13,196 Vertical Feet Later…

Today the Adventures continued with an outing to Breckenridge, Colorado.  We actually began on Tuesday by getting up early, heading out to T.F. Green airport in Providence, and flying out to Denver.  Jessica met us at the airport and brought us back to her place for the evening.  PJ joined us at a local Mexican restaurant for dinner and our trip to Colorado officially began.

The next morning we took our time to get some shopping done, Maggie off to visit some friends for the rest of the week, and loading Jess’ car up for the trip to the mountains.  From the amount of baggage you probably think we are moving up there for a month, but since the weather is a little unpredictable this time of year we needed to pack for both cold conditions and Spring conditions.


We moved into a condo right in Breckenridge Village and proceeded to set up house.  Some other friends of Jess and PJ are coming to join us this weekend so Cheri set right in to making some meals so we could just heat and serve…leaving time to visit and play some games.
















Today we walked over to the Quicksilver lift serving Peak 9 and began a day of skiing.  The sky was completely clear and the weather was perfect for Spring skiing; we were on the lift at 8:53 and on our way.  We decided to take a fairly easy run first to shake out the cobwebs.  I haven’t skied in a couple of years, Cheri only a few times in the last couple of years, Jess once this year and PJ not at all this year.

The groomed snow was corduroy-like so early in the morning; softening up on the side of the trail in the sun and still crusty on the side in the shade of the trees along the trail. I haven't fallen skiing in over seven years--a combination of not skiing the last two and then several good years of being lucky--so I made up for it by moving over to the shady side of the trail and catching an edge. Good to get it out of the way early...the rest of the day was not a problem.



We skied fairly hard for much of the morning, moving across the mountain from one peak to another.  Finally taking a break at 10:45.  Since it was afternoon someplace we thought that a cold beer would be okay or in Jess’ case a Bloody Mary and Cheri drinking water…we did need to keep fluids in us to combat altitude sickness. 
     
The altitude did effect us a little—the base at Breckenridge is at 9,600 feet (2,926 m)and the top summit at 12,998 feet (3,962), although we didn’t get to the tip-top today—so the air is a little thinner.  Although Cheri and I take spinning classes or run several times a week, it didn’t help with shortness of breath…and the quads (thigh muscles) started to feel it as well.  By early afternoon the snow was getting to the consistency of mashed potatoes, which is also tiring to ski through.  So by mid-afternoon we called it a day and headed off the mountain…after having skied 11 runs totaling 13,196 vertical feet (the type of ski pass we have keeps an electronic track of what you did for the day).

We enjoyed some time in the hot-tub at the condo and a pleasant dinner.  A great way to end the first day of this adventure.