Durango Mountain Ski Resort - Purgatory

When Karen asked us if we wanted to go skiing with her in Durango, we said, "Um, YES!!"  We spent two whole days enjoying the long rolling runs in 50 degree weather while Karen took a class in adaptive skiing.  She learned how to ride a ski bike so she can spend all day on the mountain instead of just doing a couple of runs and heading home.  The guys did a great job of teaching her how to ride a ski bike and she had a huge smile on her face the entire time.  It was great to see her so happy, and of course we enjoyed ourselves as well.  It was fun to ski someplace new and we appreciate Karen taking us.  Wolf Creek is still our favorite, though, and probably always will be.

I'm sorry the quality of these pictures isn't very good.  We tried a new camera and it was a real disappointment.  They don't blow up any bigger than this.  :(

This map shows where all the runs are.  They have 10 lifts!

Sitting here outside Purgy's you can watch people coming down the mountain.  There is a jump right there too so you can watch people hot-shotting.  So cool to watch!

That lift takes 6 people up at a time.

The view from the lift is indescribable and these pictures don't even come close to doing it justice.  We are so blessed to have been able to ski here.  What a beautiful part of the world we live in!

That is the resort down below.  We stayed in town.

Karen and Ken outside Purgy's.

This is Karen's ski bike.

And these were her instructors, Bill who has 16 years experience teaching skiing, and Rene who just started this year and had tons of enthusiastic support to offer.  Karen goes back next week (Durango is 99 miles away) for one more day of training and then she gets a certification that hopefully will allow her to bring a ski bike to Wolf Creek.  The two you see here have even offered to come to Wolf Creek to help her adjust.  Now that is something!  We were all so pleased with how her instruction went.  It wasn't easy for her, not emotionally or physically, but she set those fears aside and followed through and now she can certainly be proud of herself.  I know we are sure proud of her.  Limitations smashed!  Here are some pics of her on the mountain learning a new way to ski.  She even did a black diamond run!

She wore little skis on her feet too.

Since we were skeeing (I like it better spelled that way, like they did in the old days) on Ballentine's Day, Ken and I got each other new hats.  I needed a new one with a ball on top.  :)

It wasn't easy to find just the right ones with so many to choose from!  We had fun trying lots of them on and I took pictures of just about every one, but unfortunately we lost the entire first day's pics.  :(

I really like Ken's choice of hats.  Don't you?

A side view of a very thin Ken wearing his new hat. 

Oh yeah, and look at the view behind him.  Whew!

The guy in the yellow vest is on the Mountain Safety Patrol.  In other words, they pull you over for speeding.  Ken got lucky when he had his jump/wreck next to the "Slow - No Jumping" sign because this guy wasn't on duty yet.  :)  Wish I had pics of Ken's wreck.  He caught LOTS of air!

There was no shortage of runs.  Mostly an intermediate ski area we were able to explore most of the mountain.  We thought the blue runs were more like green runs. In other words, it was easier to ski than Wolf Creek.  The runs at Purgatory were like a roller coaster, though, winding through the trees with lots of ups and downs.  It was wonderful!

It was impossible not to stop and just stare at the views.

Freestyle area behind me.  We only saw a few people on it all day.  Weekday mornings mean hardly anyone is there.  We like that.  :)

Ken says, "I can go down that.  I can go down anything."  And he can.

Together on top of the world... in more ways than one.

Three exhausted happy friends.  

THANK YOU Karen!