It has been a long time – at least 10 years – since I’ve gone downhill skiing. Last fall, one of my goals was to downhill ski at least two times in the upcoming season.

One down, one to go.

Yesterday, my friend Michele Stumbaugh and I went to Copper Mountain. I have to say the snow gods must have been conspiring to encourage me to continue Alpine skiing because the conditions were absolutely perfect. It was a sunny day, no wind and some locals we rode the chairlift with said they haven’t had this much snow since 1982.

I did a really bad job of taking photos, mostly because while riding the lift I had a phobia of dropping my cell phone. You might wonder why I didn’t take a photo at the top of the lift and that’s a reasonable question. The short answer is focus.

I was so focused on proper unloading, steering my skis in the right direction and avoiding crashes with small children that taking photos was the last thing on my mind. The only photo taken was in the parking lot.

I got a new Giro helmet for Christmas and yesterday was the inaugural outing. Before the trip I was somewhat concerned that I’d find a helmet annoying; but I have to admit it was really comfortable. Once I had it on, I never gave it a second thought.

Eyeballing the skiing and boarding crowd, I was surprised how many people wear helmets these days. I was expecting around 50 percent, but if yesterday's group was a reasonable sample size I’d guess the number to be closer to 90 percent.

I could go on and on about the number of things that have changed in the sport of skiing the last 10 years, but one thing remains the same and that’s the stunning beauty of the Colorado mountains.

I promise, more photos next time…