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2+ FEET OF FRESH POWDER!!!Another storm moved into Mammoth yesterday and left us with 27 inches of fresh powder on the mountain today. More storms are expected to move in next week, but the sky is clear today so don’t miss this chance to experience the amazing conditions at Mammoth Mountain.

Vail Resorts have announced their opening dates already for the 2009-2010 ski season and we haven’t even started skiing in New Zealand yet. 

Vail Resorts mountains are: Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone and Heavenly.  Your lift pass is also valid at Arapahoe Basin (close to Keystone).

Opening and Closing Dates for the 0910 Season

VailFriday, November 20, 2009 through Sunday, April 11, 2010 Beaver CreekWednesday, November 25, 2009 through Sunday, April 11, 2010 BreckenridgeThursday, November 12, 2009 through Sunday, April 18, 2010 KeystoneFriday, November 6, 2009 through Sunday, April 11, 2010 HeavenlyFriday, November 20, 2009 through Sunday, April 18, 2010

Hi Lianne

We had a fantastic holiday thanks and came back with no injuries, so that was lucky!  I absolutely loved Disney California park, that would have been the highlight for me in LA, terrific rides.  Michael couldn’t quite handle the tower of terror ride and had to have a sleep at the first aid at Disneyland on new years eve!  The only negative about LA was the Disneyland Express.  We missed it because it came 10 minutes early and so we had to catch a shuttle, luckily we made it to the airport and our shuttle (all to ourselves, not Super Shuttle) was cheaper than Disneyland Express without all the faffing around.  

We absolutely loved Denver, very glad we stayed there.  The Doubletree hotel in Denver is superb, with free pick up from the airport, which was great and the staff were very helpful.  Cherry Creek mall is an excellent shopping spot, I managed to blow a heap of cash there at the sales.  It is about a $15 cab ride from the double tree and well worth it.  At the nearby shopping complex that Doubletree run a free shuttle to there is a fabulous restaurant called something like Jim and Nicks bbq, it might be a chain restaurant but I have never seen it anywhere else is the States.  Anyway, highly recommend that restaurant to eat at. 

Copper was our favourite resort of the two, in fact I don’t think either of us would go back to Winter park.   Copper was fantastic.  We had 15 inches of powder overnight at one point and it was a lot of fun.  They also have the beeline advantage which was good, and would be even better if you were there when it was busy.  We were in Copper One so basically right next to the American Eagle, really convenient.  It was fabulous having kitchen facilities, we cooked most nights.   

The winter park accommodation was really fabulous, especially the hot tub, but founders pointe is too far away from the mountain so you had a bit of a hike with all the gear.  The best thing about winter park resort was the free on demand shuttle they provide that will take you anywhere you want to go.   Winter Park itself was windy almost the whole time, in fact I got caught in a blizzard at one stage because they didn’t close the highest lift quick enough, that was unpleasant.  On our last day there though we had a blue sky day and it was beautiful up the top then.  Unfortunately though the snow quality at Winter Park was poor, by our last day there it was absolute rubbish, almost as bad as Turoa on a bad day.  They simply didn’t get enough new snow.  Also, Winter Park is hopeless for snowboarding.  I think they actually need to warn people that it is NOT a snowboarder’s mountain.  Constant flat long traverses are a killer and there are way way too many mogul runs.  Even for skiing there were too many mogul runs.  I actually changed to skiing for pretty much the whole time I was at winter park because it was just too much effort to snowboard (especially at high altitude, it is pretty hard to get around). San Francisco was undoubtedly a major highlight.  What a beautiful city, we only wished we had more time there.  The Handlery is quaint, and I enjoyed staying in Union Square (fabulous Niketown store). 

So everything went very smoothly except for the minor hiccup with the Disneyland Express.  Thanks for doing such a great job organising the trip.
 

Kind Regards

Joanne