About six weeks ago we visited our daughter Carolan in Frisco, Colorado, and skied with her at Copper Mountain. This was the first skiing I did on a large mountain since 1968, when I was a "student" in Innsbruck, Austria. I wondered if I could still ski and also wondered if the altitude would affect me. Luckily, I could indeed still ski, and wasn't too affected by the incredible altitude--the peaks at Copper Mountain are nearly 11,000 feet. The last time I was at this elevation was in May or June of 1968, when Tim Forward and I climbed the glacier on the Austrian Mountain called Zuckerhuettl ("Sugar Shack"). Tim and I climbed the mountain glacier on skis; the last hundred yards or so, we took off our skis and climbed by foot up the steep "horn" of this great mountain on the Austrian-Italian border in the Stubai Valley (Stubaital). Tim got terribly sunburned in this adventure. Luckily, he did wear sunglasses, so there was no eye damage.
During our 4-day visit to Colorado, we visited towns like Leadville, Breckenridge, Vail, and Boulder. I was impressed by all the wonderful public art in these places. Posted above is a photo of a sculpture of jackasses we encountered in Breckenridge. I will be on the right in this photo; the jackasses on the left.
