Liz and I met Paul Kulas at 8:30 opening bell at Lionshead. Adam and I had given Paul a Snowbird tour last February, and he lives in Eagle and was returning the favor today. This was a much more detailed version of the quick Back Bowl/Blue Sky tour I had skied Monday morning. With local knowledge Paul found several areas only lightly tracked on the second day after a 5-inch snowfall.
It was sunny and maybe low 20’s midday. I saw no deterioration in snow quality between Monday and Tuesday. Back Bowl runs with a sometimes crunchy subsurface skied the same as Monday with the new snow on top remaining light and dry.
We first rode the Born Free and Avanti lifts so we could ski into Game Creek via Ouzo Glades. We then traversed far right into Sundown Bowl so we could ski Seldom, which had still had good powder due to its moderate pitch and more shaded orientation.
Up Chair 5 we met Paul’s friend Casey (at far right).
We then skied Milt’s Face to the SunUp lift, than a shaded run in Yonder trees. Liz, Paul and Casey on our next run Genghis Khan.
Up the Orient Express we skied surprisingly lightly tracked Red Square.
This was good enough for an encore before Casey departed and we moved to Blue Sky Basin.
The open terrain near Earl’s Express had been tracked since my time there the day before but still skied very well. We skied deeper into Montane Glades than I had before plus Steep and Deep and Heavy Metal on the east side of Blue Sky. Paul showed us a clean traverse out of there to avoid the mogulled runout I had skied in 2011. Our final Blue Sky run was in Pete’s trees.
We left Blue Sky via Tea Cup Express but came back into China Bowl via Jade Glade. Up Orient Express we took the Mongolia T-Bar and we were pleasantly surprised by the few scattered tracks of Inner Mongolia. Up Tea Cup we returned to Yonder trees.
Then we took another lap out to WFO.
This gate leads to a line of unusually well spaced aspens.
We finally exited the bowls well after 3PM, skied Ledges 2/3 of the way down the front side. Paul departed via Lionshead while we skied into Vail Village to visit bootfitter Dano Bruno, who had worked with Liz in Beaver Creek the past 2 days. Near the bottom we scored a few more untracked turns near Giant Steps.
Liz’ first day in the new Salomon X-Max 110 boots was a resounding success, as we skied 32,300 vertical, most of it ungroomed and about 4K of powder. Paul’s local expertise contributed greatly to the quality of the skiing.
It was sunny and maybe low 20’s midday. I saw no deterioration in snow quality between Monday and Tuesday. Back Bowl runs with a sometimes crunchy subsurface skied the same as Monday with the new snow on top remaining light and dry.
We first rode the Born Free and Avanti lifts so we could ski into Game Creek via Ouzo Glades. We then traversed far right into Sundown Bowl so we could ski Seldom, which had still had good powder due to its moderate pitch and more shaded orientation.
Up Chair 5 we met Paul’s friend Casey (at far right).
We then skied Milt’s Face to the SunUp lift, than a shaded run in Yonder trees. Liz, Paul and Casey on our next run Genghis Khan.
Up the Orient Express we skied surprisingly lightly tracked Red Square.
This was good enough for an encore before Casey departed and we moved to Blue Sky Basin.
The open terrain near Earl’s Express had been tracked since my time there the day before but still skied very well. We skied deeper into Montane Glades than I had before plus Steep and Deep and Heavy Metal on the east side of Blue Sky. Paul showed us a clean traverse out of there to avoid the mogulled runout I had skied in 2011. Our final Blue Sky run was in Pete’s trees.
We left Blue Sky via Tea Cup Express but came back into China Bowl via Jade Glade. Up Orient Express we took the Mongolia T-Bar and we were pleasantly surprised by the few scattered tracks of Inner Mongolia. Up Tea Cup we returned to Yonder trees.
Then we took another lap out to WFO.
This gate leads to a line of unusually well spaced aspens.
We finally exited the bowls well after 3PM, skied Ledges 2/3 of the way down the front side. Paul departed via Lionshead while we skied into Vail Village to visit bootfitter Dano Bruno, who had worked with Liz in Beaver Creek the past 2 days. Near the bottom we scored a few more untracked turns near Giant Steps.
Liz’ first day in the new Salomon X-Max 110 boots was a resounding success, as we skied 32,300 vertical, most of it ungroomed and about 4K of powder. Paul’s local expertise contributed greatly to the quality of the skiing.