Vail reported 5 inches new snow overnight, but the day far overperformed that stat.
1) We had expert local guidance. Paul probably has more ski days at Vail than I have ski days lifetime.
2) The 14-16 inches that fell March 14-16 might not have consolidated everywhere. At the very least it would have buried a lot of moguls, so if we contacted a subsurface it would be smoother.
3) Vail’s snow is measured between Mid-Vail and Mountaintop. Snowfall is more towards Vail Pass, meaning China/Mongolia Bowls and Blue Sky Basin.
4) West sides of ridgelines looked shallower while the east sides we were skiing certainly felt like more than 5 inches most of the time. Despite this the snow surface showed no wind effect; it was definitely ego powder skiing.
The morning did not start well. A westbound big rig overturned into the eastbound lanes of I-70, closing them for a few hours. Traffic was diverted onto the west frontage road and we were jammed up for at least 45 minutes. The eastbound lanes reopened about 9:30. We got on the hill about 10:15 despite leaving Eagle at 7:45. We also had to go through the ticket office for our $207 buddy passes, which on this particularly day were well worth it. RFID cards from last year were not accepted for direct-to-lift.
Weather was mostly cloudy with temps between 10-15F and occasional flurries, so no degradation by March sun. We made our way to Mountaintop via the Born Free and Avanti lifts. First back bowl run was Apres Moo, the local term for the area between Cow’s Face and Apres Vous.
Up Sun Up Express we skied near Jade Glade, Liz there.
We took two laps through Red Square via Orient Express.
As at Snowbird last Friday, I don’t spend too much time with the camera on powder days.
We moved into Blue Sky Basin with a short break at Belle’s Camp. The ridgeline under Skyline Express has a slight upward tilt at the end, which cuts down the number of people who follow it that far. Consequently, the east side of that ridge had the deepest snow of the day, as Paul demonstrates about 1PM.
We left Blue Sky for two laps on Tea Cup Express, another Jade Glade, then Yonder trees.
We finally moved to the new Sundown Express. Past 3PM you have to do a little work to get some powder, but Paul led us on long traverses (the first one in very flat light) out to the Seldom area.
We got a sunny break on the second run.
We skied mostly on Ledges back to the Lionshead base, 20,900 vertical, about 9K of powder. For Liz, this powder day was probably better than last Friday at Snowbird. Last Friday was a little better for me, but mainly due to the runs where Liz was not with me: Wilbere Bowl and the untracked finale returning from Alta that I learned from our former admin many years ago.
I might also mention that we might have waited 5 minutes for Mountaintop Express around 11AM, but no other lift line all day was more than 2-3 minutes, this on a new snow day during spring break season.
Vail is like Tesla: You may hate the management, but you can’t deny the quality of the product!
1) We had expert local guidance. Paul probably has more ski days at Vail than I have ski days lifetime.
2) The 14-16 inches that fell March 14-16 might not have consolidated everywhere. At the very least it would have buried a lot of moguls, so if we contacted a subsurface it would be smoother.
3) Vail’s snow is measured between Mid-Vail and Mountaintop. Snowfall is more towards Vail Pass, meaning China/Mongolia Bowls and Blue Sky Basin.
4) West sides of ridgelines looked shallower while the east sides we were skiing certainly felt like more than 5 inches most of the time. Despite this the snow surface showed no wind effect; it was definitely ego powder skiing.
The morning did not start well. A westbound big rig overturned into the eastbound lanes of I-70, closing them for a few hours. Traffic was diverted onto the west frontage road and we were jammed up for at least 45 minutes. The eastbound lanes reopened about 9:30. We got on the hill about 10:15 despite leaving Eagle at 7:45. We also had to go through the ticket office for our $207 buddy passes, which on this particularly day were well worth it. RFID cards from last year were not accepted for direct-to-lift.
Weather was mostly cloudy with temps between 10-15F and occasional flurries, so no degradation by March sun. We made our way to Mountaintop via the Born Free and Avanti lifts. First back bowl run was Apres Moo, the local term for the area between Cow’s Face and Apres Vous.
Up Sun Up Express we skied near Jade Glade, Liz there.
We took two laps through Red Square via Orient Express.
As at Snowbird last Friday, I don’t spend too much time with the camera on powder days.
We moved into Blue Sky Basin with a short break at Belle’s Camp. The ridgeline under Skyline Express has a slight upward tilt at the end, which cuts down the number of people who follow it that far. Consequently, the east side of that ridge had the deepest snow of the day, as Paul demonstrates about 1PM.
We left Blue Sky for two laps on Tea Cup Express, another Jade Glade, then Yonder trees.
We finally moved to the new Sundown Express. Past 3PM you have to do a little work to get some powder, but Paul led us on long traverses (the first one in very flat light) out to the Seldom area.
We got a sunny break on the second run.
We skied mostly on Ledges back to the Lionshead base, 20,900 vertical, about 9K of powder. For Liz, this powder day was probably better than last Friday at Snowbird. Last Friday was a little better for me, but mainly due to the runs where Liz was not with me: Wilbere Bowl and the untracked finale returning from Alta that I learned from our former admin many years ago.
I might also mention that we might have waited 5 minutes for Mountaintop Express around 11AM, but no other lift line all day was more than 2-3 minutes, this on a new snow day during spring break season.
Vail is like Tesla: You may hate the management, but you can’t deny the quality of the product!
