Pajarito-Bred
New member
For some reason the FirstTracks forum site appeared to be in a white-out on my computer for a few days earlier this week, but here's a belated report.
My plan Thursday night was to ski Vail on Friday.
Friday morning, 6am scoping of the situation revealed the following:
12" new snow past 24 hours
42" new snow past 7 days
Forecast 1-3" new, with 25-30 mph winds, gusts to 45 mph, highs in the low 20's
Interstate 70 closed from near Denver (90 miles east of Vail) to Avon (about 10 miles west of Vail) Due to "adverse" conditions. Opening time not determined.
Road conditions: snowpacked and icy (from my house to Vail, about 150 miles) This involves following I-70 along the Colorado river and a couple of tributaries thru numerous high valleys, a couple of canyons, but no passes.
mmm, sounds pretty bad-- but not bad enough to be a deterrent when there's powder to be skied! I arrived at Lionshead parking garage a bit late due to hundreds of semi's lined up along the Vail frontage road waitng for the pass to open. Side benefit: FREE parking, normally $20. I could have wasted the unexpected bounty, but instead spent it on a bowl of chile and a beer at 2 elks lodge.
I finally got onto the gondola at 9:30, and into Sun Up bowl where there were still a few great lines, but also a vast amount of tracked-up terrain. Vail has about 5200 acres, the back bowls are a huge part of that, but there's also more than enough enthusiastic skiers like myself to go around--even on a day without any Denver-metro area crowds--they can make for some long liftlines on the weekends.
There was enough recent snow that the tracked-up was great, also, liftlines were not an issue-except as noted below- The wind had been fierce the night before, so any west-facing aspects were quite crusted and best avoided. Southern exposures had some soft wind-buff, which skiied nicely, but the deeper stuff was on the east-facing ridges.
For some reason I find myself skiing Vail the same way each time: Start off in the western reaches of the back bowls, work east and south, then when the powder (and my quads) are thrashed, work on over to Chair 10 or Northwoods for some bumps, then over to the front face for a couple of end-of-the-day cruisers.
I headed into Blue Sky Basin in the late morning, which consists of three HS Quads and some pretty great terrain (some glades, short steeps, lots of exploring) the wind by this time was picking up, and the long lift ride along the Blue Sky ridge was blisteringly cold- but not, I thought, bad enough to close the lifts- all three blue sky lifts were closed by the time I got to the base. A huge crowd gathered at the Teacup bowl lift, the only way out, for some reason not slowed by the winds. China Bowl lift also remained open, so I skiied plenty of good low-angle powder in the glades, and found some untracked lines in the center of the bowl, between the top of the lift and Two Elk Lodge. There's lots of opportunites to end up on an untracked flat or steep-sided gully in this area, especially with flat light, but the snow made a few slogs worthwhile.
The new, FAST HSQ Chair 10 was great, but my legs could have used some more recovery time. The lines in the bumps of Highline were as unforgiving as ever, despite all the fresh snow. One of the lift-ops was buried under an elaborate snow sculpture.
Rumor is that Chair 5, the original back bowl triple (i think there was a double there before, in the 70's) will be upgraded next year to highspeed. -- Along with a downgrade in the number of minutes available to find first tracks. The gray light and wind and cold convinced me to keep my camera stashed for the day. I'm eagerly awaiting the first warm sunny ski day of the season (we had way too many of those last year)
My plan Thursday night was to ski Vail on Friday.
Friday morning, 6am scoping of the situation revealed the following:
12" new snow past 24 hours
42" new snow past 7 days
Forecast 1-3" new, with 25-30 mph winds, gusts to 45 mph, highs in the low 20's
Interstate 70 closed from near Denver (90 miles east of Vail) to Avon (about 10 miles west of Vail) Due to "adverse" conditions. Opening time not determined.
Road conditions: snowpacked and icy (from my house to Vail, about 150 miles) This involves following I-70 along the Colorado river and a couple of tributaries thru numerous high valleys, a couple of canyons, but no passes.
mmm, sounds pretty bad-- but not bad enough to be a deterrent when there's powder to be skied! I arrived at Lionshead parking garage a bit late due to hundreds of semi's lined up along the Vail frontage road waitng for the pass to open. Side benefit: FREE parking, normally $20. I could have wasted the unexpected bounty, but instead spent it on a bowl of chile and a beer at 2 elks lodge.
I finally got onto the gondola at 9:30, and into Sun Up bowl where there were still a few great lines, but also a vast amount of tracked-up terrain. Vail has about 5200 acres, the back bowls are a huge part of that, but there's also more than enough enthusiastic skiers like myself to go around--even on a day without any Denver-metro area crowds--they can make for some long liftlines on the weekends.
There was enough recent snow that the tracked-up was great, also, liftlines were not an issue-except as noted below- The wind had been fierce the night before, so any west-facing aspects were quite crusted and best avoided. Southern exposures had some soft wind-buff, which skiied nicely, but the deeper stuff was on the east-facing ridges.
For some reason I find myself skiing Vail the same way each time: Start off in the western reaches of the back bowls, work east and south, then when the powder (and my quads) are thrashed, work on over to Chair 10 or Northwoods for some bumps, then over to the front face for a couple of end-of-the-day cruisers.
I headed into Blue Sky Basin in the late morning, which consists of three HS Quads and some pretty great terrain (some glades, short steeps, lots of exploring) the wind by this time was picking up, and the long lift ride along the Blue Sky ridge was blisteringly cold- but not, I thought, bad enough to close the lifts- all three blue sky lifts were closed by the time I got to the base. A huge crowd gathered at the Teacup bowl lift, the only way out, for some reason not slowed by the winds. China Bowl lift also remained open, so I skiied plenty of good low-angle powder in the glades, and found some untracked lines in the center of the bowl, between the top of the lift and Two Elk Lodge. There's lots of opportunites to end up on an untracked flat or steep-sided gully in this area, especially with flat light, but the snow made a few slogs worthwhile.
The new, FAST HSQ Chair 10 was great, but my legs could have used some more recovery time. The lines in the bumps of Highline were as unforgiving as ever, despite all the fresh snow. One of the lift-ops was buried under an elaborate snow sculpture.
Rumor is that Chair 5, the original back bowl triple (i think there was a double there before, in the 70's) will be upgraded next year to highspeed. -- Along with a downgrade in the number of minutes available to find first tracks. The gray light and wind and cold convinced me to keep my camera stashed for the day. I'm eagerly awaiting the first warm sunny ski day of the season (we had way too many of those last year)
