Liz was not heading out until midday for another boot appointment, so I got out early to ski the morning at Vail. The report was 5 inches new, but most of that fell during the day Sunday. The bowls may not have been that busy Sunday due to visibility. Our condo’s shuttle bus goes to Lionshead, so I started there at 8:40 and took a warmup run on Bwana before using Game Creek to get to the back bowls.
Normally Vail is quite cold in January, but temps may have spiked to 40F last week so the sunny exposures have a crunchy subsurface. The bowls are wide open with a range of pitch and exposures, so if you avoid the steeper south aspects, the skiing in the 5 inches new was very good. Here’s my first bowl run on Ricky's Ridge.
Here’s the view of the more direct lines near Chair 5.
Riding Chair 5:
I next skied Campbell’s into SunUp Bowl.
View back to Campbell’s from the SunUp chair.
I next skied near the liftline of the Teacup Express on my way to Blue Sky Basin. Here are my uncontested tracks on Emperor’s Choice.
The untracked continued for some distance below here. Eventually that fall line drops off into sketchy south facing trees, but I found a narrow bailout east toward the base of Orient Express.
Riding Skyline Express it was an easy call to take my first run In The Wuides.
I arrived at the base of Earl’s Express just after 10AM and asked the liftie if the locals were too jaded to come out early on a 5-inch day. He said they were still in mourning for the Broncos’ demise the previous night. :lol:
View back up to Skyline Express on my next run.
Montane Glade below still has very few tracks.
I called Liz and needed to head back to get picked up at the Golden Peak base. Little Ollie was not the easiest way off the top of Blue Sky Basin. Riding Teacup Express, I finally noticed a substantial number of people heading into China Bowl about 10:40AM.
The people don’t show up well from the distance of the lift.
I got down just before 11AM, having skied 14,000 vertical and about 4K of powder. I presumed the lack of crowds was due to my fast start, but Richard skied 10-3, only on the front side and never saw a lift line either.
I got on the hill at Beaver Creek just past noon after dropping Liz to continue her boot research. I took the 2 lifts to the top and found the Lower Stone Creek Chute gate this time. I skied Glade Chute here.
This one was a sustained 40 degrees for a longer pitch than the one I skied Sunday afternoon. I needed a break after the bumpy runout to the Rose Bowl lift. I cruised down Latigo to the base and met Liz for lunch. Beaver Creek village has some excellent dining for prices similar to what typical ski area fare costs up on the mountain. We chose the Golden Eagle Inn, where we had the elk and spinach salad and the wild game burger.
After lunch I took one run on Harrier and called it a day in time to get Beaver Creek’s 3PM cookies which I had missed on Sunday. Liz liked the Salomon X-Max boot best of the many she tried. It was widely available in a probably too soft 90 flex, but after numerous calls the only place that had the 110 flex in her size was Vail Sports at Lionshead. So we drove over there to buy them and the new boots will be put to the test on a local tour of Vail tomorrow.
Normally Vail is quite cold in January, but temps may have spiked to 40F last week so the sunny exposures have a crunchy subsurface. The bowls are wide open with a range of pitch and exposures, so if you avoid the steeper south aspects, the skiing in the 5 inches new was very good. Here’s my first bowl run on Ricky's Ridge.
Here’s the view of the more direct lines near Chair 5.
Riding Chair 5:
I next skied Campbell’s into SunUp Bowl.
View back to Campbell’s from the SunUp chair.
I next skied near the liftline of the Teacup Express on my way to Blue Sky Basin. Here are my uncontested tracks on Emperor’s Choice.
The untracked continued for some distance below here. Eventually that fall line drops off into sketchy south facing trees, but I found a narrow bailout east toward the base of Orient Express.
Riding Skyline Express it was an easy call to take my first run In The Wuides.
I arrived at the base of Earl’s Express just after 10AM and asked the liftie if the locals were too jaded to come out early on a 5-inch day. He said they were still in mourning for the Broncos’ demise the previous night. :lol:
View back up to Skyline Express on my next run.
Montane Glade below still has very few tracks.
I called Liz and needed to head back to get picked up at the Golden Peak base. Little Ollie was not the easiest way off the top of Blue Sky Basin. Riding Teacup Express, I finally noticed a substantial number of people heading into China Bowl about 10:40AM.
The people don’t show up well from the distance of the lift.
I got down just before 11AM, having skied 14,000 vertical and about 4K of powder. I presumed the lack of crowds was due to my fast start, but Richard skied 10-3, only on the front side and never saw a lift line either.
I got on the hill at Beaver Creek just past noon after dropping Liz to continue her boot research. I took the 2 lifts to the top and found the Lower Stone Creek Chute gate this time. I skied Glade Chute here.
This one was a sustained 40 degrees for a longer pitch than the one I skied Sunday afternoon. I needed a break after the bumpy runout to the Rose Bowl lift. I cruised down Latigo to the base and met Liz for lunch. Beaver Creek village has some excellent dining for prices similar to what typical ski area fare costs up on the mountain. We chose the Golden Eagle Inn, where we had the elk and spinach salad and the wild game burger.
After lunch I took one run on Harrier and called it a day in time to get Beaver Creek’s 3PM cookies which I had missed on Sunday. Liz liked the Salomon X-Max boot best of the many she tried. It was widely available in a probably too soft 90 flex, but after numerous calls the only place that had the 110 flex in her size was Vail Sports at Lionshead. So we drove over there to buy them and the new boots will be put to the test on a local tour of Vail tomorrow.
