Some ski seasons are all about the powder — 6 feet falls in Crested Butte one day, and the next, Vail is buried. This becomes the day-by-day thread of our winter, especially if we play on mountains.
And while the lifts are still running at Echo Mountain, Loveland and Arapahoe Basin, this was not one of those epic winters. It didn’t matter, not to most of us.
Young kids, apple-cheeked and swaddled in ski gear, snowplowed their way down beginner runs, giving their parents high-fives at the bottom. Minutes later, though, many of them were tugging at Mom’s parka: “I’m c-c-cold. Hot cocoa?”
Teenagers, inspired by visions of Shaun White doing flips above half-pipes and Lindsey Vonn storming down mountains during the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, gritted their teeth and went for it.
The rest of us worried, sometimes, about our wobbly knees and our aching thighs. And we never thrilled to the I-70 sojourn. But when we stood at the top of mountains and looked at the peak-decorated horizon, when we pushed off onto a trail and turned, we smiled.
Epic or not, it is Colorado, it was winter, and we skied. And smiled.
(Scroll down for more photos or click on the ‘EXTRAS’ link above to see more photos from the Colorado’s 2010 ski season.)
