Just before the world went crazy with COVID-19, we had the chance to put in the best skiing of the season on our trip to Colorado. It was our first time to the state and we were quite thrilled to experience the high-altitude skiing the state is famous for.
Arriving at DEN, one is greeted by a beautiful and efficient airport which has the second largest footprint in the world.
There is first time for everything, like seeing a special ski claim system like the one DEN has.
Unfortunately we wouldn't be having any time to spend exploring Denver and only saw city skyline from I-70.
Denver is on the western edge of the Great Plains and is where Rocky Mountains begin rising.
As you head further west, the I-70 starts slowly ascending the snow covered mountains.
Loveland is the closest ski area to Denver.
Approaching Loveland Pass, the highest point of the entire Interstate system.
The four-lane
Eisenhower–Edwin C. Johnson Memorial Tunnel along I-70 is the highest highway tunnel in North America and one of the highest in the world at maximum altitude of 11,158 ft (3,401 m).
We chose to stay in
Keystone, which is a fairly quiet resort town close to Denver.
Most resort towns are served by free and regular bus system which makes it convenient to move about. Pay parking is unfortunately very common at most resorts with only few options for free parking. We ended up not paying for parking anywhere, but had to utilize ski buses to do so.
Keystone has a small yet neat town center with a lot going on during the season.
Our first ski day took us to nearby
Breckenridge which has some wide open ski runs. Weather was absolutely fantastic on our first day and we really enjoyed our day in the easy runs.
A special shout out needs to be given to all resorts we visited for their excellent lift capacity which makes our home mountain Whistler-Blackcomb look a bit poor in comparison.
While the weather was beautiful, it was still very windy and we couldn't ride the legendary
Imperial Express SuperChair which is the highest chair lift in North America taking skiers to the crazy altitude of 12,840 feet (3,910 m).
It's no wonder that local stores actually sell bottled oxygen, should one be hit by altitude sickness. We were a little worried about it ahead of arriving, but ended up not having any problems. We did still hear about people that had problems wit the altitude, which is pretty extreme compared to most ski regions on the continent.
Even the valley floor in places like Breckenridge is at 9,600 feet (2,900 m), so you end up spending days in high alpine air.
We ended our great day by visiting
Keystone Ranch which is an awesome steakhouse with mouth-watering food.
Plenty of meat for the hungry skiers.
Our evening ended up relaxing by the fireplace in the log cabin's beautiful lobby.
More photos from our next few days in the second part of this trip report.
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