Annual Ski Trip 2007
Keystone and Vail
Dec 1st through 5th

This year we had six attendees: Tommy Trest, Nick Trest (son), Jessie Patterson, Miles Patterson (son), Holger Piprek and myself.  On the last ski day at Vail, we met up with Myk Thornton and his sister, Anna who both live up near Keystone.  We only skied two mountains this time, Keystone and Vail.  Unlike other years, the snow didn't start falling until the day we arrived.  If we had got there any earlier, there would have only been a few artificial seeded ski runs open at Keystone.  Jessie Patterson drove up with his son and brought the ski bikes.  He did not ski on the trip because of a ankle injury.

The previous year, we saw ski bikes and thought they looked like a great idea.  During the few weeks before the trip, Tommy and I bought two adult BMX bikes from Wal-Mart and converted them to ski bikes with the use of another friend's machine manufacturing shop.  We designed and welded the whole bike out of aluminum so that it wouldn't rust.  We rode them the first two days at Keystone and we found out that they should have been built with shock absorbers on the seat and suspension.  Also the force we came down on them after making minor jumps bent the seats.

On the last day we drove over the Continental Divide back to Denver.  Like previous years we stopped for pictures, but this time Tommy and I decided to climb the mountain.   The road is roughly at 11,000 feet and the mountain top is roughly 14,000 feet.  During the trek up to top, the wind picked up and the temperature dropped form around 40 degrees to well under 0 degrees.  We only had light clothing on and it took about two hours to walk up and back down, with frequent stops to rest / catch our breath.

  Keystone
1 A morning view outside of our Condo.
2 A beautiful view of Lake Dillan from the top of Keystone mountain.
3 Keith, Miles, Tommy and Nick at the top of Keystone
4 Keith, Tommy and Holger at the top of Keystone
5 Holger looking forward to skiing.
6 Jessie and son Miles Patterson and Keith
7 Keith and Tommy taking their first test run on the bikes at Keystone.  We are sitting but the bikes are designed to ride mostly standing up.
8 Keith holding up the ski bike
9 Holger and Tommy at the restaurant at the top of Keystone.  Tommy is talking with his fiancée Allah in Russia over a web cam and high speed wireless card.
10 A beautiful view of the stream running by our Condo
11 For those who are curious, a close up of the bikes at our Condo where we assembled them.

 

  Vail
1 Anna, Tommy and Myk discussing which ski run to go on.
2 Holger and Myk at Mid Vail Village
3 Keith, Holger and Tommy
4 A beautiful view of one of the down runs.
5 Anna, Keith, Tommy and Myk taking a lunch break and Mid Vail Village
6 Nick, Tommy, Keith and Holger standing in front of the town of Vail's ice sculpture entrance with beautiful Christmas tree.
7 A second picture of us in front of the Vail City ice sculpture
8 A full view of the Christmas tree and ice sculpture


 

  Continental Divide
1 Keith at about half way up from road to top of mountain.  The picture does not convey the height that still remained.  
2 Holger taking a picture from the same level.  Notice the highway below.
3 A view at the top of the mountains going west.
4 Tommy at the top with a northern view.  Winds were blowing fiercely.  We could only stay at the top for a few moments with the extreme cold.
5 Keith with a southern background view.  Notice the cold grimace on my face.