Beaver Creek - Day 5 - The Fab Four Freezeout

March 11, 2022

Beaver Creek Resort

Post-powder day and we wore out a big part of the crew so it was just Catherine, Garth, Beth, and I today. As Hitler says in the famous "I want to ski pow at Vail" video...any more than four in the crew is a pain in the ass. 

It got really cold last night. I'm pretty sure living in Florida can make a person soft in a big hurry and -13F is not something we get there. It did get below freezing one night in January. Fortunately the forecast was for it to get into the mid-20s by noon or so. The first few runs were a little frigid.

I took the opportunity to get some action photos.

Catherine and Garth are considering being a Little Brave (ha!).

Beth joins them.

Beth showing off her style.

Catherine looking smooth as ever.

Garth dusting what is left over from yesterday's snowfest.

And a couple of rare photos of me over in the Rose Bowl.

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It was very cold, but we got our 23k of vert in. Skiing bump runs is the best way to keep warm on cold days. My Oregon gloves were not the best way to keep my hands warm, but extra handwarmers made it tolerable.

We went over to the Westin Riverfront Spa and Resort at Avon for happy hour. Brooke's sister got married there in 2019. It was pretty swanky - they had a duo that was playing some good selections. The downside is my $18 Manhattan came in a plastic cup. They claimed the dishwasher was broken. It seemed more likely that the dishwasher quit.

The view from the bar was top notch.

 

Catherine and Garth get happy (or at least as happy as Garth gets)

The siblings. Great to hang out for a week with my sisters and the madness that surrounds their lives.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another great day at BC. We'll get out and beat ourselves (or they'll beat me) up some more tomorrow.

Beaver Creek - Day 4 - Powder!

March 10, 2022

Beaver Creek Resort

The snow report indicated 10" overnight. No complaints here. Garth and I got ready early and struck out around 8:20 or so. We walked over to the gondola and thankfully they started loading around 8:45 - 15 minutes before scheduled. Over to the the Lower Beaver Creek express and we were on 8th chair. We got to the top right at 9 and hit the Upper Beaver Creek express with the intent of going over to President Ford's. That first run was the best of the trip and probably the best of the year. Maybe a dozen people had skied down before we did.  Second run was on Stacker - not quite as good as the first, but pretty damn good. My thighs were barely up to the task.

Garth shredding the gnarr on Stacker.

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No more photos today - too much powder to track up. We went over to Birds of Prey and skied many runs over there. Harrier was particularly good because it had some fun slots through the trees. 

Lots of people out today - every snowboarder in the valley came out. No big surprise there - why live in a ski town if you can't play hookey on a powder day.

Still snowing in the village when we finished the day. My knees get much sorer these days than they did a couple years ago. And they got sore then.

The three musketeers.

Catherine and Garth in the magical snow globe.

We got back after a successful day of shredding pow. The girls were going shopping when we had a four-alarm ski catastrophe. Catherine pulled out of the garage before the door was all the way up. That was a little ironic since Garth had warned her not too pull out yesterday when I went over to Christy Sports to get some wax (which was insanely expensive).  Steve said I now had the "enhanced rocker" K2's. I couldn't get too upset because I've had those boards for something like 10 years (I'd have to check the historic postings to figure out what year I got them). At any rate I had decided that they were on the retirement plan this year. Anyway, looks like I'll be skiing the fatty's for the rest of the trip. Worse things could happen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A great day despite the ski catastrophe. The first few runs reminded me how much fun it is to ski pow. The first run reminded me of a day at Willamette. It also reminded me of how powder days in Colorado go - every local comes out and the mountain is ravaged within an hour or two. 

Tomorrow should be good but I don't expect any second day stashes will exist. 

 

 

 

Beaver Creek - Day 3 Birthday Party

March 9, 2022

Beaver Creek Resort

Today is Parker's 29th birthday...so, big plans. Beth kicked us off with Eggs Benedict. It didn't snow a ton last night (<1 inch) so we got on the 9:30 bus. From what I could tell we didn't miss much and I needed the rest. 

We headed straight for Arrowhead to ski Little Brave. Like yesterday it was fast and fun. The wax made all the difference so today was faster and funner.

John says "let it snow!"

Apparently Parker gets a ski shot every year with whoever happens to be there. Here's this year's shot courtesy of buddy Steve. Happy 29th Parker!

The Fawcett clan - Parker, Catherine, Quinn, and Brooke.

Parker and Quinn.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Old pal and all-around good guy, Steve.

The last run down Latigo was very cold. It started snowing really hard and we weren't really slowing down. Not complaints. We parted ways with Steve and walked to the bus stop. The bus was just pulling up as we arrived. Great timing! Then a trip to the rec center for a dip in the hot tub before the big party.

It's still snowing! We have high hopes for tomorrow.

Parker asked for stuffed sopapillas for dinner. I might have to double up on my statin to keep my cholesterol down.

Time to party!

The forecast is calling for 3-7" overnight. We all hope it is closer to 7" than 3". Nothing to do but wait and see.

Beaver Creek - Day 2

March 8, 2022

Beaver Creek Resort

 

Got up and the sun was shining. It snowed a few inches overnight so it promises to be a good day.

 Lots of photos on a sunny day. Garth working on his motivation game.

The crew I.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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We do a lot of standing around with this crowd.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Parker and Brooke on picture rock.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Site of the big marriage proposal in 2018. Apparently there was champagne and tears of joy. Now there's Chelsea.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quinn skiing the trees on Sourdough Slide.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Catherine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Garth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Experts only.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The Fawcett's in black and white.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Game time at the Mills.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The verdict: a nice, sunny day with some good skiing. Forecast calls for more snow tomorrow.

 

 

 

Beaver Creek - Day 1

March 7, 2022

Beaver Creek - Day 1

Woke up a little tired and sore, but nothing too bad. It snowed a couple inches overnight so we were all ready to get up and go. We waited quite a while for the bus over to the gondola - it's maybe a 10 minute walk and there was a pretty big line backed up at the lift. We found out that people were standing around thinking the lift was closed because there wasn't a lifty there to tell them to get on. 

We finally got on and got up to Bachelor Gulch. From there we went over to Larkspur and directly up Grouse Mountain to ski Screech Owl, a double-black bump run. This is where my lack of conditioning plus the altitude became apparent. It wasn't a problem to ski, but I certainly wasn't doing it the way I wanted to. Age hasn't helped either.

 Later we went over to the Rose Bowl and did the Stone Creek Chutes. Specifically, Aspen chute. It was challenging, but conditions weren't great. Our selection of line wasn't ideal either. We ended up trapped between a couple of big rocks. Garth went down and looked over a 15' drop. I decided to cut skiers left and found a better line.

 Parker in the Stone Creek Chutes.

Lots of family pix on this trip. I'll try to get more action shots later in the week.

The Fawcetts.

Garth and Parker.

I could post a bunch more family shots, but there will be better ones and a lot so I'm stopping here. Plus, I'm struggling to keep the blog up to date.

The skiing was good today - the little snow helped and conditions are improving. Forecast is for more snow tomorrow (Tuesday).  Looks like I picked a good week.

Breck!

 March 6, 2022

Breckenridge, Colorado

Game on!  The last time I skied was March 14, 2020. Elizabeth and Catherine invited me to Beaver Creek for Beaver Creek year so I threw my hard earned money down and bought and Ikon pass. It doesn't take too many days at $239 a day to pay it off. Plus, Beaver Creek is as close to hobnobbing with the rich and famous as I'll ever get...or want to be. The bonus is that the mountain is great and it's big enough and exclusive enough that you rarely stand in line.

This trip took some preparation. First, physical prep. I'd been running a little, but not enough to get in shape for skiing at altitude. I decided that multiple morning rides over at Graham Swamp was the program to get my sorry butt in shape.  It's about a six mile loop that exceeds anything I expected in Florida. Lots of up and down, some very challenging climbs that will get the heart rate way up. Plus the weather in February is very conducive to outdoor activities.

Florida Sasquatch sighting at the swamp.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My skis also needed some work. Prepping skis by the pool with my little helper. It was 80 degrees in Flagler Beach when I left Friday afternoon.

Kayla pick me up at DIA at 1:00am. My flight was delayed about 20 minutes and Kayla got stuck in I-70 midnight construction. It was 1:45 when we got to her new place. It was a little blustery on the drive up to Fort Collins Saturday morning.

Parker and Brooke were already there getting prepped for the big week. Brooke and the darling Chelsea (aka baby snooks).

Lindsay gets a turn.

It snowed Saturday night. Catherine and Parker took the pups out for a walk in the morning before I left to pick Garth. Seemed like a good omen to start off the trip with snow down in town. The plan was for me to go over to Garth's Sunday morning and ski Breckenridge. The rest of the crew would come up later in the afternoon.

Everyone was telling me stories about how bad it was on weekend mornings and how we would probably take three plus hours to get to Breckenridge. It took a little more than two hours. Traffic was amazingly light. Garth on the BreckConnent gondola that took us from the parking lot up to the mountain.

The moment of truth was on the first ride up - I was hoping for no glitches with the pass. Scanned like a champ and we were off. We rode up Peak 7 and did a warm up run and then took the T-bar to get over to Peak 8. That's right, the T-bar. I would have taken a picture but it seemed like a good place to lose my phone so I didn't. At any rate, the T-bar took us over to the Imperial lift that takes you up nearly to the top of Peak 8. The Imperial lift also happens to be the highest lift in North America topping out at 12, 840 feet.

Rocky Mountain High.

Highest life in North America. It was very cold - I didn't check the temp, but I'm guessing it was in the 0 F range.

Conditions at Breck were good and bad. The Imperial Bowl run down from Peak 8 clearly had some serious sun exposure recently so it was dust over brown ice moguls. That was enough of that for the day. We then skied down to the 6 lift. Conditions on those runs were also less than ideal. Garth suggested we do it again. It wasn't any better the second time.

We then went over to C lift and did a bunch of runs. The snow conditions were much better - little hero bumps with a little fluff on top. Catherine called around 3 and told us Vail Pass was closed due to truck accidents. No hurry to leave then. We stopped at the Vista Haus after taking a few runs down the lower part of Peak 8 to warm up. We did one final run and caught the BreckConnect gondola back to the parking lot.

We hit I-70 about 4:30 and traffic was backed up to Copper. The drive back to Denver must have been awful. 

Vail Pass was not a big deal. There was quite a bit of traffic, but nothing eventful. We listened to the new Jethro Tull album "The Zealot Gene" on the way over Vail Pass.

Rising avalanche danger.

We arrived in Avon a little after 5. I felt pretty good after the first day of skiing and didn't feel like my legs were going to be sore.

I checked the snow report to get a grip on what Monday was going to be. Interesting report - looked like about 20" of Fuck Putin. We've never skied those conditions, but weren't going to pass up the chance.

Lots of wine was consumed Sunday night.

And the party starts...

A solid start to the trip. Tomorrow looks like it should be good.