The first group trip I was involved in planning, principally because I wanted to ski in the States and nobody else was particularly bothered. My inspiration and encouragement for this venture was the "father" (some say "Grandfather" but that's unkind, especially when they whisper as his hearing's not what it was) of group skiing in the South East (well maybe just Billericay), Mr. Roy Chopping. Roy had been organising group ski trips for some years even then, I had already been to Les Arcs, Alpe D'Huez and Val D'Isére with his group and I decided I could be a little more involved. We decided a 14 day trip was reasonable as it's a long way to fly. Most people agreed, then decided not to come. The original party of 6 was cut to 5 due to a knee injury a couple of weeks before departure. I decided before we left I would choose something a little less ambitious for the next trip.

Excellent skiing in four main ski areas - Breckenridge, Keystone, Arapahoe Basin and Copper Mountain. All but the last of these was covered by the "Ski The Summit" lift pass. Although Copper Mountain required a separate pass it is still easily skiable from Breckenridge and like the other areas is reachable from Breckenridge in about 30 mins via the free bus service.

Trip memorable for a number of things, not least of all, Roy's luggage, all of it, going missing at Denver airport on the way there. It took 24 hours to recover the grey Delsey case. It took Roy just 5 minutes struggling with his key to then declared that he was certain that this was not his case. We asked if he was absolutely sure before we sent it back to the rep. "Yes" he replied, "I'm certain, the key doesn't fit, and anyway mine's blue and it has my initials on the top".

Let the pictures tell the rest, click on an image to view the full version, click the button below it (if a high resolution version is available and you wish to edit and print it yourself).  This may take a short while depending on your modem and connection speeds.  If you provide me with a set of your own snaps (preferably on CD, or lend me the card) I will include the best of these below.