Copper Mountain (Day 5 of 6)

A beautiful day ahead

Some fun and some work

Adam, Me, and Derek

Helen works her way down - at a very measured pace

Trail heading down to East Village

Helen at East Village with the Super Bee lift and tubing park on the right

Better view of tubing park in the daylight

Adam, me, and Derek at the top of the Super Bee lift

Eating lunch at East Village overlooking the Super Bee lift and Rosi's Run in the background

Adam's ski bindings were always a pain to get into

Last run down the mountain

Derek and Adam point to the black diamond run they did

Monday February 15, 2006

We woke to a beautiful day. It was nice that it snowed each of the previous days, but we were hoping one of our days would be sunny. It was nice to see all the mountains around us that we couldn't see the previous days.

The trip was mostly for leisure, but Helen and the kids did have to do some schoolwork as well. Derek read a book about World War I and wrote a paper about the ski trip.

At the equipment rental place, we asked some workers for recommendations on finding an easy black diamond run for Derek to do on his last day. The workers recommended "Rosi's Run" because it was groomed and, therefore, less bumpy than most of the other black runs.

We cut our teeth on some blue runs before heading over to the East side of the mountain and the more difficult runs. Many people like Copper Mountain because the mountain is setup to keep the beginner slopes separate from the more advanced slopes.

Helen wasn't happy about the more difficult runs, but she took her time (a long time) and made it down some steep blue runs. We took the Super Bee lift up to the top and were locked and loaded to do Rosi's Run. Helen wasn't up for that so she took an "easier" route that turned out to be a nightmare. She ended up having to come down a blue mogul run on her butt while we waited for about 30 minutes for her to show up.

Rosi's Run was steep but we made it down. It was amazing to watch all the people flying down it like it was nothing. It definitely takes more energy for me to concentrate and fatigues my legs more. I prefer the rolling green\blues to the steep stuff.

We broke for lunch and then Derek wanted to go back up the Super Bee so we could take a picture of the Rosi's Run sign. Helen and Adam waited at the top while Derek and I went down for the picture. Derek ended up skiing right past the sign so he didn't get the picture after all that.

We got to the top again and met up with Helen and Adam and then headed back to the other side of the mountain to finish up on the green and blue runs. We had fun skiing through more trees and Derek got frustrated again when he got stuck. Adam and Derek had skied into some trees and then a little while later Adam called out to me that I needed to see something. I figured it was just his usual request for me to come and see whatever was of interest to him at the moment. I told him no and headed down. A little while later Adam came busting out of the trees and when I asked where Derek was, Adam said that was what he wanted to show me - Derek was stuck. Derek ended up making it down, but it took a long time. Helen was worried when she made it down before Derek. She knew if that happened then something must really be wrong.

We returned our equipment, hit the hot tubs, finished off as much of the remaining food as we could, and packed for our return trip in the morning.