My Instagram Takeover Day at Breckenridge Ski Resort

Recently when I was in Breckenridge, Colorado, I took over Breckenridge Ski Resort’s Instagram. It’s not as easy as you think especially when in ski lingo, they post sick photos on their account. Sick meaning insane terrain pictures. When you an Instagram takeover, you’re responsible for sharing a few posts and using “Stories” to share your experience. During my day at Breck, they wanted 2-3 posts and 8-10 stories. I was probably more in the 10-12 stories range but who’s counting when you’re having fun?! Here’s a glimpse into what it’s like to take over a ski resort’s Instagram account for a day.

Let me give you a little background first. I was in Breckenridge with my best friend’s family up from San Antonio. Her husband is like a brother to me and their two youngest have become avid winter sports fans even since my first winter in Colorado in 2011. The day I took over Breck’s Instagram was right after a huge storm blew across the state. It was the one that cause blizzard conditions from Denver eastward across the Colorado plains. Check out my video to see what that storm did in Breckenridge.

That storm also brought in a dose of cold air. Temperatures where in the single digits when Greg, Carson, Mason and I headed out to the slopes about 8:45am. Mason joined in on an intermediate snowboard lesson while the other three of us skied. Since it was so cold, we got some pretty popular runs on Peaks 8 and 9 virtually to ourselves. It was an unexpected treat since the town was packed with Texans in for spring break. My first post was the incredible corduroy I found on a blue run on Peak 8. I love the sound and vibrant when you get to ski freshly groomed terrain.

I’d take a few stories and snap a few more pics as we skied a few runs on Peak 8 then made our way back over to Peak 9. It didn’t take long before we needed to head inside to warm up. Carson’s and my toes and fingers were frigid! It was the perfect time for a hot chocolate break at The Overlook, another story I’d share on Breck’s and my Instagram accounts. About that time, the sun really started to bust out of the lingering clouds. That would help once we got back on the slopes.

Ready to ski again we decided to stay on Peak 9 and ski the American run. It’s a fun black run that’s not too difficult. It’s got two steep spots but the rest of it is pretty tame. I had fun with that one asking “Blue or Black” in stories. Just about everyone said “Black.” The American run is pretty popular but as we skied, I noticed I had big chunks of the run to myself. So did Greg and Carson as they skied way ahead of me as I stopped to take pictures and post stories.

They would end up getting so far ahead of me that they took another run as I rode the chairlift up. I waited for them at the top of the lift. While hanging out for a moment I saw two ski patrollers working on pulling up the safety rope to mark off a “no go” zone of some trees. I told them I was taking over the resort’s Instagram and asked if I could take a picture. They laughed, said yes, and then a third patroller showed up above them. It turned out to be a really cool shot of three female patrollers. Gotta love a dose of girl power! I’d chose one of the pics to share on Breck’s Instagram later in the afternoon as my third post.

Once Greg and Carson got back up to where I was, we headed over to ski Gold King. It’s a blue, but it’s an ungroomed blue run. As we skied it, I thought this is harder than American. It was funny to me that on that day, American, the black run, skied like an intermediate blue run, and Gold King, a blue run, skied like an expert black run. It was such a glorious morning that we kept skiing laps as fast as we could.

When we all started getting hungry, we skied down to Ten Mile Station. I realized in all of the times we’ve skied Breckenridge that we had never stopped to eat here. I was thrilled when I saw vegetarian chili on the menu board. Both Carson and I went for that and Greg opted for a grilled chicken sandwich. The chili in amazing! It’s so good that I asked for the recipe and still hoping to get it when the season slows down a little bit. Of course, I chatted up the guy fixing up our chili and I got two pieces of cornbread instead of one. This southern gal who loves good cornbread was “in hog heaven” to steal a southern expression. Although the temperatures were only in the teens, we ate outside in the sunshine. It didn’t feel frigid, but Greg’s water started to ice up over the 10-15 minutes we ate lunch. Not only was I pleasantly surprised with how good the chili is, I was also thrilled to not get sticker shock at the price. Traditional food and drinks are expensive at all ski resorts. I just had water to drink and my lunch total was about $11.50, not too bad of a price considering it was delicious and filled me up.

With bellies full it was time for more turns. Once again, we went into lap mode skiing down to a mid-mountain chairlift, riding it back up and zooming down a different slope the next run. We were on Peak 9, which is filled with great intermediate runs like Cashier and Bonanza. About 1:45pm, we decided it was time for one last run. I took my time on that run enjoying the incredible view and sharing it on social media. While I was stopped to take a picture, a family asked me if I would take their picture because they didn’t have a single family vacation photo. I happily obliged and in return the dad took a couple of pics of me. I realized I had been so busy skiing and taking pictures so I was thrilled to get a picture of me as the masked skier on a frigid day.

Greg and Carson made it back to the car before me, so they headed in for snacks and drinks at Beaver Run. As I was cruising in to take off my skis, I smiled as I watched a group of young skiers in ski school. They were just so darn cute! Just as I was finishing up taking off my boots and putting my gear in the car, Mason showed up exhausted. The intermediate snowboard lesson had worn him out! We headed up to meet the other two but didn’t stay long as it was 2:30ish and we wanted to re-group with Christy at the rental house, change and head into town.

My Instagram takeover didn’t just stop once I got off the slopes. I shared walking around town as we popped in and out of a few shops. I ended my takeover with an apres ski stop at the newest restaurant in town. The Blue Fish is a Japanese restaurant and based on the appetizers I can tell you it’s really good! Our friends Melissa and Carl (from San Antonio but live in Breckenridge) joined us for some late afternoon revelry. We’d go on to have dinner at Relish, one of my favorites in Breck. The scallops were amazing but what topped off the day was Christy and I doing snow angels in the mega amount of snow Breckenridge has gotten this season. Cheers to a fun day!