Colorado Discoveries 51: Breckenridge Ski Area, The Walt Disney World of Skiing

23. November 2018 · Comments Off on Colorado Discoveries 51: Breckenridge Ski Area, The Walt Disney World of Skiing · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , ,

Breckenridge selfie, with her impatient family. I didn’t get any better mountain photos than this.

Yep – first non-Instagram post in a very long time. I’m sad to announce that I had to remove about 80% of my Instagram posts today due to a server upgrade that destroyed the links to the IG posts. That’s okay. You can see the original Instagram posts here. Everything since about August is still in place.

We Vollmers have been living in Colorado Springs for FIVE years and had never skied at Breckenridge…until yesterday. More »

Colorado Discoveries 46: Breckenridge on a Budget

01. February 2016 · Comments Off on Colorado Discoveries 46: Breckenridge on a Budget · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , ,

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I know, it’s been a while! I’m here, really, but with my full time work and the kids’ activities, I have had to re-prioritize my blogging. This also goes for GeekMom, where my writing is now at a bare minimum (despite having ideas for posts all the time), but I still do editor duty every few weeks.

I have numerous things to write about here on the home front, including a stunning ride on the Royal Gorge Railroad back in December but for now I want to share what a fun weekend our family had in Breckenridge. We didn’t ski (I’ll explain in a minute) but we found many other things to enjoy without spending much money.

Breckenridge Ski Resort is like the Walt Disney World of skiing. Tourists come in from all around the world for some amazing skiing, and the town of Breckenridge keeps up with that tourism industry with premier shopping, restaurants, and lodging options for their guests. More »

Utah Discoveries 11: Alta Ski Area

24. August 2015 · Comments Off on Utah Discoveries 11: Alta Ski Area · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , , , , ,
This was a shot I took in between snow showers at the top of the one of the numerous mountain peaks at Alta Ski Area.

This was a shot I took in between snow showers at the top of the one of the numerous mountain peaks at Alta Ski Area: Sugarloaf Peak (just over 11,000′). Note how much snow there was here compared to at Park City 48 hours prior, just one canyon south.

For our last day in Utah, we decided to make the trek over to Alta Ski Area, which is one canyon south of Park City. It seems so simple, but in reality, what we had to do was take a route that was a 270 degree loop that was ~40 miles to visit a resort only 10 miles away from our condo. It was about a one hour drive.

Please note that Alta Ski Area is a ski only resort. Snowboards are not allowed. I know that for many families this might be a show-stopper.

We are very happy that we elected to visit Alta during our Utah trip. It was some of the best skiing we’d ever experienced. We weren’t sure about making the trip over to the next canyon, for fear of being disappointed. More »

Utah Discoveries 7: Skiing at Park City Resort

05. May 2015 · Comments Off on Utah Discoveries 7: Skiing at Park City Resort · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , ,
It was so warm, Dave could ski in shorts!

It was so warm, Dave could ski in shorts…well, sort of…

On our first full day in Park City, we decided to check out the Park City Ski Resort, which was just a couple blocks from our condo. We took advantage of a military deal for the resort, although being one of the Vail Resorts, it was still pretty costly, even for end-of-season conditions.

It was quite warm, with highs in the 60s and blue sunny skies.

As a consequence, there weren’t many trails open, and we had numerous detours. We’re grateful the boys were skilled enough to negotiate some of the detours.

Skiing at Park City at the end of March was like skiing on the East Coast. Icy. Jacob and Timmy are obviously spoiled rotten skiing in Colorado because they had a very hard time with the changed snow conditions. They didn’t have the best day. More »

Timmy’s (Almost) GoPro Action at Copper Mountain

20. February 2015 · Comments Off on Timmy’s (Almost) GoPro Action at Copper Mountain · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , , , , ,

Last weekend we spent some time skiing. My dear friend Megan and her son Aidan came into town for the President’s Day weekend and we skied for two days. Timmy took advantage of the beautiful skiing weather to take some video with his new camera mounted to his ski helmet.

I’ll share with you right here the favorite of the three we’ve put on YouTube, which is on the Main Vein trail at Copper Mountain, and will link you to the other two.

TDV Camera: Copper Mountain
TDV Camera: Monarch Mountain

There is about 30 minutes of footage total; we’ve only edited/shared about 7 minutes of it so far.

I promise we will aim the camera a bit higher next time.

Enjoy!

Note to Self: Snowboarding is Not the Same as Skiing!

12. February 2015 · Comments Off on Note to Self: Snowboarding is Not the Same as Skiing! · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , ,
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I was as unsteady as I look here. Despite numerous warnings, I got on a snowboard and guess what? It wasn’t that bad!

This past Saturday at Monarch Mountain, with our sponsor cadet’s persuasion, I got on a snowboard for the first time.

I’ve been skiing since about age 18, gaining most of my experience during the two winters Dave and I were stationed in Korea. In fact, many of the resorts where we skied between 1998-2000 will be venues for the 2018 Winter Olympics! After over a decade of hiatus from 2000 – 2012 while the kids were little (skiing just once in those 10 years), we are skiing routinely now and the whole family truly enjoys it. More »

Colorado Discoveries 43: Ski Copper (Not Cooper)

21. December 2014 · Comments Off on Colorado Discoveries 43: Ski Copper (Not Cooper) · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , ,
My boys on the ski lift!

My boys on the ski lift!

Earlier this month our family took advantage of a local Boy Scouting promotion called “Scout Family Day” at Copper Mountain Resort. A day lift ticket, breakfast, and lunch all for $32 per person!

I had to clarify that this is “Copper” and not “Cooper” because I wrote about Ski Cooper last season. Ironically, the two resorts are very close to each other. More »

Colorado Discoveries 31: Crested Butte Ski Resort

10. April 2014 · 3 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , , ,
Standing at the top the Red Lady lift. The lifts at Crested Butte are named after former Colorado mines.

Standing at the top the Red Lady lift. The lifts at Crested Butte are named after former Colorado mines.

Our family took a Spring Break trip at the end of March to Crested Butte, Colorado. It’s home to Mt. Crested Butte Ski Resort, which is a family-friendly, classic ski resort, a far departure from the day-tripper-friendly ski mountains we’d been visiting this season. Enjoy the pictures I took with my brand new iPhone 5S’s kick-butt camera!

More »

Chugging Right Along: Baseball, Skiing, and Scouts

18. March 2014 · Comments Off on Chugging Right Along: Baseball, Skiing, and Scouts · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , , , ,
Timmy the catcher...again.

Timmy the catcher…again. His new coach’s son is also a catcher and his coach works hard on training them on techniques.

Yep, I’ve been scarce. I’ve been spending more time on my Facebook fan page than here, because I can pop up quick discussion items and engage with friends and fans that way.

That’s because baseball has started at the Vollmer house. And as the boys get older, their practice schedules become more intense. And as the practice becomes more intense, we are making more investments of time and protective equipment for them: new slider pants for Jacob, impact-resistant sports goggles for Timmy, a new catcher’s mitt for Timmy, a wheeled baseball bag for Jacob… More »

Colorado Discoveries 29: Ski Cooper (Not Copper)

26. January 2014 · Comments Off on Colorado Discoveries 29: Ski Cooper (Not Copper) · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , ,
The snow, the views, and the lack of crowds makes Ski Cooper (not Copper) a local favorite!

The snow, the views, and the lack of crowds makes Ski Cooper (not Copper) a local favorite!

Our family took two day trips over two consecutive weekends to Ski Cooper, a small resort just north of Leadville, Colorado. The lift tickets are very inexpensive, there were never lift lines, and we took advantage of the boys getting to take two full days of lessons through the resort’s “Panda Patrol” program.

I have to make clear here — such as what I put in the title — that we did not go to Copper Mountain, which is often what Google hands back to you when you Google anything like “skiing cooper” or something like that. Copper is a much bigger, more vacation-resort-type of ski area, but is only about 20 miles north of Cooper. That’s not where we went. More »

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