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1st annual Vans AirForce Ski Trip

M

morganjp

Well Known Member
The first annual RV ski trip is now history. It was truly delightful with sunshine and mild temps the entire week. All 4 of us returned with no broken bones and great memories. We skied Beaver Creek twice and also Snowmass, Breckinridge,
Vail and Copper. Much thanks to Dave Syvertson for the use of his fabulous large home on top of a mountain @ 9000 ft overlooking i70 and Beaver Creek.
Nick Ahlen had a ski app on his phone that showed us doing 22000 ft of vertical a day with a top speed of 41 mph. That may sound slow to you RVers and it is nowhere near the speed of an Olympic downhiller, but for a 66 yr old I assure you that it was fast enough.
Dan DeBry has some video and pics that I hope he can post on here as I am technologically challenged.
After skiing all day it was cocktails, shooting pool, playing cards and talking about airplanes. It just doesn't get any better than that.

John Morgan

PS Dave promised us that the hot tub will be fixed for next years trip!
 
Somebody took some pictures, right? ;-)
morganjp said:
The first annual RV ski trip is now history. It was truly delightful with sunshine and mild temps the entire week. All 4 of us returned with no broken bones and great memories. We skied Beaver Creek twice and also Snowmass, Breckinridge,
Vail and Copper. Much thanks to Dave Syvertson for the use of his fabulous large home on top of a mountain @ 9000 ft overlooking i70 and Beaver Creek.
Nick Ahlen had a ski app on his phone that showed us doing 22000 ft of vertical a day with a top speed of 41 mph. That may sound slow to you RVers and it is nowhere near the speed of an Olympic downhiller, but for a 66 yr old I assure you that it was fast enough.
Dan DeBry has some video and pics that I hope he can post on here as I am technologically challenged.
After skiing all day it was cocktails, shooting pool, playing cards and talking about airplanes. It just doesn't get any better than that.

John Morgan

PS Dave promised us that the hot tub will be fixed for next years trip!
Click to expand...
 
Sounds like you all had a ball. I did 83 MPH GPS, down June Mt. a few years ago.
 
A Few Pictures

Nick and Dan will have better pictures, but here are a few.

View from house with Beaver Creek and Vail in the background

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The Crew - Dan, Dave, John and Nick (left to right)

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Nasty Clouds

op2075.jpg


Sunrise

140b31h.jpg


John's Leisure Room (Our School is in Session Room)

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John's view every morning

250rzvt.jpg


John skiing at Snowmass

imp8iu.jpg


Great trip and hope to do it next year.
 
Sounds like you guys had a blast and thank you for sharing the great shots! My folks used to have a place up at Country Club of the Rockies; looks like your place might be in Cordillera. The views up the valley from there are really something.

I especially loved the photo of the "nasty clouds." Very cool.

Can't wait to see more photos!
 
Sorry I missed you guys...

I was really planning on skiing a little with you guys, but life got in the way. Next year, for sure. Looks like you had quite a bit of fun in "our backyard." :)
 
Amazing view from the house, looking out the window over the couch!! Almost gives me a little vertigo.
 
In weather textbooks the definition of "Mountain Wave Turbulence" should have that "Nasty clouds" picture!
 
Time

Stand by for more pics and video. I have some post-production work to do this weekend. The helmet cam produced some useable video out of 64 Gb recorded, but there was a lot of bounce to it. I will need to pare it down to a few short clips for fear of inducing vertigo. The last thing I want is for anyone to watch our highlight video and need to jump away from their computer saying "...Level the wings, nose on horizon, center the ball, arrest any rate of descent...HONEY, YOU HAVE THE CONTROLS!!!!"

With the freezing rain scrubbing our flight schedule Tuesday and Wednesday here in Jacksonville, I have a lot of makeups to do today and tomorrow. I plan to finish everything off this weekend and have a YouTube link, etc for everyone by Monday.

I had a great time and was constantly reminded of how this is "just a web forum" to some, but a "great community" to the rest of us. The value added for this community is immeasurable, that is why I pay double yearly even though DR says to pay none!
 
clouds

kelvin-Helmholtz clouds

look like breaking waves don't see those everyday but more often around the mountains and occasionally I see them far from mountains when flying near the tropopause.

cm
 
Well, John,
Guess that's why I didn't see you at the Galaxy Restaurant on Sunday, huh?

Amen on the cloud textbook.
 
Just curious as to what airport you flew into to go skiing and how far ya had to drive? Looks like a blast and I'd love to do it sometime!
 
Looks like a great trip! I'm going skiing in Mammoth, CA next weekend, but driving up from the Edwards area... :-\

Maybe I'll have to piggyback with something like this in my area next year.

Splinter
 
Chadmeyer24 said:
Just curious as to what airport you flew into to go skiing and how far ya had to drive? Looks like a blast and I'd love to do it sometime!
Click to expand...

We all flew into Denver (DIA) and drove. About 2hrs or so. Eagle County (EGE) is about 20min form where we stayed. About an hour and change to Vail or Aspen etc.
 
Currently in post-production

My video is coming along nicely, but here are some fun pics to whet your appetites!

First, download this app ***DISCLAIMER*** I get no money for this, etc it is just a really cool/easy app. It walks you through making spherical 360 photos and if you have a portable device (phones, tablets) it uses the gyroscope inside to make the device seem like a "window" to put you there virtually! You do not need this app to view the pics, it just makes it a neat experience! This is not a professional app, but it does an impressive job with just a phone.

http://occipital.com/360/app

If you click these links and use your browser, scroll in and out to zoom, click and drag to move the pic.

Here is a pic from Dave's balcony
http://360.io/NyH3p5


John and Nick at the top of "C Prime" at Beaver Creek
http://360.io/58bXgx

The view from the top of Elk Camp
http://360.io/dYpWNV

The view from the top of Burnt Mountain. The official name of this run is "Long Shot" we know it as "Nick's Revenge"
http://360.io/je3NS9

Enjoy!

Ohh, I also have .KMZ files for google if anyone knows/wants to make those available of knows a fun thing to do with them.
 
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I see. Always wanted to fly myself up to ski, but I've yet to get around to doing any mountain training. I've kicked some back-of-the-napkin ideas around for some ski-carrying apparatus as well.
 
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