For our first venture outside Europe, 7 of the 8 hounds travelling gathered on the morning of Wednesday 18th February, these being Anton, Bud, Carpy, Hensh, Martin the Fireman, Maz and Turkey. Bunny was to join them at the airport in his native Manchester.

The minibus trip to Manchester was trouble free and took less time than anticipated leaving plenty of time to get through the now extensive security checks on flights to the USA. Turkey set the agenda for his own holiday by spending virtually the entire time we were waiting for the flight on the phone to his office.

We left the UK pretty much on time for the 8-hour flight to Philadelphia whereupon an even more rigorous round of security checks was conducted. At one point Maz was escorted away into a back room by US immigration officials, we naturally assumed this was for a full body search to be conducted and when he returned some time later with a huge grin on his face we assumed this was exactly what had occurred.

However, it turned out that Maz had been singled out because his hip flask had been identified as being a suspicious item by the hand baggage scanning device (which was odd as several other hip flasks were dotted around in other hounds hand baggage and none had been considered suspicious). Anyway, Maz was asked to drain his flask of Slivovic, most of which disappeared down his throat, hence the huge grin we saw when he returned, an expression that was to stay with him for the remainder of the trip to the resort.

The connecting flight to Denver was delayed (the crew had not arrived from Florida) and so to pass the time we sampled our first American sandwich, each of which could have kept hunger at bay for weeks for the entire population of a small third world nation. We eventually flew on to Denver, which was a further 4 hours of pleasure, where we retrieved all our gear (some of which had been opened by the US customs officials) and met up with Sarah the Neilson rep. Sarah handed us over to Jimmy the limo bus driver for the final leg up to the mountains. Jimmy turned out to be a real hero as he had showed up with a case of cold beers that were quickly distributed among the troops and consumed. The run to the resort took another 2 hours and when we arrived we were all pretty travel weary. Despite all good intentions to go out exploring, after 24 hours travelling everyone just crashed out.

The town of Breckenridge stands at a height of 9,600 feet (2,926 metres) above sea level, it's peaks are at 12,998 feet (3,963 metres) covering 2,208 acres. The high altitude conditions were something that the majority of hounds had not experienced before and therefore acclimatisation was something that took several days in some cases. Breckenridge clearly recognises the possibility that visitors may suffer from altitude sickness and has a couple of oxygen bars, one of which was frequented on the first couple of days by both Bunny & Carpy.

As for the skiing, day 1 (Thursday) in Breckenridge was not too energetic as we were all suffering from jetlag, travel weariness, altitude sickness etc. however, ignoring all these ills and ailments (of which he was one of the principal sufferers) Mr Carpanini felt it wise to lead us all down a double diamond black run within the first hour of hitting the slopes. Day 1 was a cloudy day, which was no surprise as we had all seen the weather forecast of an impending dump of snow. Sure enough, as the day drew to a close heavy snow started to fall. A few people feared a repeat of the previous year at Tignes where we were virtually snowed in for 4 days but thankfully such fears were dispelled when we awoke to glorious sunshine on the morning of day 2 (Friday).

The sunshine, the sleep assisted general improvement in the wellbeing of the group, and the news of 4 inches of new snow that had fallen overnight prompted everyone to head for the slopes with great enthusiasm. The fresh powder snow was absolutely fantastic and with Martin leading the way a great day was had in and out of the blackest of black runs and the most winding tree-lined routes that could be found. They say that fortune favours the brave but on this day (as on most days) misfortune showed favour on the Turkey. This was illustrated when Turk fell on his bum bag causing the top of his sunscreen bottle to snap off. Turk was not immediately aware of what had occurred and needless to say with no top on the bottle the sunscreen oozed everywhere over the entire contents of the bum bag. At lunchtime Turk unzipped the bag to dip in and retrieve a piste map, the look on his face while he was pulling huge globs of sunscreen out of his bag with various bits of paper and debris sticking out of each glob was enough to put anyone off their lunch.

A cloudy day 3 (Saturday) and a sunny day 4 (Sunday) were spent without incident further exploring Breckenridge enjoying the remains of the powder and the generally excellent snow throughout the area.

During the numerous conversations we had had with the natives Vail was most frequently mentioned as the place to go so on day 5 (Monday) we took the hour-long bus ride from Breckenridge to the largest ski area in the US. We all had a good day in Vail and we were impressed by the huge wide-open pistes with hardly anyone on them but once the day was over the general feeling was that we preferred Breckenridge. This feeling may have arisen because we hadn't had time to fully explore the Vail area and discover the desired challenges. We also felt that had we been in Vail on a fresh powder day we might well have enjoyed it far more. Day 5 provided us with the closest we came to a serious injury throughout the trip as Bunny somehow did the splits while skiing off a steep slope down on to a track. Upon inspection of the distance between ski marks left in the snow by Bunny's skis it is hard to believe that one man was wearing both skis at the same time when the marks were made.

Day 6 (Tuesday) was spent back at Breckenridge without Bunny who was feeling the effects of the previous days incident. This day was definitely tree heaven as by this point we felt we had covered all the areas Breckenridge had to offer and therefore Martin ploughed us into tree run after tree run after tree run. Thankfully, no US forestry commission officials were in the area as they would not have been impressed by the events occurring in their wooded areas.

Day 7 (Wednesday) was a rest and shopping day for most of the hounds who headed off for a nearby retail park to take advantage of the favourable Sterling-Dollar exchange rate. The exceptions were Martin, Bud and Carpy who ventured to Keystone, which was approximately half hours bus ride. It was at Keystone that Martin, Bud and Carpy found a new friend in the form of a member of the Colorado piste police who escorted them off the mountain having informed them that they had violated Colorado state laws by skiing through the trees in a closed area. The guys reasoned that they had skied through that very area during the morning period and it was unusual to close a ski area as early as 1:30pm but Mr piste plod was not interested in such representations and down the mountain they all came. When everyone met up again that evening the description of how good Keystone had been prompted the decision for the entire party to check it out the next day.

On day 8 we all headed for Keystone with the promise from Martin, Bud & Carpy of something a bit special on the final run of the day. The 3 of them were pretty tight lipped all day about the delights to come while everyone else made assumptions as to the nature of the surprise ahead. In view of whom the 3 incumbents of the knowledge were everyone else assumed there were cliffs, dense forest or waist deep snow involved. Keystone is nowhere near as extensive as Breckenridge but had some great runs and some good powder snow areas near the top. The tree areas, particularly the Wolverine run, were less dense than Breckenridge but there was loads of snow and made for much greater speed between the trees and in most cases far less control. Martin, Carpy & Bud bumped into the piste plod that had escorted them off the mountain the day before but thankfully, this time, nobody strayed across the line of the law. Finally we all headed off down the final run, 3 with big grins on their faces and 5 very wary of what they were about to experience. It turned out the day-end surprise was a terrain park containing loads of rails of various shapes and sizes and huge jumps, all of which we left well alone. What we did find to our liking was a couple of half-pipes, one big, one small and needless to say it was the big one that we all tackled with Martin manning the video camera having gone on ahead. Each one headed into the pipe with varying degrees of speed and care. Hensh had far too much of the former and was sadly lacking in the latter ending up getting far too close to Bunny, who had set off before him, and ended up losing it while climbing one wall. The result was skis flying off in all directions and Hensh ending up on his back in the middle of the pipe. All these events were captured in glorious Technicolor on Martin's video camera. Both Carpy and Martin exercised so much speed they flew over the top of the wall and ended up on the top of the pipe. After the thrills and spills of the half-pipe we headed for the thrills and spills of the bar and consumed several beers and the, by now obligatory, nacho mountain smothered with radioactive cheese and about 3 weeks worth of leftovers. Once darkness fell most of the hounds headed back up the hill to engage in a spot of night skiing on the floodlit piste areas. Unlike most resorts offering night skiing on a couple of floodlit runs Keystone has miles of floodlit piste. The aforementioned terrain park was also floodlit allowing a further beer fuelled run at the half-pipe. Anton, Hensh and Martin stayed for the duration until the lifts closed at 8:00pm, by which time Anton and Hensh were completely knackered from attempting to keep up with Martin who, having had a few beers in the bar beforehand to loosen him up, was now flying down the mountain at monumental pace.

Day 9 (Friday), the final day was spent in the now familiar surroundings of Breckenridge where all the favourite runs and trees were experienced for the final time on this trip.

Away from the slopes, there was a plentiful array of places to eat, Mexican, a couple of good Italians and Steak Houses. Also, The Breckenridge Brewery and Downstairs at Erics served pretty well anything later than the average venue. Wherever, you went to eat the meal was preceded by the aforementioned Nacho mountain which often left you bloated before your order arrived.

The Breckenridge Brewery was well frequented and a couple of their own brewed beers were even drinkable, although ironically, not the one described as being similar to a traditional English pale ale.

Cecelia's bar and club was another regular venue and it was here that upon hearing about the inadequate number of gents lavatorial facilities that Maz created his own 'bathroom in the bar'. He was later heard to comment numerous times on how impressed he was by the strength and capacity of American bin liners.

Sherpa and Yeti's was the live music venue of choice and a couple of decent bands played while we were in town. It was here that Turkey turned into Sir Galahad, or was it Sir Lancelot (whichever one that rescued damsels in distress). One particular evening having discovered a distressed damsel Turk swung into action demonstrating exemplary chivalry. We have no doubt that Turk's actions were received with much gratitude by the damsel in question but all he received as a reward for his selflessness was an empty wallet, a missing jacket and a freezing cold early morning bus ride.

We also paid a couple of visits to Gold Pan Bar where one evening we happened upon an open stage session where anyone could get up and have a go. This was most certainly not The Marrs Bar on a Wednesday night and it was mentioned that it was a shame that Jules Benjamin hadn't been with us to show them how it was done, or maybe even Gibbo to show them how to sing.

The currency exchange rate was extremely kind to us reaching 1.90 dollars to the pound while we out there. This resulted in a good value spending spree for most, particularly those that visited the out of town factory outlet where clothing and ski equipment were available for silly prices.

Turk provided the quote of the week (who else) when he described having a prostate examination as something that 'hurt like buggery'.

So that was it for another year, our first venture to North America, and the positives certainly out-weighed the negatives. The positives being the lack of crowds up the mountains providing the ability to ski the wide, long slopes at speed without fear of clattering into a bunch of slow or stationary Frenchmen. There was little or no waiting at the lifts and when you did have to wait the lift operators treated queue organisation as a science and managed to get it down to a fine art. Other positives were the altitude, guaranteeing good and plentiful snow and the general courtesy of the locals in the streets, bars and restaurants. The big negative was the travelling which really needs to be done as a direct flight. We had to change planes on the east coast (at Philadelphia) en-route to Denver with the inevitable delays that come with that. A direct flight, albeit 11 or 12 hours, would cut the total home-to-hotel journey time significantly. The nightlife, or lack of it, was also a small negative although this may have been specific to Breckenridge and nowadays possibly a blessing in disguise, but it would have been nice to have the choice.

Until next year..…….. Have a nice day !