we had seen since last weekend – about 2 minutes waiting in the queue – but it was really insignificant in the big picture. We cruised around for a while before heading to Grouse Mountain, a part of Beaver Creek that we had not yet explored (mainly because a sign had been erected which read “Experts only: all black runs with moguls ONLY”). Luckily there was no queue here at all (hmm… any good reasons why?), and once we got to the top the view was incredible.

We skied down the run, a blue run the whole way, and didn’t encounter a single mogul (go figure), and enjoyed it so much that we headed back to the top for another run. By the time we had done this loop again, it was after 1pm and time for lunch. We headed, as was well becoming habit, to the Spruce Saddle, and enjoyed yet another typical ski lunch (always with a side of fries…hmm). We enjoyed the warmth of the lunch spot before heading back out to explore some new territory – Pip had selected a run called Mystic Maze from the trail map, and we set out determined to find it.

Pip carving it up

The first time around we only caught the very bottom of the run – the trail map had mislead us slightly and things didn’t line up as perfectly as it had promised. The second run, however, we found it where it began, and set off into the trees – Mystic Maze was a glade run through the forest. While it concerned Pip at first, she had a good time once we got through – not before taking a seat in a mound of powder then struggling to stand back up again. We only skied a few runs before it was 3pm and we decided to make the (relatively) long run home. It was 3:30pm before we got back, but by the time we did, we were all fairly worn out.

A quick TV break before a visit to the hot tub was next, and because of the chill in the air (about -16C) it was still possible and very easy to freeze hair just by getting it wet. We stayed in the water a short time before once again getting swamped by a large family. After returning to the room, we got ready for dinner and made our way out into the cold, heading for the main village area.

Pip and Ed on Mystic Maze

Tonight’s cuisine was Asian – supposedly at Beaver Creek’s “best restaurant”. While the food was nice, and the atmosphere, well, quirky, we did discover that the entree dishes were much better value than the mains, and that the kids menu was again the best value choice of all. The most interesting dish was mine – a $22 tiny piece of butterfish that, while nice, was nowhere near a $22 dish.

After dinner we had a quick visit to some shops before making the short journey back to the hotel room through the now even colder evening. The remainder of the evening was, as was becoming tradition, spent in front of the TV and on Skype to those back home.

Hope you’re all surviving the weather back home – it’s only about 60 degrees difference in temperature!

Pip makes the sign

Our seventh day here at Beaver Creek started at the “regular” skiing morning time – 8:15am. We had a relatively quick breakfast, but were slowed down considerably by the (ongoing) CSI marathon. Two episodes later and we were still inside. Ed had hit the slopes about 20 minutes earlier, and Pip and I did soon after. The weather was absolutely perfect outside – except for the fact that it had been -18C when we woke, and only slightly warmer as we took our first steps outdoors for the day.

We took our normal route up the Centennial chair, but instead of our regular runs that we would start the day with, we decided to take a few new ones (after a quick warm-up run of course). We ventured down a run called Moonshine – my choice – which ended up being ungroomed, rather crusty and rough most of the way down. Pip certainly gave the sign (see picture), but we all survived and certainly had a more interesting run than normal because of the new challenges. We skied a number of runs before we headed in for lunch, but all of them were around this front face area of the mountain.

Lunch, again, was at the Spruce Saddle – half-way up the mountain. We all had something different for lunch, just for a change (well, different to what we had had in the last few days at least). The sun was still beaming down, and with no wind to be found at all it was near-perfect weather – except that it was still relatively cold (about -10C). We left the lunch spot at about 1:30pm and returned to the slopes, this time heading up the Cinch chair to the top of the mountain.

Scott carved it up

From the top of the mountain, we decided to head towards the Birds of Prey chair – most likely down Redtail (yet again). Part-way down, however, we came across a sign to the Men’s Downhill course, which certainly grabbed my attention. It was a double-black run, and while it sparked Pip’s attention as well, we were a little concerned that it would be steep as anything, and have moguls the entire way down. The executive decision was that I would ski the run while Ed and Pip would take Redtail and meet me at the bottom – that way nobody would be stuck anywhere too nasty without being able to get back.

The run, at least at the top, was very very steep, and quite slippery to boot. There was a small easy-out trail, but there would be no fun taking that the first run down. I stopped numerous times to take photos, and so definitely did not complete the downhill in Olympic speeds (heh), but it was a good run nonetheless. I met Ed and Pip at the bottom, and we headed up the Larkspur to explore some more challenging terrain (not more challenging than the downhill, however).

It appeared that every black run in this area of the mountain was full of moguls, so we tried to pick the one that looked the easiest as a way to work Pip into the challenges that these runs put forward. Unfortunately the run we did pick, Lupine, was a lot less steep and mogully from the bottom than it was from the top. Pip, for the second time today, gave the “you’re killing me” sign, but we did make our way down through the bumps.

Final run of the day

When we finally got to the bottom of the Larkspur area, Pip decided to sit one run out and have a rest while Ed and I took another run from the top. We met up a few minutes later as the sun was dipping below the ridge, and made our way back to the hotel (a lift and a long run later). It was close to 3:30pm by the time we arrived at the hotel – our latest day so far – and we took some time to relax before heading to the hot tub. Peter arrived from Denver for an overnight visit, so while he and Ed talked business, we relaxed in the water.

Unlike other nights it was truly cold outside tonight – with hair freezing over once it was wet, and the bubbles in the hot tub doing a similar thing a few minutes after. We spent about 20 minutes in the water before we were swamped by a family of 8 (or so) from Sydney which was our cue to leave. On the way out of the pool area, Pip managed to get a thong stuck to the ground surrounding the hot tub – in mid-step. It was so cold that it literally froze to the ice that was forming where water had been splashed, and she had to peel it off of the ground to continue walking. We returned to the room, got ourselves ready for dinner, and headed out to the Hyatt for a nice meal.

Dinner was a little more classy than we had had so far this week, but it was definitely different to our home-cooked meals of the past few days. We didn’t have dessert here, but instead returned to the gourmet ice cream parlour that we had found a few days earlier. As crazy as it was eating ice creams while it was -16C outside, it was very tasty and enjoyed by all. We made the chilly walk back to the hotel and relaxed for the remainder of the evening.

The nice weather meant that the camera went a bit ballistic today (see here), but if you want the cut down version, check out the photo mash-up below!

The Beaver Creek Village centre

Ed asked them to return in 10 minutes once we had left for the day, but they began on another room which we knew would keep them occupied for at least 30 minutes. We watched a little more TV until the washing was finished, and the hair was dry, then headed into the village to catch the first bus of our journey – to the Elk parking lot. Luckily the bus was waiting as we crossed the bridge, so we made the quick dash and hopped aboard. The trip was short and we were soon at the base of the mountain, ready to catch the second bus to the Avon town centre. To make it two in a row, the bus pulled up only seconds after we had arrived, so we made the transfer and we were on our way.

The ride didn’t take long, at all… in fact, we were dropped off at the first stop, which the driver told us was the main shopping area in Avon. We had a quick walk around and discovered very little… very little indeed. We did however find a Mexican restaurant, a Mexican convenience store, a few other strange small country town-style shops, and a large sports store. It didn’t take us long to work out that there was really nothing here, and certainly nothing that we were interested in having for lunch as we had originally planned. The only one thing we did find that was of use to us was the supermarket – a full-sized (or close enough to) one too!

Hmm... stairs or escalators?

We spent the next half-hour or so loading up on groceries we had not been able to buy up the mountain (such as fresh fruit and vegetables), or those things that were twice the cost at an altitude of about 400 feet higher. One full trolley, 6 shopping bags, and a backpack full of groceries later and we were on our way back to Beaver Creek – but not before we had the 15 minute tour of Avon on the Red Line bus. Avon was, well, pretty small. We had really seen the most exciting part, and it hadn’t really been all that exciting.

Upon returning to the Elk Parking Lot, we waited for the Beaver Creek Village bus to collect us, and made the reverse journey that we had made nearly 4 hours earlier. There was a bit of a wait when we arrived at the village before our Eastern Route bus arrived, but we weren’t much looking forward to walking back up the hill to the hotel with all of the groceries so we had few other options. It was 3pm by the time we got back to the room, but as we passed through the reception area, the housekeeping staff appeared out of the elevator and followed us down the corridor. I joked to Pip that they were coming to clean our room, but when we realised that they actually were, the smile turned into a look of disbelief. We had a small “discussion” with them regarding the “come back in 10 minutes” instruction we’d given them, but it was clear that they understood basically nothing of what we said.

Pip impressed with the shopping

We weren’t in the mood to put up with 30 minutes of vacuuming and the other rubbish that came with the housekeeping crew, so we asked for them to change our towels and just leave everything else. A few minutes later, when we couldn’t understand why they were still in the room, we discovered that they had made the beds, started dusting and so on – so we asked them to just leave (nicely of course). We think the greatest problem was a language barrier, but for a hotel chain such as this, it really isn’t good form.

Soon after we made nachos for lunch (late, I know), and enjoyed a number of hours of sitting in front of the TV – both on the couch, and falling asleep in bed. It wasn’t until after the NCIS marathon had finished at 6pm that we realised we had missed the Thursday night light show on the slopes – including skiers and boarders with glowsticks coming down the slopes, and a fireworks display in the village. Probably not a huge loss, but it was our one and only chance to experience it, so a bit unfortunate there.

We got moving again and cooked dinner – another home cooked meal, I know! Today it was satay beef, rice and vegetables; relatively very healthy. Dinner was enjoyed by all, and we relaxed the remainder of the night both in front of the TV again, and on Skype. I think I’ve watched enough TV now to last me for the rest of 2010, but then again – when in Rome…

It was unfortunate that we weren’t on the slopes today as the weather looked perfect (except for the cold temperatures), but tomorrow is supposed to be similar and it was certainly good to just relax all day. We only took very few photos because there was nothing too exciting to see, but they are up in the gallery regardless. I’ve made a quick photo mash-up for the sake of consistency, but you already know that not much exciting happened.

Hope everyone is surviving the heat-wave back home; looks like we missed the cold snap that seems to have dumped on the rest of the country here!

Menacing clouds

We explored a number of new runs and areas all while skiing our favourites again, but as we did the weather continued to deteriorate. We skied a run at the Larkspur area – the lift which had broken only minutes before we’d gone to get on yesterday – then decided to head in for lunch.

We returned to the Spruce Saddle as we had done previously, but before we got there we encountered some wildlife – we had seen some birds the day before, so I guess not the first wildlife sighting for the year, but this was definitely more impressive. I’ve included some photo evidence below.

In buying our lunch once again, we discovered the value of the kids meal: a cheese burger, hot dog or nuggets; fries; a soft drink; and a cookie – all for $12.99, whereas the adult selections had a cheeseburger, for example, for $12 alone. Pretty good considering that none of us actually finished our meals!

Pip, and wildlife!

We spent some time inside watching the wind blow snow at a crazy speed outside, the decides to head back out close to 1pm. It was still snowing heavily and with the wind it was a small-scale blizzard, but nonetheless we skied two more runs before calling it a day – much earlier than previous days, but reasonable considering the weather. Ed decided to ski a few more runs on the easy slopes outside the back door while Pip and I made ourselves comfortable in front of the TV and another CSI:Las Vegas marathon.

The marathon continued until 5pm, when we decided that it was time for a swim. Unfortunately it felt colder outside tonight – probably due to the wind – and the hot tub was not as scorching hot as it was yesterday, so we certainly felt the cold a little more. We wasted a bit of time having a competition to see who could knock the snow from the top of the outdoor heater by throwing a snowball, but in the end nobody won this one – the snow still remains on top of the heater.

The weather gets worse

After we returned to the room, Ed and I headed in to the village to pick up some supplies while Pip held the fort. Tonight was to be our first home-cooked meal for 2010, which we were all looking forward to – except that every ingredient no doubt was packed full of sugar: bread, yep; butter, yep; pasta, probably; gotta love the USA for that. Ed and I returned a short time later and dinner preparations began.

Dinner was a nice change, and was topped off by some repeat episodes of Glee on Fox (good times!). It turned out to be a Glee marathon, so by 9pm the episodes were still coming thick and fast (which then turned into a CSI:NY marathon later). We relaxed the rest of the night until packing it in relatively early, ahead of our “rest day” tomorrow.

The weather was certainly not great for photos today, but we still took a few snaps so make sure to check them out here, or alternatively, have a look at the photo mash-up which contains a number of videos too.

Back to Redtail

We did make it outside eventually, but after 10am, and took our usual route along the skiway to the village, then up the Centennial Express. On previous days we had mostly explored to the left of this lift, but today, we went as far as was possible to the right – to the Arrowhead area and the Arrow Bahn lift. Ed wanted to ski to the Larkspur Express, but when we arrived, the lift was stopped – with people stuck on it. We were probably 2 minutes after being stuck on there with them, so it was lucky we took our time getting onto the slopes.

In the end it took us a bit of time to get over to Arrowhead, as the run down from one of the lifts (about half way there) was 5.8km to the Arrowhead village base area. We did a few runs here at Arrowhead before heading back to the Bachelor Gulch area for lunch (one gully over). I was taking it particularly careful after putting a rather nasty gash in the bottom of my brand new skis yesterday – but that didn’t stop us skiing through trees on the odd occasion.

Crossing the bridge

Unlike previous days where we had eaten on the slopes, today we ate at the Buffalo Bar which was part of the luxurious Ritz Carlton hotel at the Bachelor Gulch base area. It was still pretty close to the slopes (ie, about 10 steps from the snow), but further away than the Spruce Saddle had been. Lunch was nice, and although the (total) cost was similar to that up on the mountain, the food was much nicer here. We spent a bit of time relaxing in the heat before heading back out just after 1pm.

We didn’t stay in this area for too long before heading back towards the Centennial and Birds of Prey lifts on the main mountain. I ventured into the trees a number of times and tried my very hardest not to do any more damage to the base of the new skis – I did find a few good runs, and managed to capture some of it on video. Today we gave in relatively early as we were all quite sore and tired, but before we did, Ed decided to take the more difficult route down (Assay) while Pip and I took a much easier option down Cinch and Gold Dust. While prior to doing this run, Ed was considering skiing more while Pip and I headed back to the room, when we met him at the bottom, he was certain about packing it in after discovering the number of moguls that Assay contained.

Up the valley

After returning to the room, we settled down on the couch to watch (more) TV – a CSI:Las Vegas marathon was the show of choice this afternoon. About 5pm (after it was dark) we headed for the pool and hot tub (pronounced hawwwt turrb). Tonight, not only were both already uncovered for us, but the hot tub was much (much) hotter tonight. In fact, it was way too hot – so hot that Pip and I only survived about 10 minutes, and then didn’t feel even the slightest chill as we dried ourselves off outside. Ed took a bit longer to get back to the room, chatting with some other hot-tubbers for a while before dragging himself out.

Ed decided to eat the leftover pizza from a few nights prior, and have a quiet evening in the room. Unfortunately, there was only so much leftover pizza, and so Pip and I walked to the village to find some food for ourselves. In the end we ate pizza too – (healthy, yes) – but no doubt ours was much tastier being nice and fresh. It was cold outside, so we walked quickly between the restaurant and the hotel – no shopping tonight – and relaxed for the remainder of the evening.

While the weather wasn’t unpleasant today, it wasn’t great for photos with an overcast sky. There are only limited photos, but I’ve tried to include as much video footage as was worth watching. If you do want to see the photos, they can be found in the gallery; or you can see the video version below in the photo mash-up.

Corduroy in the morning

We tackled a few more runs today than yesterday, and explored a little more terrain in the once again perfect weather. Early on in the day we check out the Rose Bowl area, somewhere we had avoided previously as it seemed fairly remote. This chair turned out to be an older triple chair (much slower than most of the other lifts around), which was fine except that a little pushing and shoving while we were getting on resulted in Pip missing the chair and being left behind to catch the next one. She wasn’t particularly impressed with this show, but this probably inspired her to beat Ed down the slopes a number of times during the afternoon.

We skied a few more runs – a number of times on the Redtail run – then stopped again at the Spruce Saddle (half-way up the mountain) for lunch. As quiet as it was on the slopes, it was still packed inside, and we had a bit of trouble finding a table. In the end we shared a large table with another group from Australia (strangely enough) who were here for 8 weeks (are you serious?!). We didn’t spend quite as long indoors today, and headed back out to the great conditions soon after finishing our meals.

Carving on the new skis

Most of the afternoon was spent on Redtail (again, seems like it had become our favourite run) taking action photos. Pip managed to get left behind our chair again, similar to this morning, but this time it was due to indecisiveness as to whether we were going for this chair or the next. It was getting late in the afternoon by this stage (about 3pm…… ok it felt later than it was) and so we started to make our way home. We did, however, venture into the kids area which involved a Gold Mine – complete with total darkness while skiing along – and a number of other sights which made the ride home interesting.

It didn’t take us too long to get back to the room, and certainly didn’t take much time at all to get out of all our snow gear and into some more comfy clothes. We relaxed on the couch for quite a while, continuing the Secret Life of an American Teenager marathon that had started the day before, until we got interrupted by the housekeeping staff who had not yet made up our room. While they were working we thought on many occasions that they had finished and left (due largely to the amount of time it took them to do simple things), but when one of the started emptying the dishwasher, mopping and sweeping the floors, and then vacuuming (while we were all sitting in the same room, watching TV), we certainly knew they were still around.

Great scenery

The vacuuming was just the final straw, however, and we soon after asked them to leave. We watched another episode or two before getting dressed into some warmer clothes and heading into the village for dinner. While we had no idea which restaurant would take our fancy tonight, pasta was a meal of choice so this at least helped direct our search. In the end we chose the Beaver Creek Chophouse, and everyone had a healthy meal (by comparison with other things we’d eaten). Dinner was nice, and we were soon back out in the village collecting some essential supplies that we’d run out of since Saturday.

We decided to walk back to the hotel rather than catching the shuttle, and realised that the walk was much quicker and easier on the way down the hill than back up it. Nonetheless, the short walk was over soon enough and we escaped the cold (about 11F) for the last time today. Another episode of Secret Life, and a new show Make It or Break It, later and we were all so tired that we headed for bed at 9:45pm.

With any luck, the nice weather will hold up again tomorrow and let us explore more of the mountain in more detail than we have so far. The first day out with the helmet cam was good today, but we’ll adjust the angle a little tomorrow to hopefully get more people and scenery and less snow flying past!

Have a look at some more scenic (and action) photos from today here, or check out the photo mash-up below if you want the quick version!