Saturday was a relocation day from Gunnison to our friend Paul's place in Eagle. Monarch was the logical place to ski on the way, and in fairness Saturday was probably not a great ski day anywhere in Colorado. The prior week had warm spring conditions and Saturday was cloudy in advance of incoming weather.
Elevation range of 10,820-11,950 feet is very high, so there was some hope for winter snow but it was extremely limited. Nonetheless the warm up groomers on the Pioneer and Garfield lifts were in good shape. We then ventured into a short section of trees off Garfield that I thought were somewhat north facing, but in reality were more west and solidly frozen. View of those trees from the top of the Panorama lift a few minutes later:
The best winter snow was on the Short & Sweet and Turbo runs skier's right on Panorama. View to the base from Turbo:
Turbo had some bumps but I suspect had been groomed a few days before.
We ventured skier's left into High Anxiety, which had frozen death cookies. I traversed to ski under Panorama liftline, which was still frozen granular but at least skier packed.
We skied groomed Ticaboo.
Then continued on to the Breezeway chair.
Riding Breezeway gives you a good view of Panorama's terrain.
And also the NW side of Garfield:
I recalled from my prior day in 2001 that Breezeway's runs softened to pleasant spring skiing. This process started with some morning sunny breaks but was arrested by the increasing overcast.
Breezeway is also the gateway to Monarch's Mirkwood slackcountry.
We returned to Garfield. View south from there to Monarch Pass and a scenic chairlift:
I thought Upper No Name might be favorably exposed, so we traversed under the lift to get there.
It was also refrozen, but Lower No Name was pristine groomed as few people took the trouble to go there.
We left at 2:30 just in case the weather deteriorated driving through Leadville and Tennessee Pass, but it was no problem. Liz at the 10th Mountain Division Memorial, specifically a Norwegian American brigade that helped liberate Norway in 1945.
Monarch is quite skimpy on vertical by western standards. All the lifts are slow and none are over 850 vertical feet. we skied 17 runs totaling 14,000 vertical in a little under 4 hours. From the pictures you can see that trees are well spaced, so it was unfortunate that ungroomed conditions were not good today.
Monarch has gone to RFID and evidently there is a break on ticket prices ordered online in advance. Monarch is relatively liberal for seniors. Adult window price is $129, age 62-68 is $99, and 69 and older are free.
Elevation range of 10,820-11,950 feet is very high, so there was some hope for winter snow but it was extremely limited. Nonetheless the warm up groomers on the Pioneer and Garfield lifts were in good shape. We then ventured into a short section of trees off Garfield that I thought were somewhat north facing, but in reality were more west and solidly frozen. View of those trees from the top of the Panorama lift a few minutes later:
The best winter snow was on the Short & Sweet and Turbo runs skier's right on Panorama. View to the base from Turbo:
Turbo had some bumps but I suspect had been groomed a few days before.
We ventured skier's left into High Anxiety, which had frozen death cookies. I traversed to ski under Panorama liftline, which was still frozen granular but at least skier packed.
We skied groomed Ticaboo.
Then continued on to the Breezeway chair.
Riding Breezeway gives you a good view of Panorama's terrain.
And also the NW side of Garfield:
I recalled from my prior day in 2001 that Breezeway's runs softened to pleasant spring skiing. This process started with some morning sunny breaks but was arrested by the increasing overcast.
Breezeway is also the gateway to Monarch's Mirkwood slackcountry.
We returned to Garfield. View south from there to Monarch Pass and a scenic chairlift:
I thought Upper No Name might be favorably exposed, so we traversed under the lift to get there.
It was also refrozen, but Lower No Name was pristine groomed as few people took the trouble to go there.
We left at 2:30 just in case the weather deteriorated driving through Leadville and Tennessee Pass, but it was no problem. Liz at the 10th Mountain Division Memorial, specifically a Norwegian American brigade that helped liberate Norway in 1945.
Monarch is quite skimpy on vertical by western standards. All the lifts are slow and none are over 850 vertical feet. we skied 17 runs totaling 14,000 vertical in a little under 4 hours. From the pictures you can see that trees are well spaced, so it was unfortunate that ungroomed conditions were not good today.
Monarch has gone to RFID and evidently there is a break on ticket prices ordered online in advance. Monarch is relatively liberal for seniors. Adult window price is $129, age 62-68 is $99, and 69 and older are free.
