Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2014 2:33 pm
Day 5
"Hi, my name is spydeeTJB, I will be your guide today, now let's see how much of Vail we can track in one day, hold on"
It was awesome -- Spydee contacted me when I was in Frasor and said he could get me a cheap ticket, to Vail? hell yeah. Window price is now $139, and yes people were lined up to pay it.
Skiied an overwhelming number of runs (and maybe a dozen+ lifts) with him and his brother, including the back bowls, and innumerable frontside groomers
the groomers are insanely wide long and varied
The temps climbed to 50 for the second day so the trees were stuck in a multi-day freeze refreeze cycle, I never saw anyone really in them, it was also stupidly crowded for a monday but no still no problem getting laps.
And yeah vail is crazy expensive on everything but the moutain and terrain is truly off the scale -- it reminded me of snowmass but with a whole nother moutain on the back. I'm really glad I got the oppurtunity and on a powder day that window price would still be tempting.
It was great to ski it with a fellow SkiSEer, esp. one who knew the mountain so well. Too bad I missed Chip, tell him thanks
Day 6
Caderader was also in Co, based in Breck and we arranged to meet at
Loveland on Tues. morning -- I left my Frasor lodging, $30/night is
great but I was fine bidding farewell to my "roommates" and to be
staying in a room by myself that night.
Berthoud was getting buried
Loveland not as much and I was worried I'd made the wrong call but by
the time I met Caderader at chair 4 it was heavy again we made good
laps off of 8
Loveland is a great place to demo skis, $35 all day, great selection
and you can swap out all day .... may I suggest the Icelantic Shaman.
We headed to the Ridge and visibility went to ****, after a blind run
down I was happy to move around the lower lifts.
Chair 1 has a fancy new hut
Last Run was C. choice, Over the Rainbow, it's almost never open when
I'm at LL, and even though it was tracked I found my deepest turns of
the day there. It's great to ski w/ good company and he skiis more
aggressively then me so it kept me alert --- let's do it again!
That afternoon 70 was littered w/ accidents didn't clear till after 6,
oh well stuck partying in the Rathskeller with all the Loveland folks?
ok by me
Day 7
I was listed on a 5pm flight but needed to return the rental by noon
-- still I wanted to get some bluebird powder runs and Caderader
hadn't skiied off the pass. So we made a couple of laps, some deep,
some trees but pretty mellow. One thing that was not mellow was our
second hitch up, an old guy in a beat up pick up let four of us pile
in the back -- it was as if he was angry to have stopped and he
proceeded to rage his way around all the tight hairpins like at 50mph,
we were all looking at each other like what the hell is happening. I
have never had anything like that occur before
The pass was still not open from night before when I got there at 7:45
I packed my gear at the top of the pass, got my rental in, and just
barely got out on the next to last seat on last flight , otherwise I
would have been seriously stuck ... meant to be I guess. Wish I could
have been part of those bluebird Cat laps off the ridge, oh well
"Hi, my name is spydeeTJB, I will be your guide today, now let's see how much of Vail we can track in one day, hold on"
It was awesome -- Spydee contacted me when I was in Frasor and said he could get me a cheap ticket, to Vail? hell yeah. Window price is now $139, and yes people were lined up to pay it.
Skiied an overwhelming number of runs (and maybe a dozen+ lifts) with him and his brother, including the back bowls, and innumerable frontside groomers
the groomers are insanely wide long and varied
The temps climbed to 50 for the second day so the trees were stuck in a multi-day freeze refreeze cycle, I never saw anyone really in them, it was also stupidly crowded for a monday but no still no problem getting laps.
And yeah vail is crazy expensive on everything but the moutain and terrain is truly off the scale -- it reminded me of snowmass but with a whole nother moutain on the back. I'm really glad I got the oppurtunity and on a powder day that window price would still be tempting.
It was great to ski it with a fellow SkiSEer, esp. one who knew the mountain so well. Too bad I missed Chip, tell him thanks
Day 6
Caderader was also in Co, based in Breck and we arranged to meet at
Loveland on Tues. morning -- I left my Frasor lodging, $30/night is
great but I was fine bidding farewell to my "roommates" and to be
staying in a room by myself that night.
Berthoud was getting buried
Loveland not as much and I was worried I'd made the wrong call but by
the time I met Caderader at chair 4 it was heavy again we made good
laps off of 8
Loveland is a great place to demo skis, $35 all day, great selection
and you can swap out all day .... may I suggest the Icelantic Shaman.
We headed to the Ridge and visibility went to ****, after a blind run
down I was happy to move around the lower lifts.
Chair 1 has a fancy new hut
Last Run was C. choice, Over the Rainbow, it's almost never open when
I'm at LL, and even though it was tracked I found my deepest turns of
the day there. It's great to ski w/ good company and he skiis more
aggressively then me so it kept me alert --- let's do it again!
That afternoon 70 was littered w/ accidents didn't clear till after 6,
oh well stuck partying in the Rathskeller with all the Loveland folks?
ok by me
Day 7
I was listed on a 5pm flight but needed to return the rental by noon
-- still I wanted to get some bluebird powder runs and Caderader
hadn't skiied off the pass. So we made a couple of laps, some deep,
some trees but pretty mellow. One thing that was not mellow was our
second hitch up, an old guy in a beat up pick up let four of us pile
in the back -- it was as if he was angry to have stopped and he
proceeded to rage his way around all the tight hairpins like at 50mph,
we were all looking at each other like what the hell is happening. I
have never had anything like that occur before
The pass was still not open from night before when I got there at 7:45
I packed my gear at the top of the pass, got my rental in, and just
barely got out on the next to last seat on last flight , otherwise I
would have been seriously stuck ... meant to be I guess. Wish I could
have been part of those bluebird Cat laps off the ridge, oh well