New Year's Eve in Breckenridge
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New Year's Eve in Breckenridge |
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Moscow,
Paris, Iowa, and upstate New York. I had gone on trips with all individuals
in the group separately, but had never, until 
now,
found a trip that could satisfy everyone in the same place. Everyone
had gone home to see their respective families over the previous weekend
for Christmas, and then met up in Denver on Sunday December 28th.
We had rented a ski-in chalet in Breckenridge, about two hours west of
Denver. The snow was good, and the town restaurants and bars were
full of resort staff and tourists.
Six of the group arrived on Sunday - Luis, Steve, Vic, Andy, Kirby, and I. Most of the group rented gear at a nearby shop, and we skied on both Monday and Tuesday. Luis spent his first two days in beginner lessons, while Steve, Vic, Andy, Kirby, and I stuck together on the slopes. Andy and Kirby possessed skills far beyond Steve, Vic and I, but we managed to hang together and even make it down some of the harder slopes. The weather was crisp and clear, and a decent amount of snow had fallen during the previous week. We went out on the town our first two nights in Breckenridge - one of the featured bars was Cecilia's, which gave us all a good chuckle. Skiing is a terribly tiring sport, and fatigues me as much as a hard day of mountaineering, and certainly more than a long 20 mile run. Most of us struggled to stay awake after finishing dinner each night.
On the first day of skiing Andy wore a real alpaca knit-hat that he
had bought during our trip to Bolivia with Cecilia for Christmas of 1999.
He had never previously worn the hat for practical purposes, and found
that it gave him a terrible itch. By the end of the first day he
was desperate for a replacement, and we managed to find a hat store after
dinner on Monday night. The store contained many costumes and humorous
hats, and Andy chose a red devil hat with two little horns. It fit
him perfectly, and would serve as a crowd-pleaser for the remainder of
the week. One of the best moments on the slopes was when a small
boy riding with his father on the lift pointed to Andy and exclaimed "look
daddy, its the devil!". A few images from the first few days:
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Alex, Dave, Kristen, and Dave's former college roommate Ed arrived on
Tuesday afternoon, just in time for New Year's eve. They met us at
the chalet for a few beers before dinner, as we rested our legs for the
long night ahead. We had made reservations at a local thai restaurant
named Maori's. We speculated that we would be able to spend the entire
night at the restaurant, and that it would transform into a good nightclub
at some point before midnight. We arrived at the restaurant around
8pm, and settled in for a long and satisfying dinner. We would need
the calories to fuel the night ahead. Steve, who had felt under the
weather all afternoon, managed to rally and join us as dinner was ending
- he had called ahead to let us know that he was on the way, so we saved
him a full meal from the assortment of leftovers. Indeed the restaurant
cleared away its tables just before 11pm, and transformed into a nightclub.
Throngs of people arrived just as the last table was being stored.
There was more than a fair share of attractive women at the bar,
so our group was happy to stay for the midnight celebration. We rallied
together at the bar just before midnight, and celebrated the New Year with
a full steam of partying and cheer. The revelry continued after New
Year's, until the first of our group decided to head back to the chalet
around 1:30pm. Most of us stayed for some additional dancing and
conversation, and finally we headed out at about 3am. We had a slippery
walk back to the hotel in four inches of new snow, and we were joined by
various other struggling partygoers. Andy still had his red devil
hat in his coat pocket, which served as a crowd pleasing prop during our
walk home. We were safely back in the chalet by 3:30pm, and asleep
shortly thereafter. New Year's images:
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New Year's day arrived in quick fashion, far before many of us (including myself) would have wished it to happen. The night of partying had taken its toll, and resulted with most of the group watching football while lounging in the chalet until 2pm. The hard-core Penn Sate fans, including Vic, Kirby, the Smiths, and Ed, went down to the local sports bar to see the start of the PSU bowl game at 11am. The rest of us joined them towards the end of the game, in time to catch a disappointing finish and loss by the Nittany Lions. We spent the remainder of the day walking around town, shopping, having coffee, and chatting about the night before and the future ahead. That night Todd arrived from his home town in New York, where he had been for a wedding on the previous day. He and Kirby managed to rally to a local bar, while the rest of us opted for an earlier and quieter night.
We skied all day on Thursday and Friday. Vic, who had hurt his
ribs during a bad fall on Tuesday afternoon, began to feel worse on Thursday
morning. He opted to ski the green runs with Luis instead of risking
further bodily harm with the rest of the group. He became known as
"Broken Rib Bolze" for the remainder of the trip. After Vic's
departure from our ski group on Thursday, Kirby, Todd, and Andy went off
to do some off-piste skiing in the upper bowls, while Steve and I stuck
together. Steve and I skied with Dave and Ed until mid-afternoon,
when we separated for the last hours of the day. We arrived back
at the chalet by 4pm, in time to say good-bye to Kirby, who was leaving
to go back to Pittsburgh for the remainder of the week before returning
to Moscow. More images:
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On Friday morning Dave, Kristen, and Ed left Breckenridge headed for Rocky Mountain National Park. Our group was down to the final seven people. Vic and Luis decided to relax in the chalet, as Vic's rib pain had gotten even more annoying. Late in the morning they decided to go to the hospital, to seek the opinion of an expert. Vic discovered that he had likely fractured his rib - the doctor had not taken an x-ray, but strongly speculated from Vic's reaction to his probing. The rib would take several months to fully heal. Ironically, Vic had tried to make bets during the first day of skiing on who would be the first in our group to break a bone on the slopes.
Todd, Andy, Steve, and I skied together on Friday. It was a tough
but rewarding day, including a great fall where my ski continued to slide
approximately 500 meters to the bottom of a bowl. I did not realize
that the ski had continued to slide after the fall, and I spent at least
20 minutes searching the slope before Todd spotted the ski at the bottom
of the bowl. Andy skied down to verify that it actually was my ski
(and not just a tree branch)- by the time he reached it, I could barely
make out his figure on the slope. Friday night we rallied together to the
Saloon Bar near our chalet, and watched as Vic and Alex displayed their
skills on the dance floor. It was quite entertaining.
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Todd and Andy skied on Saturday, while the rest of us enjoyed a long lunch at an Italian restaurant, coffee, and shopping in town. In the late afternoon we all caught a shuttle back to Denver, where we had reserved a room at the Westin Hotel (at a low price thanks to Andy's online efforts). We had dinner at a Rock Bottom Brewery, then went to a nearby club. Most of the group was back in the room asleep by 1am, except for Todd and Alex who rallied to see a few other clubs along the main downtown barstrip.
Sunday morning we taxied to the airport, and flew out without delay
or problem. After a delayed connection through a snowy Washington
DC, I arrived back in Paris at 10am, in time to make it to work for most
of the day. It would take me a week to fully recover physically from
the week of skiing, but it was well worth the effort.
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