Copper Mountain Day 1

Thursday 16th February

Well, I have been proved correct. The lift that is near to our condo in Copper Mountain gives access to Black runs and a couple of challenging Blues, so is of no use to me! One of the difficult blues, which looks impossibly steep to me, is called 'Oh No'. Enough said! Paul was able to use the nearby chair lift this afternoon, so it should mean he doesn't have to catch a bus when he is out on his own. This will be a lot better for him, so no time is wasted waiting for a bus when he could be skiing.

Copper Mountain consists of three villages, East Village, Central Village and West village. The more difficult runs are on the East side of the mountain, and are easily accessed from the East Village, where we are staying. The easier runs are to the far west of the West Village, unfortunately. So poor Paul has the boredom of stumping 200 yards to the bus stop with me, waiting for the bus, having the longest ride, then having a long walk up a steep hill to the first lift. And if I were a better skier, it's about 100 yards to the lift near our condo. I'm afraid I'll never be a good skier though - I am far too frightened of steep slopes. So Paul is condemned to skiing slowly down the easy slopes when he's with me.

All the buildings in this resort are newish, since the resort only opened in 1972, so it makes quite a contrast to the historic part of Breckenridge, where we have been staying. This is the view I took while waiting at the bus stop.



You can see the kind of building there is - quite different from the area of Breckenridge where we have been staying.

We collected our lift tickets - there is a lift ticket office in the East Village - then took the bus to West Village, where we had the long climb to the first lift. The lift was the old type, with no foot rest for your skis, so your legs just have to dangle. The lift was also slow, which gave me opportunities for photographs on the way up. There are some very nice new apartments just adjacent to the lifts which really are ski in, ski out.



Actually, I am not at all sure whether these are apartments or millionaires houses. They seem in a very good position, just beside the long Green run, and a short distance above the lift.

I went down this slope a couple of times, before taking another lift which went higher up the mountain, so the slopes were a little steeper, but I managed without too many panics.



The slopes are wonderful when they are empty like this. But you might notice two tiny specks much higher up the slope. The chances are that these are beginners, possibly snow boarders, who will career straight down the slope totally out of control, windmilling their arms and shrieking and apparently irresistibly attracted to me - or anybody else on the slope having a nice breather at the side of the run.

The run is quite a long one - this was taken about two thirds of the way down.



You can just see the village below in the distance.

After some time on this slope, my knees were starting to complain so I judged it time to stop, and we skied right down to the foot of the hill and waited for the bus home. As we had made a rather late start, it was 2.20 by the time we got home for a very late lunch, then Paul went off to the nearby lift and had some time to enjoy himself without having to babysit me.

I couldn't resist taking another photo of the wonderful view from the windows of our condo.



This one is looking east from our windows, towards a newer area of the resort. The one I took last night from our patio was looking south towards the mountain and the Super Bee chair lift.

East Village on Dwellable

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