Leaving Santa Fe headed north on I-25 and it wasn’t more than two and a half hours out I was stuck on the interstate due to an accident. They had to air-evacuate so the freeway was closed both ways for about an hour. As I drove by it looked like two semis ran off the road going south. The road was icy, so I wasn’t surprised. You just never know.

First day at Winter Park and even before I got there I learned something. As I was leaving my Worldmark condo in Granby I was following a bus. LiftWP.com. I thought, Why didn’t I think to check on public transporation to the ski area? Stupid!

I learned that there is a free bus that runs regularly between Winter Park and Granby and literally stops in front of my Worldmark Rocky Mountain Preserve Condo. I’m taking it tomorrow and I will report back.

I had a great day skiing! OK, so I missed the free mountain tour because I got stuck on the Mary Jane side of the resort and couldn’t figure out how to get back to the top of the gondola. Took a wrong turn, had to ski down an ungroomed blue black at the top of Mary Jane. But after my injury and hip replacement, I am a much safer skier when I feel out of my depth. I made careful turns, traversed across the hard stuff (and there was a lot of hard stuff) and inched my way down. I lived to tell the story.

I was bummed at lunch because I realized I somehow didn’t turn on my Ski Tracks app that keeps track of my vertical feet, so today was a baby day. You see, if it isn’t tracked, it didn’t really happen.

But the best news was at noon one of my Hopkins, MN condo mates who works at Winter Park had the day off so he took me all over the mountain!! I had my private tour so in a way it was a good thing I missed the mountain tour.

I called it a day with an estimated 12K vertical (although we will never know) and looked at the messages on my phone. I got a picture from a nephew who was skiing Taos. A car tumbled off the mountain and he had to help pull the driver out of the wreck!! OMG, I go years without passing an accident and here are two within two days.

I’m driving up to Grand Lake to have dinner with my niece and her partner. I will drive very carefully!!

Great day on my Solo Ski Sojourn!!

LiftWP.com Transportation

The free LiftWP.com buses are a great way to go from Granby to Winter Park Resort. I caught the bus a few steps from my condo, then the drop off is about 100 yards from the Winter Park Gondola. So much easier than stressing about parking, lugging skis forever, and then doing the reverse at the end of the day. Then the next day I parked downtown Winter Park and took the local LiftWP.com shuttles from downtown to the resort. The local shuttles park a little further away, but it’s not a tough walk from the drop off to the gondola. It took me a bit to figure out the app and I got some bad info from the info host, but all in all it’s a great way to beat the crowds up on the slope. I parked on a side street off Rendezvous road and walked a quarter of a block to the bus stop. It takes a little more time and planning, but it’s free, and it reduces congestion on the mountain.