Mary Jane, CO 01/19/11

jamesdeluxe

jamesdeluxe

Administrator
Staff member
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Almost an exact replica of the day I skied here a year ago, except last time, it was mid-December and there were no real bumps to speak of to slow me down. This time, just to prove that I could do it, I spent six straight hours getting punished by the lady's ample assets as the snow came down.

WP's website is only reporting four inches over the past 24 hours, but there's easily double that from today.

As you can imagine, mogul-skiing is all you'll hear being discussed on the lifts here. Frankly, I always scratch my head at the concept of tele-skiing, but they really look like they're having more fun in the powdery bumps than us fixed-heelers, so maybe I should reevaluate my opinion (somewhat).

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Bumps? I was told much of the mountians free ride terrain eagle wind,parsenns bowl and vasquez cirque was closed due to avy control work from serious windloading over the weekend and monday storm. The pass was closed back to i70 for nearly a day and half. A snowboarder and dog are missing on berthoud.
Most of the orginal mary jane terrian is treelined bump runs that have great exposure to hold snow soft, There can be great riding on these. I really like this mountian, I found consistent snowfall rarely big utah dumps but it can get deep over 3-4 days in a very different microclimate then summit/vail/aspen areas.
 
i was there over the weekend through yesterday ("had" to stay an extra day until they reopened berthoud :-D )

Monday was gale force winds to the point where i was polling and skating when skiing into the wind down the less steep pitches and run outs. Many lifts never opened, including panoramic, eagle wind, pioneer and high lonesome. zypher was on wind hold all morning.

Panoramic finally opened up around 11am on Tuesday. I'd guess there was around a foot in the upper bowl, and 2 feet or so once down in the trees. Eagle Wind was also open on Tuesday, but i never made it over there.
 
That's correct -- Parsenn Bowl and Vasquez Ridge never opened today. Funny, they were working on the Panoramic lift all morning, and I kept checking in, but nothing happened, which bummed me out because I still haven't skied Parsenn. Oh well, I'm sure it'll be open tomorrow.

I agree with Admin; bumps ain't my general cup of tea, especially after yesterday's powfest at Loveland, but Mary Jane is a special case, and besides, it has extensive tree skiing, which I took advantage of (no bumps).

Biny, how crowded was it over MLK weekend? On Tuesday, I saw hundreds of cars going in the opposite direction on the alternate route through lovely Kremmling.

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jamesdeluxe":3bpbxlox said:
I saw hundreds of cars going in the opposite direction on the alternate route through lovely Kremmling.
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Yikes. Is that how you got there? vs. over Berthod pass?

TRam":3bpbxlox said:
A snowboarder and dog are missing on berthoud.
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Apparently a body was found today near 'the fingers'. RIP. No word on the dog.
 
odd they didn't get panoramic open today - was there a lot more snow/wind overnight?

MLK crowds weren't too bad considering so many lifts were out. with zypher closed all morning, eskimo and prospector were a little busy at times as people worked there way up the mountain, but both cleared up by lunch. olympia never had a line, but that whole side of the mountain bore the brunt of the hurricane force winds. mary jane area was a little more crowded as it seemed to be the most sheltered from the wind - the maze at super gauge was probably half full most of the afternoon, but the six-pack kept the line moving quickly.
 
EMSC":6p2pqjf1 said:
Yikes. Is that how you got there? vs. over Berthod pass? Apparently a body was found today near 'the fingers'. RIP. No word on the dog.
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Berthoud never opened on Tuesday, so I had to go Loveland/Silverthorne/Kremmling/Alma/WP. I'm guessing that it took an extra half hour vs going over the pass.

Sad about the boarder, but I get really angry hearing about dogs going missing due to being taken along on BC days. I still remember the guy from Boulder on TGR whose dog got cliffed out in RMNP. Wow, that was an ugly thread. Never found the pooch, as far as I know.
 
When, oh when, is joegm ever to make it to this area of his dreams???????

From I've read over the years, Vasquez Cirque is not open too often. Unstable snow, bad exposure in some of it I think. I've seen entire seasons when WP has had 300 inches of snow and Vasquez Cirque never opened. A similar situation to Delirium Dive/Wild West at Sunshine.
 
I don't mean to be judgemental, but I think it is one thing to take risks with your own life but another to take risks with the life of an innocent animal. JMHO
 
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