Copper Mountain

Christine and I went to Copper Mountain yesterday for some fun on the snow. It was a day of ups and downs to say the least.

We almost called the trip off at the last minute because Bucket hadn't been feeling well, but in the end we decided he was going to be fine. That give us a little later start, but we still made really good time. Even with some stop and go traffic on, we managed to get to the Copper Mountain parking lot in almost exactly 2 hours.

A pleasant surprise for the day was that djcrash and netski55 called while we were on the road and wanted to meet us at Copper. We ended up getting there at about the same time too. How perfect. Perfect, that is, until we realized that we left part of Christine's telemark bindings at home. Big bummer. She decided to check out the rental equipment to see if anything would fit her, and we were in luck. After trying about 6 different boots, she found a pair that fit and she got some good demo alpine equipment to try out.

There was no new snow and the first few runs of the day were a slick with hard snow, but once the sun came out, the snow softened up really nice. It ended up being a beautiful day. We skied through lunch, snacking while on the lift, and ended up leaving around 1 in an enjoyably sore condition.

We decided to follow Annette and John to a deli in Dillon for a bite to eat before we headed home, and wouldn't you know it there was an accident on I-70. Shocking, I know. I swear, this is the number one reason why I didn't buy a ski pass this year. Even when you're on I-70 on a perfectly sunny and dry Monday afternoon, you still end up sitting in accident traffic. I was glad we were only going to Dillon, but it still took us almost an hour.

The Dyer's took us to Jersey Boys Pizza & Deli, which is apparently one of their favorite local joints. They've got all sorts of great sandwiches (hot and cold) and pizza all homemade from scratch right there. Christine and I split a chicken parm sandwich and it hit the spot. The veggie melt that John and Annette had looked equally as good. And since they're one of the few places that deliver around there, the Dyers plan on keeping them in business. I would have never known about it unless they told us, so thanks for showing me a good new place to eat when I'm up there. It sure beats sitting in traffic. Next time I'll try to make it for $1 slices and beers at happy hour. :)

When we got back on the road it looked like I-70 had cleared up, so that's the route we took (instead of Loveland Pass). We were moving along pretty good until we got about about 1 mile from the tunnel and then we came to a screeching halt. Frequently when there's a lot of traffic on the other side of the tunnel they stop letting traffic through so that people aren't filling the tunnel up with carbon monoxide from their idling cars. I only know that because it's happened to me like 3 times. It's SUPER frustrating to just be sitting there on I-70 with nowhere else to go. Once you pass the Dillon exit, there's no more exits until the other side of the tunnel.

We finally got to the other side about a half hour later, and of course the road was still pretty clogged. I had some time to kill last year on the way back from a trip, so I tried out all the frontage roads along I-70 to see where they went. I was always so frustrated sitting on I-70, watching people cruise by on the frontage roads so I had to figure it out. It paid big dividends in this traffic; we got off the highway in Georgetown and didn't get back on until past Idaho Springs. It was such a joy to see the slow traffic on I-70 and know how much faster we were going. Neener neener!