Expedition: Retirement

As I wrote about in an earlier post, we previously attempted to claim compensation from Turkish Airlines for the delay in our return travel from Zagreb, without success. We ended up filing a complaint with the Croatian authorities, asking them to review the case and issue a ruling about whether we were entitled to compensation for the delay. At the time, we weren't terribly optimistic that anything would come of that effort.

But then, on 04 February, we finally got an email from the Croatian authorities informing us that as a result of our filing, Turkish Airlines had agreed that they owed us each €600 compensation for the delay. I also received an email from Turkish Airlines reaching out to us to make arrangements to pay us the compensation. Unfortunately, because we were skiing in Colorado at the time, we were not able to immediately provide them with all the documentation they requested, but as soon as we got home, we did so. Almost immediately we were notified that our paperwork was in order and that the case was being forwarded to their accounting department to prepare checks for mailing to us.

Those checks (for $710 each) arrived in the mail today and we immediately deposited them. It is a huge relief to ultimately be vindicated in our efforts to collect the compensation provided by the EU Regulations. This is the second time we've collected this compensation for flight delays in the EU. The first time was easier, probably because the airline involved then was Aer Lingus, which is based in the EU and is better prepared to address EU Regulations. However, the Regulations apply to *all* flights originating in the EU, regardless of where the airline is based. The lesson here is to understand your rights as an air passenger in the EU and have patience and persistence is pursuing the compensation you are owed.

We had never been to Copper Mountain before, although we had heard good things about the resort. One detail that we hadn't noted before was how high the resort was. Our hotel, at the base, was more than 9,000 feet above sea level, which made sleeping the first night uncomfortable. And with skiable terrain above 12,000 feet, I definitely was feeling the altitude on our first day of skiing. However, by the second day, I was adjusting to the altitude, and it became less of a problem after that.

It snowed overnight the first night we were there, so that we got some great powder runs in early on our first morning. The guys we started the morning skiing with wanted to go higher up the mountain in pursuit of more powder, but because I was feeling the altitude, we separated from them and joined another skier from the group, spending the rest of the day a bit lower on the mountain. We would ski with her the rest of the day and each of the next two days.

The weather through the middle of the week was clear, with sunny skies and warm temperatures, which made for comfortable skiing. And while it was relatively warm, the snow never really got mushy, so that the skiing conditions remained really good through the week. Then, on the final day, we got a significant snow storm. It began snowing overnight and continued to snow, heavily at times, throughout the day. The powder in the morning was heavy and sticky, but it got drier and lighter through the day, and by the afternoon it was delightful to ski in. We skied with a small group of club members that day that we hadn't had a chance to ski with previously.

It was a fun trip, with some great skiing and good company. While there was nobody on this trip that we had ever skied with before, we definitely made some new friends. Hopefully we'll get to ski with some of them again someday.

As we were preparing to join the ski club trip to Copper Mountain, I discovered that I had acquired Premier Silver status with United Airlines. I've never had any sort of elevated status with any airline before, so it was a bit of a surprise to see the benefits of that status as I booked our travel back to Colorado. The first difference we noticed is that I now get a free checked bag (up to 70 pounds!) because of my status. Since we put my wife on the club's group ticket, she wasn't getting any free checked bags, so the extra weight allowance allowed us to still make the trip without paying for any checked bags. The other nice benefit is that I am now entitled to free upgrades to Economy Plus on United fights, giving me extra leg room. And...I am automatically added to the upgrade request list for any available first class seats (although for the flights on this trip, I was located around the mid-teens on the list, for aircraft that only had about 8 or 10 first class seats...there was NO chance I was get that upgrade).

It remains to be seen whether our current pace of travel will allow me to maintain this status from year-to-year, but I do plan to take full advantage of it while I have it this year!

When we left for Steamboat, my plan was to demo new skis and decide what new skis to purchase. My old skis were more than 20 years old, and while they still seemed to work fine for me, they were a little beat up, and they were not ideal for powder days, especially when the snow as deep or heavy. My old skis were essentially racing skis and excelled on smooth, groomed runs. And while they may well have been too much ski for me when they were new (and I was still a pretty novice skier), in many ways I had outgrown them. So, I had come to the conclusion that it was time for new skis.

My plan was to do two days of ski demos from a chain of ski stores that had locations at all of the mountains we were planning to visit. Their demo program credits the cost of up to two days of demos towards the purchase price of new skis, so the use of the demo skis would be almost free (I would still have to pay the tax on the demo rentals). I did my first demos with this company on our second day at Steamboat, trying three pairs of skis across the day. I liked two of those pairs I tried, but the pair in the middle I hated. But given the lack of fresh snow, I decided to wait to do my second day of demos until we got some fresh snow.

That didn't happen until after we arrived in Avon and began skiing at Beaver Creek and Vail. But before I actually did any additional demos, another skier we had met offered to let me try the two pairs of skis he had with him. It was his last day of skiing, so we only had the morning to play with, but I started on his older skis first, but we had trouble getting my boots to clip into his bindings because the heels were so worn. We eventually figured out a way to get them to clip in, but it was a warning sign that I dismissed at the time. After a few runs on his older skis, we swapped, and I had a chance to ski on his newer skis for a couple of runs before he had to pack his skis and catch a bus to the airport. While I enjoyed skiing on his skis in the powder we had that morning, I found his skis to be both a little too wide and a little too long for my tastes. But it was helpful to talk to him because he forced me to think critically about how the skis felt.

Finally, during our final week of the trip, we began to get some sustained snowfall, and I was finally ready to do my second set of demo rentals. Thankfully, we decided to try to have the skis set up in advance for the next morning, because when we did so, the issue with my boots came up again. Once again, the wear on my boots prevented them from clipping into the rental bindings, and we were unable to finish setting up the rental. After making some phone calls, we found another shop where the technicians said they might be able to repair my boots, but would need to see them to decide for sure. When we took my boots to them, the verdict was that they were beyond repair.

So, I now was in a position where, if I wanted new skis, I was also going to need to buy new boots. Luckily for me, the shop we were at had a demo program that included boots, as well as skis. And their demo rentals were half of what the chain shop charged, and they also applied the rental fee towards the purchase. So, I would be out the rental fee from the first demo day, but I would get two more demo days to try boots and skis. The first day was about the boots. I picked a ski I had already demoed, and tried several pairs of boots on that pair of skis. The first pair of boots was WAY too tight...by the time I got up the first lift, my feet were already getting numb, so I skied straight down to the base and swapped them out for a second pair. That pair was fine, and I skied in them for a couple of hours. They were at least as comfortable as my old pair, and I could have lived with them as my boots, but I decided to see what my other options were. After lunch I tried a third pair of boots, and almost immediately, I knew I had found my new boots. They were, by far, the most comfortable ski boots I'd ever worn. Over the course of the afternoon, I was unable to find any position where they were uncomfortable, and by the end of the day I had decided to buy them.

Having chosen a new pair of boots, the next day was about the skis. I had basically narrowed it down to two pairs of skis: the pair I was on when I demoed the boots and a model I had rented in Switzerland last winter. I also demoed a *much* more expensive brand, just to see if they performed enough better to justify the cost. While that expensive brand was nice, I didn't feel like I gained enough performance to justify the price, and I ended up coming back to the skis I used while trying the boots. While it is longer and wider than my old skis, it has an identical turning radius, so they felt familiar to me on the groomed runs. But the extra width gives them better performance in the powder, so they would be a net improvement over my old skis.

Having made those decisions, we made the purchases, and I skied the final two days on my new skis and boots. And I *LOVED* them. I hadn't realized just how much of a difference new equipment would make. I had become accustomed to my old gear and that familiarity meant that I didn't think much about what might be better. Now that I have new gear, I look forward to the opportunities to use it.

We have become accustomed over the years to skiing alone, just the two of us. So it was a little surprising to find that we only skied alone for about five of the 21 days we skied on this trip. On our first day at Steamboat, a gentleman joined us on a lift. He asked if I could tell him how to get somewhere on the mountain, and I offered to show him. When we got there, he asked if we minded if he skied with us for a while. He ended up skiing with us for four days, until it was time for him to leave Steamboat. We had a great time skiing with him, and made a new friend.

Then, on our first day at Vail, my wife met another gentleman on the gondola first thing in the morning. When he learned that it was our first time at Vail, he offered to show us around. We ended up skiing several days with him and his friends. We also skied at Vail and Beaver Creek with another new friend we met at the condo building we were staying in.

We also skied with friends from back home, who flew out to meet us in Avon for one of the weeks we were there. We had a three bedroom unit that week, and offered to share with them. We skied several days with them as well. 

Finally, our last two days we skied with people we had met in Avon the previous year. One is a ski instructor at Beaver Creek, who skied with us at Vail on her day off. The other was a gentleman we skied with at Beaver Creek last year.

It was fun to ski with so many other people. Not only did we get to enjoy great runs with them, but it allowed us to have great conversations on the lifts as well. Hopefully we will be able to stay in touch with many of them and maybe we will get a chance to ski with them again someday.

We had such a great time skiing at Beaver Creek last year (well, except for the broken arm) that we were looking forward to returning. My wife, especially, wanted to return, to confront her injury and prove she was able to ski here without further injury. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate. Huge sections of the ski area remained closed throughout our visit, leaving us limited options for skiing, and marginal conditions for much of our stay. Those closures and bad snow conditions made navigating the mountain more challenging, and we ended up only skiing five days there.

Having said that, we did get a couple of decent powder days later in our stay, and did enjoy skiing the soft snow when we had it. One of those days was the last day for someone we met our first day as Vail, and he loaned me his skis to try, knowing that I was looking to buy new skis. His skis were fun in the powder, but were a bit longer and wider than I ultimately decided was right for me.

The other powder day was our last day in Avon. We skied with a friend we made last year, and enjoyed the powder early in the morning, and worked our way around the mountain through the rest of the day, ultimately ending at the main base area for free cookies at the end of the day.

While the conditions were not what we had hoped for, we still enjoyed the skiing we were able to do, and I fully expect that we will return to Beaver Creek again someday, hopefully when the snow conditions are more optimal. 

Our first ski destination was the Steamboat ski resort, which we consider our "home mountain." This visit marked our 20th time skiing the resort, and it felt like coming home. Because of the ongoing drought in the Rocky Mountains, this was the thinnest we've ever seen the snow here. However, the grooming crew was doing a heroic job of keeping the mountain skiable, and we still had a good time and got in some excellent skiing over the six days we were here.

On our first day, we randomly met a very nice gentleman in a lift line who was skiing alone, and ended up skiing with him for the next several days. He was less familiar with the mountain, so we show him around and helped him find places that we thought he might enjoy skiing. We even had some fun playing with sport video cameras, capturing simultaneous videos that I was later able to combine into split screen format.

I also took one day at Steamboat to ski on some demo skis. It was my first step towards replacing my 20+ year old skis. I liked two of the pairs I skied on that day, but *hated* the third. Ultimately, the day left me still undecided about what skis I might buy to replace my old ones.

Our final two days at Steamboat, we skied alone, but we visited some of our favorite parts of the mountain, and finished our week at Steamboat feeling like we got as much good skiing as was possible for the conditions.

 

Because we tend to use time-share exchanges for our accommodations for our ski trips, we usually end up planning our ski season months in advance, without any idea where or when the snow conditions will be optimal. Usually, this isn't a big deal because the snow conditions out west are almost always far superior to anything we can find closer to home. This year, we had an opportunity to string a series of exchanges together in an unbroken stretch that would allow us to ski for three weeks while only needing to fly out and back once.

The plan was to fly into Hayden, Colorado and spend the first week in Steamboat Springs, skiing the Steamboat ski area. Then we would rent a car to make the short drive south to Avon for an additional two weeks and a bit, to ski the Beaver Creek and Vail resorts. This stay involved a couple of room changes, since we opted for a three bedroom unit for a week in the middle so that we could have friends join us. Then, at the end, we would fly home from the Eagle County airport.

The end result was a 24 day trip that allowed us to ski 21 days over a 22 day period. While the snow conditions may have left something to be desired at times, we still had a great time. We got some great skiing in, and skied with both old friends and many new ones we met along the way. 

The final site we visited on our trip was the archeological sites of ancient Carthage. Like most people, the extent of my knowledge of Carthage was limited to the story of Hannibal's army and its elephants crossing the Alps to attack Rome, and the eventual destruction of Punic Carthage by the Romans. Originally settled by the Phoenicians, Carthage would grow to be the largest metropolis in the world before being destroyed by the Romans. The Romans then built their own city on the site as part of their African province. Because there has been a population center almost continuously since then, which means the ruins here have been scavenged heavily for building materials for later structures, so that the remaining ruins here are not particularly impressive. However, because of the historical significance of this site, it is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Our first stop was to take a look at the ruins of the Roman cisterns. Located at the end of a long aqueduct that brought water down from the nearby mountains, these cisterns stored the water that supplied the Roman city of Carthage. The complex is rather massive, which gives a better feel for the size of the population here during the Roman Empire. Archeologists have begun excavating a few of the cistern chambers, though most are at least partially filled with debris and other sediments.We then visited the site of the city itself. There are sections of columns and other architectural elements stacked around, and we got a good look at the excavated ruins of some homes from the Punic period. Otherwise, there wasn't a great deal of interesting structures to look at here.Our next stop was the Tophet of Salammbô, a Punic sacred site that may have been used to bury the remains of child sacrifices. Scattered around the site were dozens of memorial markers that had been excavated from the site. There was also an ongoing excavation on the site, and we could see some burial urns that were used to bury the remains.Finally, we made a stop at the ancient port of Punic Carthage. This port was part of the strength of the Punic Empire, providing both a commercial harbor, and a heavily protected naval port that sheltered the Carthaginian fleet.