Pi Lam Ski Trip: Jan 23-30, 2010 (Keystone, then Breckenridge)

Here's the ski plan

Jan 23 - 30 , 2010

• Sat Jan 23 - Travel / Arrival day to Keystone


• Sun Jan 24 - Tues Jan 26 - Ski at Keystone


• Wed Jan 27 check out of Keystone, drive to Breckenridge am, Ski there all day, Condo check in late afternoon.


• Thurs Jan 28 - Fri Jan 29 - ski at Breckenridge


• Sat Jan 30 - Travel / Departure day at Breckenridge

Those of you who want may be able to squeeze in extra skiing at Keystone/Breck on arrival and departure days, as Keystone has night skiing, and depending on if you take a late flight out, you might cram in a little on the Saturday. These are all Summit County resorts and a few hours from Denver; the resorts are about 45 minutes from each other.
Keystone's character is more condos / families around the mountain. Breck's more of a party town with a ski area attached. Both places are large, enough to keep us occupied for the time allotted, but not as large as Vail or the Aspen complex. I would characterize them as perhaps Sun Valley in size/sprawl. I've been to both, but not in a dozen years, so they have improved their amenities since then.

Next Steps and Time Table

If you are interested in joining us for either the full trip, or one leg, please reply. I would suggest booking some kind of travel/flights during the month of November. Once we have an accurate handle (by booked flights) on how many people will be at each point, I will work on getting condos for each end. Key/Breck both have very good shuttle service from the local airports (both Eagle/Vail and DIA) so we may be able to get by with a smaller rental car/truck. I will research condos during the month of November. I still also need to get my Epic pass, and a pair of new ski boots. NB if you will be out West for the full week, or possibly two trips, the Epic pass works well cost wise. Both of these resorts are more middle market priced (if there is such a thing in the expensive sport of skiing) rather than top tick like Beaver Creek etc.

I will put this up on the blog, and also send a note to the PiLam list in case anyone else is interested.

I look forward to seeing you all. The villainous Shot-Ski from Vermont has followed us out West.

We have arrived

After a wonderful pitstop with friends in Incline Village, Nevada we arrived yesterday in Sacramento. Our cross country trip averaged 29 mpg, 59 mph and covered 3554 miles in about 60 actual driving hours. The real travel time was longer of course, those stats are from when the engine was turned on.

The last third of the drive across Utah and Nevada was tiresome, just cold high desert with little scenery or things of interest.

The Acura handled things well and with the GPS, satellite radio, and mobile PDA internet we didn't have to do much planning. Most things could be arranged on the fly, whether rerouting for a traffic jam or changing plans for a hotel night.

Today I picked up the Corvette and brought that home. It will probably need to be retuned for the altitude here. It was calibrated for about 1000 feet of elevation in Vermont; we are lower here. The old carbureted systems cannot adjust automatically the way electronic fuel injected cars do nowadays. I am mildly thinking of getting transitorized ignition too -- it would make things more reliable. Although we should be able to use the vehicle more out here given the sunny warm weather most of the year. On the East Coast I had to put it away between Thanksgiving and Easter basically.

Snowing in Park City

We overnighted at the very nice SilverKing in Park City, arriving in a light snowfall and blustery winds. It was quite a difference from 80F Denver yest morn.

They gave us a big suite with a fireplace and jetted tub so J was able to relax a little. There are good deals to be had in ski resorts
before the season starts although the hotels are empty.

Thoughts of The Shining were not far from my mind walking through the empty lobby.

We hit the road for Incline Village in a few minutes.

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