[MizunoJoe]

excessive snow in Vail, CO that kept me off the slopes.

I can't imagine too much snow at Vail, which has current bases at all 3 levels of only 48". I discovered Vail in 1969 - a small Tyrolean style village, with ski school director, Roger Staub, 1960 Olympic Gold Medalist at Squaw Valley. The lift tickets were $5/day and former Austrian Olympic skier, Pepi Gramshammer, provided bunkhouse accomodations at Hotel-Gasthof Gramshammer for $10 a night. I bought a new pair of leather ski boots from German Manfred Schober's ski shop for $50 to use with my rented wooden skis. Schober was one of the ski instructors when Vail opened 50 yrs ago in 1962.