Sabbatical Ski Adventure

Jeff woke at 4:15 mostly due to glogged nose, but also anxious about weather and drive.  The Hampton lobby made for a good hangout until 6 am breakfast bell. The trek to Telluride was wet, and the snow packed as expected. During bearly morning Jeff found the Telluride app, which like Epic or IKON will track you skiing.  While you can ski up to 7 days on the Epic Pass, the mountain is not a Vail Property, so for future make sure app is loaded and physical pass in hand.  The new Epic Phone based pass did not work.  Of course by the time we started skiing forgot to start the app. It snowed all day with heaviest coming at the end.  Drake made the call to ski down to the Village to have lunch and save our sandwiches for dinner.  We e joyed sitting at the outside bar and chatting with some guys from MI.  Wings and Fries with beer and fireball shots. After lunch we worked our way across the mountain and after two runs tackl...

After a few more Fifty Ski videos it was time for night night time around 10 p.m.  4:45 both of us stirred and started the day.  We have an 1 hour plus trip to Telluride, so planning to leave at 7:00 a.m. with the slopes opening at 9:00 a.m. At 6:00 a.m. another Hampton Breakfast.  Western Omelets and Sausage with  up of coffee and Gatorade.  Added a waffle and Drake his morning bagel. 6:40 a.m. departure trip to Telluride was good with cloudy conditions.  About 15 degrees colder than Taos, but not bad in the 30s at the base.  Tomorrow an earlier start as snow coming in early Friday am. View entering Telluride is like so much of CO, just something pictures dont capture. We parked in the free lot next to lift and had a short wait to start the day.  Downtown Telluride is like so many ski towns, but like Ouray tucked into the back of a valley with awesome views. Skiing conditions were good and with snow coming going to get better.  T...

Good night sleep!!  A partly cloudy day ahead for our Travel Day to Cortez, CO where we plan to base for Telluride.  After a quick discussion we opted to skip the morning ski option for the ability to do some scenic driving.  A couple of observations a out Taos.  Very rustic and in many ways like a border town on the mexican side.  The economy must be tough.  The Hampton was ok, but really run down.  Would not stay there again.  Maybe by the mountain as some newer places were available. Why Cortez you may ask for this next leg of the trip.  The cost to stay local in Telluride was over the top so opted to suffer the extra drive time each day.  The plan is after or second day of skiing we will head to Grand Junction instead of Cortez.  The next travel day is to Salt Lake City to meet up with the family members joining us. The drive was an awesome trek with only one spill for Jeff.  The cap to the protein drink dribbled down the f...

January 28th is here and with a 4:45 am wake up the trip begins.  Jeff headed out at 6 am to pick up Drake with Janie following.   Sarah strained her back yesterday, so grandma helping by taking Parker for the day and sleep over.  Upon arrival the last packing of Drake's gear and then on the road 6:55 am departure. Starting mileage was 50,170 First pit stop for food and mother nature in Emporia. Drake worked up to the Chiefs game start.  Between radio and Drakes laptop we were able to keep up with the game until the last few mins when we lost coverage. The drive overall was a refreshing change from I70.  After crossing I25 the foothills took over and the drive became a windy mountain drive. Came across several deer in the road and safely got by. Chiefs victory!!!! Taos is a big desert valley with a great skyline and we had the sunset on top.  Check into Hampton (a little tired, but suffices).   ...

Today marks the less than 48 hour window for departure. Drake has a 4 week sabbatical he earned through 7+ years of tenure with Cerner (Oracle). He approached me over 9 months ago with the proposition to do a 4 ski trip. I was in being retired, but then as we started to discuss realized that's a long time for the overall family. We also after our initial mapping of the various mountains determined that any CA ski resorts were outside the realm of reality. So the trip narrowed a week and several mountains to end in our current itinerary. Kansas City to Taos, NM - Telluride, CO - Salt Lake City, UT (Snowbird, Alta, Deer Valley, Park City) - Jackson Hole, WY - Big Sky, MT - and then Summit County for Keystone and Copper. We had Sun Valley, ID in the mix, but with poor conditions and president day pass issues, we opted to change things up and drop that location. We were able to cancel our VRBO and only lost a $90 deposit with 12 hours to spare. Yesterday, I picked u...