Day 3 of a two week trip to Breck was clearly going to be a good one. It had snowed hard throughout the day before, stopping sometime in the evening. Conditions had been rough from mid-mountain down on Saturday, a lot of slush, a lot of exposed ground in the treeline next to trails. Only real good stuff was in certain tree stashes.
From the first warmup down Gold King it was pretty clear the mountain had gotten double the 4 inches they announced (and more up top). There was untouched everywhere and seemingly nobody on the mountain from 8:30 to 9:30. Only problem was fog. I quickly headed over to Peak 10 hoping to do trees in The Burn, but it was socked in and I didn't want to risk a tree well skiing alone and in fog. Headed over to the back of Peak 9 and the e-chair, but same problem, totally socked in.
Finally cut down Shock (first person down, nicely groomed) and caught the Peak 8 Superconnect over to the 6 chair.
Everything around the 6 chair was untouched powder, even getting close to 10 a.m. The terrain around Double Barrell, Way out and Quandry were especially nice. Around 10:30 the 6 started to fill up with folks waiting for the Imperial Express to open and I booked out, taking a run down contest bowl (still plenty of fresh), the ran groomers to the bottom of Peak 7.
Took the T-bar back up, then the Imperial Express. They'd just opened Peak 7 (late because they'd had an unexploded shell in there somebody said) and I was probably one of the first 10-14 folks in. The good news? Calf-to-knee deep powder, totally untracked. The bad? Totally fogged in. Twice I almost lost my bearings and felt I was moving when I wasn't. Followed the 7 bowl all the way into Ore Bucket, which was beautiful.
Skied groomers down to bottom and had lunch with the wife and daughter.
Was back on the hill at 1 p.m. or so and got up and down the Imperial Express, same run down into Ore Bucket and 7. Totally clear now, pretty tracked up, but soft and absolutely divine.
Tried to make it back up the T to the Imperial again and just missed the 2:30 closing by a minute or two.
Did a couple of runs on the 6 chair, tracked up pretty good, but still plenty of stashes in the trees, then took the E chair up and did Devils Crotch and Tom's Baby, then along the lift line.
At this point things had REALLY softened up, but then the weather took a hard change as a front came in. Suddenly, it was clouds, dropping temps and almost hail-like snow.
I booked out to pick the 4-year-old up from ski school. It was pushing 3 p.m. and the bottom was absolute soup.
By this morning, there was 8 inches on the car and I was cursing the fact it was my wife's day to ski (only her second since having our third in December). Dropped her and our 6-year-old off at the Beaver Run base, took our 4 year old to ski school, then took the baby home.
Within an hour, the wife calls and says, "Put the baby in daycare. It's epic out here and there is NO ONE out."
I pass, because after 28k vert on Tuesday, I could use a day off.
But if she comes in early ...
From the first warmup down Gold King it was pretty clear the mountain had gotten double the 4 inches they announced (and more up top). There was untouched everywhere and seemingly nobody on the mountain from 8:30 to 9:30. Only problem was fog. I quickly headed over to Peak 10 hoping to do trees in The Burn, but it was socked in and I didn't want to risk a tree well skiing alone and in fog. Headed over to the back of Peak 9 and the e-chair, but same problem, totally socked in.
Finally cut down Shock (first person down, nicely groomed) and caught the Peak 8 Superconnect over to the 6 chair.
Everything around the 6 chair was untouched powder, even getting close to 10 a.m. The terrain around Double Barrell, Way out and Quandry were especially nice. Around 10:30 the 6 started to fill up with folks waiting for the Imperial Express to open and I booked out, taking a run down contest bowl (still plenty of fresh), the ran groomers to the bottom of Peak 7.
Took the T-bar back up, then the Imperial Express. They'd just opened Peak 7 (late because they'd had an unexploded shell in there somebody said) and I was probably one of the first 10-14 folks in. The good news? Calf-to-knee deep powder, totally untracked. The bad? Totally fogged in. Twice I almost lost my bearings and felt I was moving when I wasn't. Followed the 7 bowl all the way into Ore Bucket, which was beautiful.
Skied groomers down to bottom and had lunch with the wife and daughter.
Was back on the hill at 1 p.m. or so and got up and down the Imperial Express, same run down into Ore Bucket and 7. Totally clear now, pretty tracked up, but soft and absolutely divine.
Tried to make it back up the T to the Imperial again and just missed the 2:30 closing by a minute or two.
Did a couple of runs on the 6 chair, tracked up pretty good, but still plenty of stashes in the trees, then took the E chair up and did Devils Crotch and Tom's Baby, then along the lift line.
At this point things had REALLY softened up, but then the weather took a hard change as a front came in. Suddenly, it was clouds, dropping temps and almost hail-like snow.
I booked out to pick the 4-year-old up from ski school. It was pushing 3 p.m. and the bottom was absolute soup.
By this morning, there was 8 inches on the car and I was cursing the fact it was my wife's day to ski (only her second since having our third in December). Dropped her and our 6-year-old off at the Beaver Run base, took our 4 year old to ski school, then took the baby home.
Within an hour, the wife calls and says, "Put the baby in daycare. It's epic out here and there is NO ONE out."
I pass, because after 28k vert on Tuesday, I could use a day off.
But if she comes in early ...