Its easy to forget how exhausting a day in the snow often turns out to be, when getting excited about vacation or a day on the hill and such is fed by Warren Miller movies or Seth Morrison videos. You may not see it in extreme videos, ski games, or on the smiling faces of winter-sports related websites, so its easy for it to slip out from under the radar. Visitors and getaway locals have every right to be excited, but keep in mind- you will be tired, especially:

• If its snowing out.
• If you haven’t skiied within a couple of weeks -or-
• If your regular exercise routine does not involve lunges and squats.
• If you are an intermediate skier or better using rental ski boots.
• If you don’t bring water on the slopes with you.
• If you don’t already live in a high-altitude environment.
• If you drink the night before.

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At 8 a.m., students up and down the Vail Valley in Colorado are entering the doors of the local high school.

But not freshman Abby Ghent. She is standing on the snow at Vail Ski Resort and using a heavy, metal wrench to screw a racing gate into the snow. The gates — the bright poles that skiers race around at the Winter Olympics — have to be screwed in tight so they don’t rip out when the girls come racing down the mountain.

If they want to attend the Vail Ski and Snowboard Academy, these girls have to be willing to do dirty work like this, carry a lot of gear and stay ahead in school.

Read about it here or listen to it at NPR.org

The Avon Transit Center is now one more step closer to being the complete transportation hub in its dreams of itself- the Gondola to Beaver Creek Landing is now fully operational, cutting the average transit time of skiers from Avon to Beaver Creek by about five minutes. The gondola also serves end-of-day or lunching skiers downloading back to Avon. Check out the ride in this slideshow:

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Looking for condominiums in Beaver Creek may be arduous, especially for the first-time visitor or anyone looking to make a change from the “same-old.” The trouble in the past has been that there has been no really solid information about what’s available to visitors, “authorities” on the subject are often salespeople or seasoned tourists who don’t know all there is to know about condominiums in Beaver Creek. Either way, the information is not 100%.

BeaverCreekCondominiums.com is a non-sales driven directory site aiming to carefully and correctly list all the condominium properties in Beaver Creek available for rent, for winter sports enthusiasts and year-round visitors. The site is new, in “alpha” stage, so expect improvements in the near future. BeaverCreekCondominiums.com lists all known condominium properties at no cost to the properties in order to offer a balanced and accurate perspective on the availability of properties in the Beaver Creek area. Featured properties have elected to list more information on the site, such as amenities, photos, and links.
Visit BeaverCreekCondominiums.com to find a condominium that suits your lifestyle and budget, then use that property’s preferred booking method to make that reservation.

BeaverCreekCondominiums.com is a sister site to the Vail Valley Blog.