First Ski Day - Copper Mountain

We have been planning all winter that this would be the year we would get Jack and Ryan on skis for the first time (and me and Sam back on skis after a ~6 year hiatus!), but life kept getting in the way.  First, our fence blew down and replacing that ate up all of the money we had set aside for lessons. Then the polar vortex meant we didn't even want to walk outside to the car, much less go ski.

In our great optimism that skiing would happen this season, we had bought four-pack tickets to Copper Mountain Resort back in September (kids 5 and under get free season passes).

Finally Sam and I realized if we were going to make skiing happen, we needed to actually schedule time to get up the hill.

But what about lessons? Even though Sam and I are former volunteer ski instructors with the Breckenridge Outdoor Education Center (an adaptive ski program), neither one of us was excited by the prospect of teaching our own children. Copper offers group lessons for 3-5 year olds, but they are all-day lessons (Jack still takes an hour long nap right after lunch every day) and they are EXPENSIVE.

While we were weighing the pros and cons (What if we pay all that money and the kids hate it? What if we teach them and they hate it?), our friends Matt and Jillian invited us to join them at Copper Mountain for their last ski day before moving to Louisiana. We decided this was the perfect opportunity to introduce Ryan and Jack to all the elements of skiing - the gear, the resort, the lift lines, the hot cocoa....

We already had plans to celebrate St. Patrick's Day with Sam's family one day early, so we knew it would be a short day (also, see above: Jack's nap). The boys have been waking up oh-so-early thanks to Daylight Savings Time, so we planned to be on the road early to beat any anticipated traffic on I-70, get in a little time on the snow, and head back before the apres-ski traffic clogged up the highway.

We went to Breeze Ski Rentals yesterday afternoon and picked up skis and boots for the boys and skis for me (I got "engagement skis" from Sam in 2003; I sold them on Craigslist in 2010 since I was too busy birthing babies to get any runs in).

The boys were so excited about their skis and boots (and the helmets and goggles I picked up at various consignment sales) that they wanted to wear them in the house. It didn't help when Sam turned on Warren Miller's Storm, a movie featuring "extreme snow-sports fanatics" doing ridiculous jumps, flips and otherwise making their mothers' hearts stop.

Jack wanted to learn the basics early; he figured out how to get his skis on and off really quickly!

Finally, Sunday morning arrived and we were on the road bright and early. When I first moved to Colorado I thought I'd spend every winter weekend up in the mountains, skiing and soaking in the high country life (keep the pot jokes to yourself, please!) - and then I discovered THE TRAFFIC. I-70 is generally a mess after work on Friday, first thing Saturday morning, and then again Sunday afternoon. It got to the point where I would rather skip the mountains all together rather than be stuck in the car for hours, so we were really nervous that Sunday would be ugly.

Fortunately, the entire month of March is Spring Break somewhere, so many Denverites leave the ski resorts to the Texans (and Kansans, and Missourians, and Iowans!).  It didn't hurt that Spring has sprung and the weather was forecast to be just gorgeous along the Front Range; we made it to Copper Mountain in a very reasonable 1.5 hours.

After parking and then wresting with what felt like 20 pairs of little skis and ski boots, we collected all our gear and climbed on the shuttle to head to the Union Creek beginner areas. We planned to introduce them to the basics of snow-sliding - shuffling, gliding on one ski, French fries vs. pizza wedge, etc. using the bunny slopes. What we didn't realize was that thanks to Spring Break, Copper's ski school was taking over all the bunny slopes, leaving us no flat areas to start out on.

So, throwing all sense of basic ski lesson progression out the window, we decided to just climb aboard the Kokomo lift and hit the hills. We had no expectation that the boys would actually "learn" to ski today; we just wanted them to experience the joy of the snow-plow.

Sam and Ryan in the lift line - see ALL those red jackets behind them? Those are ski instructors and their classes. 

Me and Jack in the lift line; "ANOTHER selfie, Mom? Really..."

The boys LOVED riding the lift - Jack was particularly excited about seeing the trees where people have thrown Mardi Gras beads (though he seemed utterly baffled why someone would throw away a perfectly good set of beads - not broken or chewed on or ANYTHING). Getting off was easy - I just scooped him up and hoisted him down the ramp.

Once at the top we covered the basics of pizza wedge (snow plow) and putting your hands on your knees to get into the proper form. We then essentially threw our kids into the deep end by pushing them down the hill in front of us.

We had a set of Edgie-Wedgies for each boy, but those didn't really do much today. We mostly focused on getting down the hill in one piece, making the kids stand on their own (they really wanted to lean back into us and let us hold them up), and not letting them collide with trees or other people.

By the time we got down the run, we were all starving. We headed for the dining hall and tried again to reach Matt and Jillian, who had left Denver later than we had and were experiencing technical difficulties (i.e., Matt couldn't find his phone).

By the time we finished lunch they had made their way to the Union Creek Grill and we all headed to the Union Creek Quad Lift. Ryan said he didn't need to go on another run, but he did want to show Uncle Matt and Auntie Jilli what a good skier he was.

Ava has been skiing for a while now, so while Matt still skies with her between his legs to keep her from flying down the hill, she's stronger and more confident on the mountain than our boys. While we were crossing our fingers that we would make it down this second run, she was already clamoring to go on different lifts and get in more runs.

We knew Jack in particular was on the verge of an epic meltdown so we just continued down our predetermined run - it was a pretty anti-climatic way to send our friends off on their new adventure, but they'll be back in Denver soon enough.

The boys were so proud of themselves when we finally arrived back at the base in one piece - and Ryan grudgingly admitted that, even though he already KNOWS how to ski, perhaps going to ski school with other kids will be fun too.

It didn't take long for this to be the scene in the backseat and we mercifully missed any Denver-bound traffic jams.

We are staying at a house owned by friends of Bill & Nancy next Wednesday and Thursday nights, so the boys will get a "real" ski lesson while Sam and I get in a few runs all on our own.