Forty-eight enthusiastic skiers descended upon Detroit Metro Airport early on Saturday, January 16 for a week in posh Beaver Creek, Colorado.   Of course the lines were long at the Northwest counter and security lines were slow as well, but a few wise individuals slid through security quickly by ducking into the Westin Hotel.   Our group included individuals from six different ski clubs.  Represented were the Jug & Mug Club, Summerset Singles, Livonia Ski Club, Schussmeisters, DTE Ski Club and of course the Thunderbird Ski Club.  Our flight was uneventful, the bus was prompt, participants made it in and out of King Soopers and Applejacks in a timely fashion and we arrived at Ridgepoint Townhomes on schedule.  We were greeted by Corey at Ridgepoint with an overview of the complex, wine, cheese and CHOCOLATE!

On our first evening together we enjoyed a pizza party, wine and beer, snacks, prizes and a visit from former TBird instructor, Mark DeFelice.  Mark teaches skiing and snow boarding in Vail, which is just up the road from Beaver Creek.  Our Arizona connection, Al and Linda Eger, brought loads of grapefruits and oranges from their trees at home.  Mike Carlin celebrated a birthday with his entourage, better known as F.O.M. (friends of Mike).  What a great way to celebrate a birthday!

The first day of skiing for 22 of the 48 began with a Mountain Tour.  Two of our guides were former Michiganders who quickly bonded with our group.  Before the tour started we were given a warm chocolate chip cookie from a cheerful “baker.”  This is a daily treat given out by the folks at Beaver Creek.  Two of our renegade skiers, Gari Chaffin and John Strasko, split early from the tour.  They had enough of the area’s history and landmarks and just wanted to ski.  A lesson that many of us learned was that the snow is not icy or slick at Beaver Creek but is considered “polished.”  The first few days had too many “polished” spots for my taste.  During our first Après Ski of the week at Coyote Cafe, we learned how Linda Sullivan finances her trips.  She buys a $3 tub of butter for her condo and charges each condo mate $3 for that tub.  Three times six is eighteen!  Linda was a good sport and endured the teasing by Gary Green and Ron Wilson.

Our week included skiing at both Beaver Creek and Vail.  During our week, Don Bartos entertained us with a snowboarder move on top of a chair by the fireplace during lunch.  Ron Pipski thrilled all the ladies with a view of his backside (covered) by the fire.   Bob Segard, Dale Taylor and MaryLiz Ferris decided to “ride” some black dirt rather than “ride” the black bumps.  John Wischman discovered after two days that he was skiing on a stranger’s skis rather than his own.  The discovery was made on the shuttle bus back to the condos!  He wondered why those darned things didn’t fit right!  Our Ms. Evelyn Fitzgerald forgot to get off the Strawberry Park Express Lift.  Too busy hailing other TBirds  to wait up.  The entire lift got to wait for a short time while she was being helped down.  She must have attended the same loading and unloading school as Ron Wilson.  Dennis Murray, Phil Rockafellow and Bill Erskine thrilled the ladies with their hot tub robes complete with work boots.  This will probably start a new hot tub attire fad.  Lou Maiorano managed to loose his wallet on the hill but was lucky enough to have it returned by Beaver Creek personnel, totally intact.  Maybe he’s Irish?  Unfortunately Doris Byrnes, Peggy Carlin, Tom Lenard and Jerry Sawyer were under the weather part of the week and didn’t get to completely enjoy skiing each day.  On Thursday, we were joined on the hill by Danny (Turf News) Pinegar from Steamboat and Mark DeFelice from Vail.  If you happen to run into the “Little Bullet,” Arlene Bellas, ask her what happened to her boot bag and why she has been assigned a luggage supervisor for all future ski trips.

It was a wonderful week.  The condos were beautiful, the scenery was spectacular, the companionship was fabulous and the skiing was reasonably good (they need more snow at this time).  The motto of Beaver Creek is “not exactly roughing it.”  There is a lot of truth to that motto!