I left Crested Butte right after the last NASJA breakfast, drove 3+ hours to the Bear parking lot in Avon, and got on the hill at Beaver Creek about noon. Weather was 50F at the base and about 30F at the top, mostly cloudy with some sunny breaks, and occasional gusty winds.
There had been about a foot of snow here in the Thursday/Friday storm, which had mostly resurfaced the upper mountain. There was some softening, and I would say only about 10% was true winter conditions. But close to half the mountain was just softening today, so there was very little of the underlying hardpack that had kept us out of much of Crested Butte's expert terrain. CB's North Face/Headwall, in addition to getting less snow, is steeper and needs more to bury its hardpack.
From the main base I took the long Centennial lift up, then a warmup on Cinch Express to see how much my legs would complain about being subjected to tele gear yesterday. Next time up I followed the far skier's right boundary, hoping to check out the Stone Creek expert terrain that was first opened this season. It had been closed by the March hot weather, but I ducked the rope by about 20 feet to take a look and a couple of pictures. It looks like very promising powder terrain, in an obscure corner of an area already underutilized by advanced skiers. I continued down Ripsaw, a single black bump run leading to Rose Bowl , the Beav's only sector served by just a non high speed chair.
From there I headed west, cruising down Red Tail to sample the terrain added since my last day here in 1990. First Raven Ridge, a single black groomer on Grouse, and then up Larkspur to the long trek toward Bachelor Gulch and Arrowhead. The former has an impressive Ritz-Carlton, a few groomers and some cut glades. But at 2PM the snow was very slushy over there and it was hard enough skiing the groomed. I then skied some real goo getting to the Arrowhead base at 7,400. This lift was on its last day, as the brownish strip leading to it was on its last legs. The golf course at Arrowhead was already green and probably a more attractive option at that elevation.
I made it back to the Red Tail Camp base (which had a busy sundeck with a live band) of chairs 9, 10 and 11 before 3PM. Next up was the Golden Eagle World Cup downhill course, which was bumps for its top half and groomed lower down. The snow from this weekend made it possible to time most of your turns in softer snow, and if you missed you could still hold an edge in the scraped area between moguls. Grouse's bumps were in similar good shape, but after Golden Eagle I was in moguls for no more than 1/4 of my next run there. The 9, 10 and 11 chairs close at 3:30, so I went back up Birds of Prey and skied the last 2 runs to the Centennial base. The Centennial Run was a bit heavy for the bottom 1,000 vertical but in the best shape of the lower runs. Last run on Harrier led to the flat and slushy Dally trail to the bottom.
For those looking for a super luxury ski resort, there is no question that Beaver Creek offers a far more varied and interesting mountain (with enough moguls to keep joegm happy for quite a while) than Deer Valley, with about the same amount of snow. And there is also the added attraction of Vail 15 minutes away. The general rule of thumb here is to ski Beaver Creek on the weekends and Vail midweek.
A handful of easy blue runs had skier traffic, but the black runs were very low density. No lift lines with all the high speed lifts, as evidenced by my 22,000 vertical in less than 4 hours.
There had been about a foot of snow here in the Thursday/Friday storm, which had mostly resurfaced the upper mountain. There was some softening, and I would say only about 10% was true winter conditions. But close to half the mountain was just softening today, so there was very little of the underlying hardpack that had kept us out of much of Crested Butte's expert terrain. CB's North Face/Headwall, in addition to getting less snow, is steeper and needs more to bury its hardpack.
From the main base I took the long Centennial lift up, then a warmup on Cinch Express to see how much my legs would complain about being subjected to tele gear yesterday. Next time up I followed the far skier's right boundary, hoping to check out the Stone Creek expert terrain that was first opened this season. It had been closed by the March hot weather, but I ducked the rope by about 20 feet to take a look and a couple of pictures. It looks like very promising powder terrain, in an obscure corner of an area already underutilized by advanced skiers. I continued down Ripsaw, a single black bump run leading to Rose Bowl , the Beav's only sector served by just a non high speed chair.
From there I headed west, cruising down Red Tail to sample the terrain added since my last day here in 1990. First Raven Ridge, a single black groomer on Grouse, and then up Larkspur to the long trek toward Bachelor Gulch and Arrowhead. The former has an impressive Ritz-Carlton, a few groomers and some cut glades. But at 2PM the snow was very slushy over there and it was hard enough skiing the groomed. I then skied some real goo getting to the Arrowhead base at 7,400. This lift was on its last day, as the brownish strip leading to it was on its last legs. The golf course at Arrowhead was already green and probably a more attractive option at that elevation.
I made it back to the Red Tail Camp base (which had a busy sundeck with a live band) of chairs 9, 10 and 11 before 3PM. Next up was the Golden Eagle World Cup downhill course, which was bumps for its top half and groomed lower down. The snow from this weekend made it possible to time most of your turns in softer snow, and if you missed you could still hold an edge in the scraped area between moguls. Grouse's bumps were in similar good shape, but after Golden Eagle I was in moguls for no more than 1/4 of my next run there. The 9, 10 and 11 chairs close at 3:30, so I went back up Birds of Prey and skied the last 2 runs to the Centennial base. The Centennial Run was a bit heavy for the bottom 1,000 vertical but in the best shape of the lower runs. Last run on Harrier led to the flat and slushy Dally trail to the bottom.
For those looking for a super luxury ski resort, there is no question that Beaver Creek offers a far more varied and interesting mountain (with enough moguls to keep joegm happy for quite a while) than Deer Valley, with about the same amount of snow. And there is also the added attraction of Vail 15 minutes away. The general rule of thumb here is to ski Beaver Creek on the weekends and Vail midweek.
A handful of easy blue runs had skier traffic, but the black runs were very low density. No lift lines with all the high speed lifts, as evidenced by my 22,000 vertical in less than 4 hours.
