“This is no longer a vacation, it’s a quest.” – Clark Griswold
Our neighbors invited us to go skiing in Colorado over the Martin Luther King holiday weekend. We hadn’t gotten out west to ski since 2016, when we did a week at Keystone.
It was a great trip. Since we were traveling with friends, we did some things differently than if we had been planning the trip ourselves, but that generally turned out to be a good experience.
Frisco. We didn’t stay at a resort, but instead stayed in Frisco. This is a cool little ski town. We had more space, for less cost, and didn’t miss being at the resort.
Copper Mountain. We skied Copper Mountain, which we had never done. Our friends had a connection on some discounted passes. Really enjoyed the resort. Nice terrain with low key, family friendly vibe.
Airbnb. This one will make me sound out of touch, but we had never used Airbnb. Easy. No issues. Place was awesome.
Turo. We used Turo to rent a passenger van at a great rate. There were no family trucksters available. Rate was great, but there were a few things less than convenient. Pickup and drop off were in the general parking areas. Found the requirement to wash the vehicle yourself (or incur an additional charge) a bit inconvenient. Found the requirement to vacuum out the vehicle entirely impractical, unless you dropped off all your gear at the airport and then went back out to find a car wash somewhere (Denver’s airport is not exactly close to anything).
Southwest. We flew Southwest. I hadn’t flown Southwest since 2007, when I flew the airline on a business trip from St. Louis to Cleveland (I think) and was seated in this middle seat of a rearward facing row. This trip was much more pleasant than the prior. With kiddos, you get some preference in boarding priority. And, ski gear flies free (one bag = ski bag + boot bag).
Day 1 – Friday.
First flight out put us on the ground in Colorado early. After some delays getting through the tunnel, we managed to get checked in early and headed over to Copper for a few hours of skiing. They had gotten about 3” overnight and 6” throughout the day, so conditions were fantastic.
We hit up Peppino’s Pizza since we hadn’t stopped for groceries yet and I would recommend it.
.
.
.
.
Day 2 – Saturday.
Our rental place was super well stocked. They even had an electric griddle. Pancakes play an important part in our lives.
.
.
.
.
Breakfast and then off to ski. Great day, although my daughter did learn some valuable lessons about tree wells.
.
.
.
.
.
Day 3 – Sunday.
Good day. A bit crowded due to the holiday weekend. We found the Rendezvous Lift and the Wheeler Creek and Union Park runs, which were a lot of fun and kept us out of some of the longer lift lanes at the base.
The resort had put in a couple of new lifts but they were not operating at 100%, and combined with the crowds, were causing some longer lines.
Day 4 – Monday.
Yep, more skiing.
.
.
.
Day 5 – Tuesday.
Our flight was later in the afternoon, but decided not to try to ski. We did a short hike up to Rainbow Lake, which was accessible from some trails basically out the backdoor of our rental place.
We checked out and grabbed breakfast at Bread + Salt. Highly recommended.
On our drive back down to Denver, we stopped by Red Rocks and Lookout Mountain.
So, all in all, great trip. Add four more days of skiing to our season count. We’re planning to be back in Colorado in mid-March.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Credits:
This article was helpful in making a few panorama’s when Google Photos failed me.