Copper Mountain, Day 2

Yesterday was day 2 and it was a busy one. Whitney got her competition bib first thing then she and Bob were off. They went up and did some snowboarding/skiing, getting used to the altitude and the slopes here. I went out and wandered around the village some and checked out a few of the shops. We met for an early lunch, then they went back out. Whitney's group had their practice from 12:30-1:45.

It was god that they had the practice time. Although she only got in three runs, it was really helpful. They use a different start gate here than what she's used to using. It was tough the first time out, especially since it's a pretty steep drop down right out of the gate. She also encountered features on the course that she hadn't seen before; don't ask me what they were, I don't know! It was a hard first run down, the course is longer and harder than what she's done before, but she learned with each run.

After practice she was pretty much done. We met up and she and Bob got changed so we could wander around the village for a bit. We found a cool Christmas ornament for our tree and looked at the various tshirts and sweatshirts. After some relaxing time, we went back out for the opening ceremonies. There was a parade of all the series teams, lots of colorful sweatshirts, and banners. Everyone gathered at Burning Stones Plaza for the National Anthem and, speeches, and awards. We met up with a friend she had met at Wisp and Whitney got some encouragement from her. Then it was time for dinner, some tv, and early to bed.

The altitude here is a lot higher than I thought it was going to be. I was thinking it was around 7,000 - 8,000' but it's 12,313'. No wonder I had a bad headache on Friday! At least it's gone now. Just need to keep drinking water, put on the sunscreen, and wait until we get back home to our measly 75' elevation.

Copper Mountain, Day 1

Yesterday we were up super early so we could head out and get our flight to Denver. Got there in plenty of time, got on the plane (saw a couple of other families heading to Nationals), had a smooth flight and landed in Denver on time. Our bags were off the plane pretty quick, we just had to wait for the snowboard and skis, then we grabbed some breakfast to go and found our shuttle.

It was a nice drive up into the mountains west of Denver. The shuttle driver was very chatty so we learned a few things about the area. We drove through some snow showers, lots of sun.  After we checked into our condo, we got Whitney registered and checked in for the competition.

Copper Resort is a tpical ski resort town. We don't really see many like this in the East so I guess it's a tpical western ski town. There's a small village of shops with condos on top, a conference center, and lots of restaurants and walking space. We wandered around a bit yesterday, took a nap (it was a long day with the early morning and time change), and went out to dinner. Our condo has a balcony so we spent some time out there watching the ski lift and the minimul action in the plaza outside .

More fun coming up!

Another New Hampshire trip

I just got back from another New Hampshire trip last night. The season is winding down, with exciting things still to come. Whitney has done really well in the competitions this season at Wintergreen and Wisp and will be going to Colorado next week for Nationals. We spent the end of February going to the regular practices, went to NH for our annual visit and she did some snowboarding while we were there, then the last couple of practices at Massanutten. We went to NH for a few more days of practice since the resorts closer to home are now closed for the season. She had a really good day on Sunday and again on Monday. She was looking forward to Tuesday but we got 10" of snow overnight and into the day on Tuesday. With the roads we had to travel to get to Mt. Sunapee, we decided to stay home and be safe. Definitely the right decision! Besides the snow, the upper part of the mountain was closed due to windy conditions so she wouldn't have been able to get to the part of the mountain with the BX course. She spent the day playing with her cousin and did get out in the snow, just not snowboarding.

Now we're looking ahead to Copper Mountain and Nationals next week. We leave on Friday, she competes on Sunday, we'll have a couple days to hang around, then home, and the season is done.