by Kelly Saunders

Created on: October 31, 2008

Colorado Rocky Mountain High - It's a Lifestyle

Skiing the Rockies is invigorating enough, but once you get a hit of that rocky mountain high you wouldn't want to be anywhere else. Amateur skier and photographer, Kelly Saunders, takes you on a trip through the beautiful mountainside.

One of my all time favorite destinations is Colorado. I took my first trip to Breckenridge, Colorado four years ago and became familiar with the towns locale and surrounding area and absolutely taken with its magnificence. When you daydream of Colorado you immediately imagine majestic Rocky Mountains and bald eagles. You are transported to a far-away land surrounded by soft, fluffy, white powder, horse-drawn carriages, frothy hot chocolate filled to the brim with tiny marshmallows, sitting around a big, crackling bon-fire and telling tales of adventures. This is only the beginning. I happened to be two hours south of Denver in the town of Breckenridge, which is also part of the Keystone / Dillon area.

The two most convenient ski resorts are Breckenridge Ski Resort and Copper Mountain Ski Resort. Copper Mountain Ski Resort was recommended to me by a friend and proved to be a fantastic first time experience. I suggest you check out the webcams and trail maps of the resort, as well as road conditions, lift ticket pricing and other information at www.coppercolorado.com. This will provide you with an overview and give you some idea of what to expect when you arrive. They also offer, which I found rather helpful, was free mountain orientation tours. This will give you a visual image of what the trails consist of, the landscape and help match it to your level of comfort.

If you have never skied on the West Coast before I would suggest a one-time instructor lead lesson. The coaches are tons of fun and they mentor you how on how to ski the mountainous landscape. Copper Mountain offers trails for all levels and I stayed in the green zone or better known as the bunny slope or beginner's zone. But no worries I was shredding powder in no time. Yeah right. More like riding down the mountain on my rear-end. But had a blast doing it nonetheless.

The average snowfall per annum for Breckenridge is approximately 300 inches. There is certainly no shortage of powder in this region, so any area will be well worth the trip in case you decide to trek to another area. Now, in the spring and summer months in can be difficult to find solid trails and patches of groomed snow hidden away only for the novice ol

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