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After the week we drove over Sunday to Aspen to stay with some friends there who build custom homes. The trip to Aspen from Vail is spectacular. AS you can see from the map below it runs right through the Glenwood Canyon. Last year a boulder dislodged and made travel impossible. This year no boulders but lot's of snow.
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| Vail to Aspen via route 70 and the Glenwood Canyon - click for a live map |
We arrived for Super Bowl and watched the game with a large crowd of Aspen locals. Most had moved to Aspen in the 60's and 70's and had made their living on the mountain and in the town. They were a real group of down to earth folks.
The next morning we got up early and headed to Aspen Highlands on the excellent local buses that picked us up right outside our front door. We skied there all day and then Nancy and I decided we had to hike Highlands Bowl. You see our son Will had done it so we couldn't leave the Highlands without at least looking at it. IT was still blowing snow and visibility was limited so we took off for a closer look. For a description of the hike click here.
After skiing we got a chance to visit our host's latest project. A spectacular mountain home with awesome views. More information is available here
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| Kitchen at Eagle Pines Estate |
Tuesday we took off to SnowMass which we hadn't visited since1992. We got there early and had a wonderful morning skiing the Cirque followed by lunch at Gwynnes High Alpine restaurant. Not to shabby.
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| Gwynne's patrons enjoying their lunch |
After a full day of skiing we got back home just in time to prepare for another dinner party, this time at our hosts house. We had great grass fed beef steaks and of course more wine and fun. We watched SALT with Angelina Jolie. This movie had the distinction of being the most expensive movie to insure in 2010. I'm not sure if anyone of us would have been able to stay awake with any less action in the movie.
The next day we took a morning walk around Aspen where we were told that a Mr. Wheeler, who built the Opera House, was the origin for the term "Wheeler Dealer". A nice thought however it might just be a lucky coincidence as the term was previously used by English fish mongers who used to wheel their catch in prior to the start of dealing.
We dropped our friends off at the airport later that morning and had a wonderful drive back to Vail where we finished our vacation with two days of Blue Sky riding.
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| Mount Sopras on the way from Vail to Aspen |
