Paul Kulas referred us to one of his friends Shawn Jones for a Wednesday sidecountry tour of East Vail. So Liz and I brought our ski packs and avy gear and met Jonesy at Vail’s Mountaintop at 10AM. We skied into China Bowl via Genghis Khan, noting that the new snow was finally mostly skied out of the inbounds bowls and thus the crunchy subsurface was more noticeable than during the past two days. We rode Orient Express and the Mongolia poma and then began our hike. There’s a short hike to a saddle leading to Mushroom Bowl.
Mushroom Bowl is one of many tempting East Vail lines that are generally too dangerous in Colorado’s continental snowpack. This pic is taken from the top of our hike to the east. It’s about a 20 minute walk of gradual pitch but we took a break midway.
At the top we enjoyed a panoramic view of the Gore Range north of I-70.
We skied a soft mellow line along the top to get around a nearly continuous cliff band in East Vail.
A look back at some steep upper chutes.
The first wide open appearing bowl is Jenkins’ here:
The cliff band is still below us but hidden from view. The safest way in is probably along the line of trees at far left.
We continued beyond those trees to Tele Bowl. From there we have a view back to Old Man Bowl, site of several avalanches over the years.
Here’s our somewhat chewed up entry into Tele Bowl.
This is the safest way in to avoid the rock bands, but it’s also tilted more east, so the snow was heavy 2 days after the storm.
We traversed right under the rock band to get more shaded aspect near some some trees and more north facing.
We got about 1,000 vertical of fresh tracks here before we needed to traverse out.
Liz is passing an icefall on the traverse here.
Jonesy and Liz are at the bottom of last pitch of ~500 vertical before the runout to the East Vail bus stop.
At the bus stop Jonesy pointed out some other sidecountry lines far above.
Some his friends were skiing King Arthur in the center of this pic.
We got back to Vail Transit Center about 1:15. Jonesy waited for his friends while Liz and I went up the VistaBahn and Wildwood. We skied over to Eagle’s Nest to meet OpenSnow founder Joel Gratz and his dad Steve. Steve skis on snowblades and sticks to the groomers. Liz and I were more than content to do likewise after the morning adventure. Joel is here skiing a short mogul section near Lionshead.
Joel had e-mailed me Tuesday to inquire about my Japan ski experience. During a widespread western dry January, Japan is looking tempting to Joel later this month. So it was a nice coincidence we both happened to be in Vail and could meet in person and take a few runs together.
Mushroom Bowl is one of many tempting East Vail lines that are generally too dangerous in Colorado’s continental snowpack. This pic is taken from the top of our hike to the east. It’s about a 20 minute walk of gradual pitch but we took a break midway.
At the top we enjoyed a panoramic view of the Gore Range north of I-70.
We skied a soft mellow line along the top to get around a nearly continuous cliff band in East Vail.
A look back at some steep upper chutes.
The first wide open appearing bowl is Jenkins’ here:
The cliff band is still below us but hidden from view. The safest way in is probably along the line of trees at far left.
We continued beyond those trees to Tele Bowl. From there we have a view back to Old Man Bowl, site of several avalanches over the years.
Here’s our somewhat chewed up entry into Tele Bowl.
This is the safest way in to avoid the rock bands, but it’s also tilted more east, so the snow was heavy 2 days after the storm.
We traversed right under the rock band to get more shaded aspect near some some trees and more north facing.
We got about 1,000 vertical of fresh tracks here before we needed to traverse out.
Liz is passing an icefall on the traverse here.
Jonesy and Liz are at the bottom of last pitch of ~500 vertical before the runout to the East Vail bus stop.
At the bus stop Jonesy pointed out some other sidecountry lines far above.
Some his friends were skiing King Arthur in the center of this pic.
We got back to Vail Transit Center about 1:15. Jonesy waited for his friends while Liz and I went up the VistaBahn and Wildwood. We skied over to Eagle’s Nest to meet OpenSnow founder Joel Gratz and his dad Steve. Steve skis on snowblades and sticks to the groomers. Liz and I were more than content to do likewise after the morning adventure. Joel is here skiing a short mogul section near Lionshead.
Joel had e-mailed me Tuesday to inquire about my Japan ski experience. During a widespread western dry January, Japan is looking tempting to Joel later this month. So it was a nice coincidence we both happened to be in Vail and could meet in person and take a few runs together.
