Copper Mountain is small ski resort but it is very quaint. The village is at the foot of the slopes and that is all there is. No little town to drive through...you just pull off of the highway and you are there at the resort. Our hotel was at the toe of the slope right near a ski lift...practically ski in, ski out...at least the closest I have ever been to it. We went shopping in the small shops and ate at the handful of restaurants...by the way, there were a lot of bars there...don't know why...there just were. Four nights at Copper was a perfect time to stay there since the village was so small. If we had stayed any longer, we would've run out of things to do and places to eat! It all just worked out perfectly.
It was just a great place to be during Christmas time. There were lights, trees, and decorations, Christmas music playing everywhere, ice skating rink and, of course, snow. The one thing that I don't like about Texas is there is hardly ever snow (at least where I've lived) during the holidays, or any other time for that matter. I understand that the presence of snow/ice shuts down the city and is a major inconvenience but I like it. But I digress...
The day after we arrived (Wednesday), the Weather Channel was promising us heavy snow by the afternoon...that snowstorm had finally caught up to us. And it definitely snowed...but not the blizzard-like conditions that we, and the Weather Channel, were expecting. Copper Mountain, and apparently everything else west of the continental divide, only got about 5 inches of snow. Denver and surrounding areas got anywhere from 2 to 4 FEET of snow. That's a lot of snow. That would not make skiing easy. It shut down the Denver airport for more than 2 days (it didn't open until Friday at noon). We realized that we had been extremely lucky to have flown in on Tuesday and that the storm should've hit on Tuesday but it didn't. The 5 in. of snow made for mighty fine skiing on Thursday and Friday (our last day of skiing). Even after the new snow fell, the mountain was not fully open and there were some bald spots on the trails. They were definitely in need of snow. If it hadn't of snowed while we were there, the skiing might not have been so good. Lucky again.
While going up the chair lifts, I talked to many folks who had been stranded (darn! stuck at the slopes!) or otherwise affected by the snowstorm. One guy from Oakland was supposed to fly out early Wednesday morning. The flight just kept getting pushed back and pushed back. He realized that the Denver airport was going to close so he got a ride back to his house, loaded up his Tahoe (throwing in his skis which he wasn't going to bring on the plane but might as well bring 'em now) and drove to Copper. He was on the slopes before the airport opened on Friday. Smart guy!
Now we were beginning to worry if the airport and roads were going to be cleared up by Saturday, which is when we were leaving Colorado, and began buffering our departure from Copper with a lot of time for complications. We called the airline to confirm that we were confirmed. The drive back to Denver was again a breeze...a little bit of ice on the road but nothing that caused any problems. Turned in the rental car with ease, checked in our luggage with no wait (Frontier airlines had major lines!) and, because we ended up with like 5 hours of waiting around for our flight because everything was so easy, we enjoyed a leisurely lunch in the terminal. Unfortunately, none of us had a clue that the true adventure was getting through security at Denver International Airport. There was message over the PA system that, to make the security line faster, you shouldn't get in line until your departure time was 4 hours away. FOUR HOURS???? We thought we made a mistake by having such a long lunch. We had only 3 1/2 hrs to get through security. Surely we would be ok, right??? We approached the security line from the front and then followed the line as it snaked around the terminal to find the end of the line...and followed it...and followed it...still looking for the end of that darn line!...and finally we found the end of one of the lines. Was it the longer of the two lines? No clues were available and the other line just looked like it just kept on going. So we got in line. I have a feeling that once again we were lucky because we had to wait only 1 1/2 hours and not 3 hrs in the security line, as we heard in stories from others. We made it through security and to the gate...which, by the way, was eerily empty. Where were all those people going through security??
Anyways, we made it through with time to spare and got on the plane to go home. I felt sorry for the people that arrrived for their flights a decent 2 hrs before their flight. But I felt even more sorry for those stranded by the storm. By the time the airport opened, it was 2.5 days before Christmas and all flights were booked. How do you get 5,000 people out of an airport on standby when there are no openings on the flights? It is just crazy to think about. We were very fortunate. We got our vacation and were able to return home with a minimum of complication. That's pretty good considering we booked our trip months ago!
Anyways, that was my vacation within a vacation. I had a great time with my parents despite my being sick. It's always good to see snow and feel what real cold weather is really like...seeing as how I'm a Texan who freezes when it's 60 degrees outside. I am just happy that I was able to come home and spend the holidays with my entire family. I am truly blessed. I hope that your holidays were as fabulous as mine. Now sit back and enjoy some nice wintery pics:
Oh and I don't know if you can see them, but these moguls were huge! I just had to challenge myself on that last day.
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