Departure

Bags packed and up early, a plane to catch. Carol on her way to give us a lift she as excited by our upcoming adventure as we are.

Bags full of winter clothes, gloves, hats and goggles. Clothes so out of place in the Caribbean that it seems unreal. Yet it is, after months of planning and anticipation we are off skiing!

Colorado Baby! Here we come!

I confess a few nerves. I’ve never skied before and the common consensus sounds something like a scene from the movie Elf.

Picture Buddy towering over the elf children at school. With me playing the part of a giant in the beginner class. A clumsy great black clad Yeti surrounded by toddlers zipping about as if they skied out of the womb!

Yet I have no doubts that the reality is going to be very different.

I have come to the conclusion that I am going to be fabulous.

I shall take to skiing like a duck to water.

I will be called the ‘Avalanche‘ as I carve gracefully down the slopes like a life long ski bum with ice in my veins, King of the Hill! Emperor of the Apres!

My kids, family, friends, colleagues and even one or two strangers however seem a little sceptical of my assessment but then none of them have seen me ski! What do they know!

‘Pah‘, I say, I shall be the talk of Breckinridge, the next big thing!

Now Victoria on the other hand hates heights and abhors the cold. She gets vertigo going up the stairs. It’s going to be interesting.

Flight

The flight was pleasant enough, just under five hours high over the clouds. Mountains of fluffy white as far as the eye can see. a foreshadowing of our destination.

The drive took us through the most stunning and rugged scenery and through the Continental Divide. The line which divides the water shed form east to west. On one side all the rivers run eventually to the Atlantic and on the other to the Pacific.

The snow report says five foot of fine powder and temperatures of -12. That’s only a 50 degree drop in five hours.

Our destination is above 6000 feet. We have been living at sea level in the land of eternal summer for three and a half years That’s OK, right?

I’m sure that it’s all fine. No one ever suffered frost bite or altitude sickness did they?

Colorado

Well there is plenty of snow. It officially the snowiest February on record over eight feet of snow. The drifts are up to 20 feet deep. The town is buried and beautiful.

James thinks it’s cool and spent time chillin.

Home for the Week

We are staying in a log cabin in the woods. Five bedrooms, three living room areas and a hot tub.

The view is stunning, but we have had to dig ourselves out a couple of times.

And we have been caught in one blizzard. Total white out.

Two feet of snow in just over an hour. We had to shelter in a car park. Strangest thing was that there was a very strong smell of marijuana. The next day driving past we realised the hotel was actually a cannabis dispensary.

Rocky Mountain High!

Skiing

Day one of ski lessons was hard and dispiriting. By lunchtime I was about ready to pack it in. Definitely not a natural! It our instructor was interesting, a genuine rocket scientist work on the Aries Project, aiming to get humans back to the moon.

Day two was exhilarating, exhausting but I came away with a sense of achievement. I managed three runs down the mountain! Very slow runs but I did it.

Day three at Breckenridge only -12 this morning, positively balmy. It warmed up to a lovely zero degrees by lunch time.

Another good day. Definitely making progress. Slowly.

Vix and the kids are doing ever so well (far more proficient than me). Me, turns out it is just like Elf, I am a complete ski dunce but I am improving everyday and I am quite enjoying being out in the cold all day.

Snow belles

We have had great instructors, I have been treated to 1:1 lessons for two days, first the ever so patient Becky Triest, who took me under her wing, yesterday and then my instructor today was an ex fighter pilot called ‘Flash’. He was shot down twice in Nam! And was a test pilot for the F-15 now retired he teaches skiing. He still flies, he’s a racing pilot in his spare time.

Both brilliant and endlessly patient.

Mind you once you stop moving and the sun goes down it really is freezing. We have had to work hard to stay warm!

Did I mention the velociraptor problem?

Day 4

Copper Mountain. A couple of Green runs and then my instructor (an ex-military attaché stationed in the Heige) decided we needed to move things up a level. Time for a blue run.

Aaaargh! I have never been so anxious as I was coming down the mountain today, but I made it down. Mostly in one piece.

Folk do this for fun! Utterly mental!

I did manage a jump today. Unplanned it was like a Frank Spencer moment. I finally got down the steep blue run and back on to the more gently sloping green. When on my left side appeared a child.

Now the children are about five years old and there are hundreds of them in ski school, utterly fearless, they travel down the mountains at about 100 miles an hour. Like brightly coloured missiles. They don’t move for you, you have to avoid them.

Anyway on my left appears one of the pint sized kamikaze pilots, hammering down the mountain. We were going to collide so I had to swerve. So I did and shot up a snow drift and into the air. Flying. I managed to land but I was now travelling across the slope straight for a cliff edge, I turned sharply and back across the slope regaining control. I slowed to a stop just in front of my horrified and slightly impressed instructor and promptly fell over.

He and I just burst out laughing. “How did you do that and then fall over at the end?”

I also collided with a tree today which was fun. I’ve fallen down a lot and got very good and getting my skis back on.

But I’m still smiling.

Poppy in the mean time was off disappearing up into the mountains on her own and completing miles long runs back down to the base. Just extraordinary. She’s loving it. James and Vix are coming on leaps and bounds.

Final Day

We woke up this morning to find mountain lion tracks leading up onto the decking and around the house. A mother and her cub had clearly come by to say hello.

There were also deer tracks in the garden.

We all had a great day skiing Poppy is really very good and tried jumps and moguls. She loves it and has had a great time. I spent the day consolidating all my lessons and just toddled up and down a green slope, very slowly.

On the way back to the lodge we spotted a family of moose, mummy, daddy and a calf (mooslet?). We were very excited!

A lovely week.