The first phase is the new Lodge at Mountaineer Square and the Mountaineer Conference Center where we’re staying, just steps from the lifts.
The lodge and conference center wrap around a cozy courtyard, in which guests can find visitor services, dining and shopping. Here the Crested Butte Adventure Center serves as the “resort concierge,” a one-stop shopping venue.
Organized chaos. Three adults, four college kids, two teens, and a five year-old and three year-old getting ready for a ski day. I‘ve got a sinus infection so I opt not to ski today. I take 13-year-old Eva to the “teen” class. Ellen Osterling, who oversees the kids’ programs, says the ski school tries to offer teen classes every day — even if they have to send out a teen with his own instructor.
We’re heading to Crested Butte Mountain Resort in Colorado to meet up with an assortment of family, all staying at a condo in the spanking new Lodge at Mountaineer Square, which is part of the hundreds of millions of dollars of improvements here.
Even better, no more soggy hotdogs or lukewarm mac and cheese for lunch and no more putting kids on the chairlift with strangers: the entire class can ride up with their instructor on a six-passenger chairlift and eat together on the mountain. The teens and tweens, of course, will love the parks and pipes and the night skiing this resort is famous for.
Five years is too long between vacations. Just ask Amy and Matt Wilcher. The Ohio couple hasn’t had a vacation since their Caribbean honeymoon five years ago. Now that they’re parents, they’re contemplating an entirely different kind of getaway with their 2-year-old daughter
The Utah Olympic Park was the venue for Nordic jumping, bobsled, luge and skeleton events during the 2002 Winter Olympics here. Today, world class athletes train here — you may see them if you visit Tuesday through Saturday. They train in summer as well as winter. Today the Park also continues to serve as a year-round competition site.
Let’s hear it for a place that loves families. “We want to make it easier for them,” says The Canyons Ski School Director Barry Stout. He notes that the “Cat’s “ program for 4-6 year olds not only is one stop shopping but guarantees a 3:1 ratio. There are three terrain parks and six natural half pipes as well as plenty of hike-to terrain for those craving the steeps and the deeps.
Welcome to Antonin Gaudi’s unfinished masterpiece, the Sagrada Familia, www.sagradafamilia.org , Barcelona’s most famous site and Spain’s most visited. More than 40 years after the eccentric and revered architect’s death – he was struck by a tram – work still continues on the huge church first begun in 1882. Some 2.5 million people visited last year.
Holly, a single mom of three, was an Olympian and World Cup champion. She skied on the US Ski team for 10 years. She raced from the time she was eight until her late 20s. But she knows that most of the women who sign up for her clinic aren’t world class athletes.
For me, it’s later in the afternoon at the top of a gnarly, bumpy steep run called Grizzly. I can’t figure out where in the bump to turn. I’m afraid to point my skies downhill. It’s so steep! The bumps are so big! But I square my shoulders and say I’m not going to let the mountain defeat me.
TakingTheKids