Echo Mountain

The kids have been bugging us to go up skiing since we went to Keystone a couple of weeks ago. We had a trip to Arizona planned for this weekend, but it fell through when I couldn't get out of a schedule mis-hap at Aurora's ER. I was terribly disappointed that I couldn't go see my Grandparents or my half brother in Arizona, but I wasn't willing to risk my job. So we have rescheduled our Arizona trip for Spring Break, which is just around the corner.

Instead of driving to Arizona this past weekend, we took the kids to Echo Mountain Ski Resort. We bought a ski harness and were planning to teach the kids to ski ourselves, but after seeing the amazing deals that Echo had, and being touched by how friendly they were, we opted to put the kids in lessons. It was just the two of them with their instructor Danyelle, who was AWESOME!

Paige and Cole were both fitted for skis, boots, bindings and helmets and then they trekked across the mountain side to the bunny hills (or the Learning Center, as it is called on Echo Mountain). The hill was very mild and had a magic carpet lift.

Paige did amazing and caught on right away. She went down a few times to practice her wedge maneuver to slow and stop. After she had that mastered, Danyelle put out cones and had Paige do some mild turns. She did really well and is ready for level 2 lessons for the next time.

Cole had a difficult time getting his toes to point in and pushing out his heels into the wedge maneuver (or "PIZZA" as they were calling it)! I guess this is normal at age 4. Cole was making the wedge in the wrong direction and would consequently pour out into a full split. Ouch! He's a trooper though. He kept on trying. And it had nothing to do with the Hot Cocoa that Danyelle promised him! A very nice father there with his 5 year old offered Cole his "Edgie Wedgies" which are little clips with a rubber tension cord to basically tie the ski tips together. It prevents the ski tips from wedging out the wrong direction so he can focus on pushing his heels out. Once we put the Edgie Wedgies on his skiis Cole mastered his wedge in no time!

After the lessons were over we took the kids to the lodge for a snack. Between the 2 of them, Robert and I, we devoured an entire box of Girl Scout Cookies (Thin Mints) and some cheese crackers and the kids sipped on Hot Cocoa. The sun set and the temperature dropped, but Echo lends itself to night skiing with the slopes completely lit up until 9 pm. They blast music throughout and it makes for a very fun evening atmosphere. The kids wanted to go ski some more, so we took them over to the Learning Center and they went at it.

After a few runs we hiked over to the slightly steeper slope so Paige could try a little more hill. It was definitely a challenge for her and we're not sure that she's quite ready for a green run just yet. Cole didn't even want to try it. So 2 tries down for Paige and then we were ready to call it a night.

Echo Mountain is a Terrain Park more than a full blown ski resort. So there is only 1 lift and 4 runs, but the runs are all Green/Blue with jumps, rails, half pipes...etc... for the daring skier or boarder. The people were amazing, and the learning center rocks! We will be going back there for SURE~!