Colorado: a little bit of snow and Aspen fashion

Cadet Chapel

Colorad - GardenoftheGods 2

Colorado - Echo Lake 2

Colorado - St Mary's Glacier

Colorado - Loveland Pass

IMG_4393

IMG_4436

Colorado - Aspen

Local fashion

IMG_4468

Colorado - Aspen Mountain

Colorado - Aspen Mountain 3

Colorado - Aspen Mountain 4

Colorado - Snowmass

Colorado - Aspen Mountain 2

Colorado - Aspen Mountain 5

Colorado - I70

December had arrived in Arizona, which meant sunny skies and a steady 70 degrees. Not a bad thing I would say, but the hubby desperately wanted to use his snowboard again. For that, we needed to travel...And even though Aspen is a notorious place for the rich and famous, with an emphasis on the first, we couldn't pass on the opportunity to ski/snowboard in one of the most famous winter destinations in the States. So the week before Christmas we took a plane to Denver, drank some yellow-colored liquid courage (they're good at brewing that stuff) and rented a car to drive West, to the money...

But before driving West, we first took a little detour South, to the Air Force Academy and nearby state park Garden of the Gods. If you've ever been to Utah you can skip this park-with-the-impressive-name because one red rock will not impress you much. The Academy was pretty impressive. First of all, they have a huge visitor centre with a ridiculously big souvenir shop (imagine that in Europe...). All of this is surrounded by sports fields, a football stadium and the kinda weird, 'modern', all-religions Cadet Chapel, which has a main area for the Christians (of course) and a buddhist, Jewish and Muslim area in the basement. Their idea of tolerance, I guess. But I can imagine that all this convinces many 18-year olds to join the air force. After long thinking, I decided not to apply but to continue traveling West on the beautiful I70.

Since there was not a flake of snow in sight (very rare this time of year in Colorado) we had the opportunity to enjoy the views and still make good time. We started with the Mount Evans Scenic Byway, which was closed for mysterious reasons (couldn't have been snow, that's for sure), but we did make it to Echo Lake Park, halfway to the top of Mt Evans. The lake was frozen and the mountains in the background showed a little bit of white. Idyllic! After a short walk around the lake we continued to the next exit on I170: St Mary's Glacier. Well, it didn't actually bring us there, there was some strenuous, slippery hiking involved. Love that (not). The cold wind was howling, the water was at the Glacier was frozen and there wasn't a living thing in sight, nor a Glacier. Lovely.

Luckily our last stop on the road at least had a better name: the Loveland Pass. This little detour passing the Keystone ski are gave us the first beautiful views of snow!

When we approached Aspen,however, the snow disappeared completely. And so did the cheap rental cars, by the way. From now on it was Jeep Cherokee, Suburban and Porsche. But staying in Aspen on a budget is possible. We booked a room at the Tyrolean Lodge, a family-owned hotel, the only one in Aspen that is reasonable priced. And even better, the rooms come with a fully equipped kitchenette, which saved us a lot of money. We bought supplies at a supermarket in Denver (Walmart, but you didn't hear that from me) and were set for a couple of days without spending a dollar too many. We allowed ourselves lunch on the slopes, but breakfast and dinner was 'home-cooked'. The one night we did want to go out for dinner we ended up at Dominos...

Because even though you try very hard to look wealthy, people in Aspen still look at you as if you are their cleaner. No wonder since the likes of Paris Hilton and Mariah Carey stayed in Aspen days after we left. But it also makes it one of the best places to people-watch. Skin-tight yoga pants with Uggs, woolen sweaters and Louis Vuitton bags are the local fashion, for both men and women it seemed. Oh, and don't forget about the accessory dog. Most of them don't even hit the slopes, it seems, but just gallivant around to see and be seen. And to shop at Prada and drink cocktails at the St Regis. So as long as you don't expect to be able to wine and dine there, you'll have a good time just watching them do it.

Back to what we were really there for: skiing. Like I said, we started off with almost no snow. Only about 80 of the 300 runs were open when we arrived, which was a bit of a bummer. But it also had it's advantages, like discount on rentals, no long waiting lines at the lifts and lovely icy beginner runs (jeej). Buttermilk is the family-oriented mountain and it's were I had my first ski lesson. Even though I was hoping for a handsome, tall, young male instructor, I got 'Zen Paul' (yes, really, he was that tight-yoga pants type), who should've retired when he had the chance. After telling us that his first passion was drugs, he taught us parallel skiing and the location of the Obama mansion. And while he was flirting with the only almost-retired woman of the group, me and the others taught ourselves to get of the kids' run unharmed.

So the next day I was more than ready to take on a real adult run. We decided to check out the runs at Snowmass Village, besides Aspen Mountain and Buttermilk, one of the mountains of the Aspen-Snowmass ski area. The sign at the bottom of the only slope open said 'access to Intermediate only', but up I went. Wishing some more snow would soon open the beginner runs, I made my way down with shaky legs in the middle of a slight snowstorm. And snow did fall that day! The zero-visibility and cold made it quite the challenge for me, but a sexy snow mask later, at least I was still standing at the end of the day!

Our last day of skiing was sunny and the fresh snow made the runs a lot more pleasant. We could also finally enjoy the magnificent views, especially from Aspen Mountain, accessible by one of the longest Gondola rides in the world! A fantastic end to our skiing (and snowboarding) trip.

Our way back East was not as smooth as the week before. Snow now came down in a steady downpour and traffic was like that of LA during rush hour. With almost zero visibility we did make it back to Denver safe and sound, right before they actually closed the roads for the day.

The snow stopped falling just long enough for us to be able to take our plane back to Arizona, where the sun was still shining and we could finally get back into those shorts.

It was a great 2017!