tseeb
Well-known member
I’ve been having too much fun and I’m now three days behind, but will try to catch up. We picked up our boots from the ski concierge where they had been on dryers overnight before 8:30 and got on Cascades lift shortly after. It was cold with blue skies. We continued up via Pride and Game Creek Express lifts. Again, the entrances to the Back Bowls were roped off so we warmed up skiing down Wildwood Express and went up Mountaintop Express. We skied down to Sun Up chair and got to the top of Tea Cup to find perfectly groomed runs roped off with closed sign. I called ski patrol because I thought it must be a mistake and they said due to cold temperatures they were not opening steep east-facing runs because they didn’t want anyone getting hurt and it would be too hard to get a sled down the runs. So we headed down Sleepytime and discovered the rope ended and you could get on Emperor lower down and then skied what I think was east-facing Sweet N’ Sour. It was a little firm, but beginning to soften. We did that again and I went off the cornice before groomed started and found some corn near the top. But they still had most of it roped off at 10:30.
We went over to Mongolia Bowl, which was on the groomed report. They were just taking down the rope to the poma lift. We were in the first 10 people to try the corduroy down Mongolia Bowl. Snow was excellent, but it’s a long flat traverse at the top plus the poma so we went back to Tea Cup which finally had the ropes down so we could ski Jade Glade. While I realize Vail is trying to prevent customers from having a bad experience (or worse) on too firm of snow, it was very frustrating to have to deal with so many closures two days in a row when those are your only two days there in two years.
We went over to Blue Sky Basin and my wife went down Cloud 9 with about 75% of the people while I tried Skree Field. Snow was winter-like on steep, North-facing slope, but it ends too soon and I never found a good way back to lift. I tried going straight down through the trees which was too fast and bumpy through the trees. Next run I took my wife down left side of Skree Field and we cut left into Iron Mask which was more open, but too steep, firm and moguled for my wife. While she took a break, I went down a chute skier’s right of the cornice on Lover’s Leap where snow was excellent, but steeps end too soon. I followed Steep and Deep down, then took one run on Champagne Glades which was still hard and took Pete’s Exptess lift back up to meet my wife. We took the right side of Skree Field, again finding good snow and took a long difficult traverse through trees back to Big Rock Park. I had to tell my wife to put her hands up to protect her face as I already had small scratch on my face from tree on my first run. Clouds had moved in which stopped the softening the sun had started.
My wife wanted to get back to The Smokehouse for their excellent brisket so we went up Tea Cup and skied down Backside to Chair 5 to avoid frontside crowds. We went down Ramshorn, which was crowded, but good and found almost no line at Wildwood chair. After lunch, we took a run or two on Avanti chair, then skied to Lionshead and took the gondola back up. We skied down Simba and took the cutoff to Cascade Way which uses a tunnel and bridge to get back to Cascade Resort. After a hot tub, we shuttled to Vail Village where we found the George had Surf and Turf which Sirloin and King Crab for $16.50 (regular price $30) until 6:30 or 7 pm for Happy Hour. They also had all drinks for $3.50 and made deadly margaritas with more than $3.50 of Patron Silver.
19 runs again with 28.4K vertical
We went over to Mongolia Bowl, which was on the groomed report. They were just taking down the rope to the poma lift. We were in the first 10 people to try the corduroy down Mongolia Bowl. Snow was excellent, but it’s a long flat traverse at the top plus the poma so we went back to Tea Cup which finally had the ropes down so we could ski Jade Glade. While I realize Vail is trying to prevent customers from having a bad experience (or worse) on too firm of snow, it was very frustrating to have to deal with so many closures two days in a row when those are your only two days there in two years.
We went over to Blue Sky Basin and my wife went down Cloud 9 with about 75% of the people while I tried Skree Field. Snow was winter-like on steep, North-facing slope, but it ends too soon and I never found a good way back to lift. I tried going straight down through the trees which was too fast and bumpy through the trees. Next run I took my wife down left side of Skree Field and we cut left into Iron Mask which was more open, but too steep, firm and moguled for my wife. While she took a break, I went down a chute skier’s right of the cornice on Lover’s Leap where snow was excellent, but steeps end too soon. I followed Steep and Deep down, then took one run on Champagne Glades which was still hard and took Pete’s Exptess lift back up to meet my wife. We took the right side of Skree Field, again finding good snow and took a long difficult traverse through trees back to Big Rock Park. I had to tell my wife to put her hands up to protect her face as I already had small scratch on my face from tree on my first run. Clouds had moved in which stopped the softening the sun had started.
My wife wanted to get back to The Smokehouse for their excellent brisket so we went up Tea Cup and skied down Backside to Chair 5 to avoid frontside crowds. We went down Ramshorn, which was crowded, but good and found almost no line at Wildwood chair. After lunch, we took a run or two on Avanti chair, then skied to Lionshead and took the gondola back up. We skied down Simba and took the cutoff to Cascade Way which uses a tunnel and bridge to get back to Cascade Resort. After a hot tub, we shuttled to Vail Village where we found the George had Surf and Turf which Sirloin and King Crab for $16.50 (regular price $30) until 6:30 or 7 pm for Happy Hour. They also had all drinks for $3.50 and made deadly margaritas with more than $3.50 of Patron Silver.
19 runs again with 28.4K vertical
