Schifoan is des leiwaundste - the most fun I can have without Sandra

Aloha all,

I love traveling with Sandra pretty much more than anything in the world, so for me to go on a trip without Sandra is very unusual...well, unless in involves my nieces or a frisbee tournament. But since I missed out on the joy of skiing for the first 45 years of my life, I still have a little catching up to do. That’s why I went on a little skiing road trip to Colorado and doubled my skiing experience from 5 to 10 days….and loved every minute of it!

Since I had only skied five times in my life and the last time was three years ago, I wasn’t very confident about my skiing abilities. In fact, every time I start a run, I’m not sure I remember how to initiate a turn, but somehow it miraculously always turns out just fine. And the fact that I don’t really know what I’m doing seems to add to the adventure rather than make it less enjoyable. 

Sunrise during Layover in Phoenix 

Flight over the Rockies

My first stop was the always welcoming home of the Black family in Evergreen and it did not take very long before the ping pong, pool and other games started. Thanks to an unusual and relatively affordable Friday special, Trevor and I skied at Copper Mountain the next day. That was new to me and perfectly suited for my return to the slopes: Lots of wide, green runs, great snow conditions, not too busy, blue skies and beautiful views. And to my surprise, I remembered how to ski and did not fall at all. I did not even ski into any fences like the first time I skied down the bunny hill four years ago.

Skiing at Copper Mountain with Trevor

Since I missed my new Uber driving job and since I always enjoy spending time with my hanai sister Kelly, I was very happy to pick her up at the airport on Saturday, when traffic into the Rockies to go skiing would have been crazy anyway. Plus, that means more players for whatever games we wanted to play. Miniature Golf was our favorite, I just regret that I don’t have a video of Mandy’s physics-defying putt.

Miniature Golf in Denver

My Colorado Ohana

On Sunday I drove to Aspen. Luckily, I had gotten an all wheel drive car, since parts of I70 were covered in snow, which is quite an adventure if you are used to driving in Hawaii. In my view, the snow capped Rocky Mountains are different, but equally spectacular as the tropical beaches or the rainforest on Maui. And while I enjoy the warm winters on Maui, the cold weather makes it so much more enjoyable to go to the Vapor Caves in Glenwood Springs, where I met up with Annie, Mike and Barbara. Then I finally got to see Aspen in the winter. We had already liked it in the summer, but obviously, you should visit a ski town in the winter. 

Buttermilk, home of the X-Games and my first black run!

Even at half price (it’s good to have friends in high places), skiing in Aspen is not cheap. I was wondering how they could charge more than three times as much as for example the Sunlight ski area just down the valley. Then I skied a day at Buttermilk and it all made sense. It actually is that good. I enjoyed the little perks, like the free hot drinks on the slopes, the tissues at the lift or the yummy Mongolian BBQ at the summit. l also loved that it felt like I had the mountain pretty much to myself. I never had to wait for a lift for even a minute and even in the later morning, there were still freshly groomed runs. But my favorite part were the “Ski Ambassadors”. They gave free tours of the mountain, giving me the confidence to do some blue and even black runs, which I would not have dared by myself. Granted, even the black runs at Buttermilk are very friendly and I am still very well aware that I have no real business on any expert runs in other places. One of the Ski Ambassadors enjoyed how much I was enjoying myself so much that he offered to ski with me for the rest of the afternoon. He reminded me several times that he’s not allowed to give any lessons, so he just suggested things I could try and pointed out things I could do differently. Throughout the day, I became so comfortable on the skis that I promptly fell on a super easy flat part of a green run. 

With Annie & Barbara in Aspen

After skiing all day, my legs tell me when it’s close to 4pm, so it’s not that sad that the lifts are not open any longer. I did take the next day off from skiing, but more for financial reasons than for soreness, and relaxed in the pool, hot tub, steam room and lazy river at the impressive Aspen Rec Center. Besides Aspen being a fun town, it was a real pleasure spending time with our friends Annie, Mike and Barbara and my new friend, their full body massage chair.

Our new best friend in Aspen

On Thursday, Mike came skiing at Snowmass with Barbara and me. Luckily, by now I was comfortable enough that I could at least do blue runs with them. I’m afraid they might have fallen asleep if we had stayed on green runs all day. For me, skiing blue runs most of the day was very exciting and exhausting. I don’t think Barbara realized the irony when she said at the end of the day how fun and relaxing the skiing was. My legs reminded me that this was not the work out they are used to. But luckily, they seem to recover quickly, because there were more friends to meet and more hills to ski!

With Mike & Barbara at Aspen Snowmass

The next two days, I spent at Ski Cooper (not Copper). This old school ski area opened in 1942 and it is where the 10th Mountain Division trained. It’s our friends Jeff and Angel’s favorite ski destination and I can see why: It’s uncrowded, beautiful and affordable. A two day pass was cheaper than a half day pass in Aspen. It’s also a very friendly mountain, so friendly that I was able to do a few more black runs. And mostly, after 12 years, it was fun seeing our friends again and meeting their wonderful kids. The kids were such a delight; if I had been guaranteed that my kids turn out that way, I might have considered having kids…maybe. Ski Copper is close to the fun little town of Leadville, where we went for a dinner and to a brewery. 

With the Kulichs at Cooper

On my way back through Evergreen, of course there was more ping pong with Trevor and other games with Mandy & Kelly. Those of you who know how much Kelly travels for work might not believe this, but I actually got to see her on both ends of my trip…what a treat!  

Now I am back on Maui and I have discovered one huge advantage of traveling without Sandra: Instead of being sad that my fun ski trip is over, I am just thrilled to be back with my love. But I might just have to make an annual tradition out of this.

Aloha from Maui,

Chris