Moon Handbooks Colorado

by Stephen Metzger

• ISBN13: 9781566913898
• ISBN10: 1566913896
• Edition: 5th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-03-07
• Publisher: Avalon Travel Publishing

Author Biography

Stephen Metzger first lit out for Colorado in the winter of 1973, after graduating from high school in Northern California. He had hoped to spend long days skiing on perfect snow under cloudless, Rocky Mountain skies. Instead, he spent long days working as a ski-lift operator for $1.60 an hour. He managed to get a few ski days in, though, if only a run at the end of the day, and on weekends he played pool and drank "Colorado Kool-Aid" at the Gold Pan bar in Breckenridge. The following summer he returned to California to pursue bachelor's and master's degrees in English. In the early 1980s, after spending a year in Spain teaching English, and writing what he thought was the Great American Novel, he took up skiing again. He spent the mid-80s writing for Powder and Skiing magazines and other travel publications, while teaching at California State University, Chico. Travel writing led to his first book, California Downhill (Moon), a guide to California ski resorts that appeared on the bookshelves the same year that the West Coast experienced one of the worst droughts in its recorded history. Most ski resorts were open for about an hour and a half that year. Ever the optimist, he signed on to write Moon Handbooks to New Mexico and Colorado. He returns to both states regularly. Two of his favorite places to research in Colorado are Coors Field and the Back Bowls at Vail. Stephen still teaches English, and is married to Liz, a gorgeous and frighteningly intelligent grant writer and high school English teacher. He serves on the board of directors for a community theatre and plays music and sports with friends. He still skies as often as he can, both in California and Colorado, and usually with his daughters, Gina and Hannah.