Days 5/6: The End of Winter

Web access at the condo is pretty spotty, thus the need to combine today's post with yesterday's.

The End of Winter: Part I
18 March 2010, 10 am, Beaver Creek.

Diane and Kayla arrived last night and we're ready for the entire gang to terrorize the mountain. The weather report calls for temperatures in the 50s. Seems a lot more like spring than winter. I swear something like this happened last year. We ride the gondola over to the Lower Beaver Creek Mountain Express lift. That takes you to the Bachelor Gulch area of the resort where you hop on the Upper Beaver Creek Mountain Express lift. It's amazing that you have to take two lifts to get to the runs at the Ritz, and three before you've hit any skiable terrain.

The crew regroups at the top of the Upper Beaver Creek Mountain Express lift.

Now we hit the road over to Beaver Creek proper. We hit a couple of rides up the Larkspur lift. The conditions are a little crunchy, but will soften up nicely later in the day. Dylan shreds the corduroy.

We then ride the Birds of Prey lift up near the top because Dylan wants to hit the park. Everyone hits the halfpipe.

I. Kayla


II. Beth

We do a few rides through the park and then decide to venture back around the mountain and hit some runs at Bachelor Gulch.

I. Over the rail

II. Off the log ride

III. And onto the mega-ramp


Puttin' on the Ritz.

II. The real ritz... Fawcetts with the Gore range in the background

III. Diane in Bachelor Gulch

Beaver Creek has a snow buddha, right next to the pay-to-race race course. That's good Karma for the racers.

We run through the park a few times and then Kayla, Brian and I split off from Dylan and Diane. I suggest Golden Eagle, the run that the world cup Birds of Prey downhill goes down. It's an amazing course. After a half-mile long flat at the top, the course takes a hard left onto a 45-degree pitch, and then a hard right off camber at about 70 mph. This is called the talon turn, and it's sketchy just free skiing it. Kayla is not amused. I bet the family in the lift line that listened in as I told Diane that they groom Golden Eagle is not. They keep the run race ready, which means that there's big sheets of ice on the steep parks.

At any rate, the course takes a few more nasty high speed turns and then three jumps in a row to the finish. It must be absolutely terrifying to race. I'm pretty sure Kayla was absolutely terrified sliding down on her board. Terrified enough to ditch me, take one run and then quit for the day at 2pm.

Kayla uses sign language on Golden Eagle Run. This specific location is the Talon Turn on the Birds of Prey downhill. If you were Bode Miller you would come off of the top take a hard left onto this 45-degree face, and then hard right at 70mph on an off-camber, drop away. Scary.

I asked one of the patrol how they groom Golden Eagle. He stated the obvious: with winches. They tie up to trees and steel posts and winch up and down. Note that the first pitch above is just the beginning of the steep part. It goes on for several more pitches. He said the scary part for the patrol is taking 400 pounds of camera gear down on a sled to the T.V. platforms. Definitely scary.

Kayla is done... had enough of the Birds of Prey downhill (not for snowboards apparently), so I take one run down Grouse Mountain, which is softening up nicely and meet Catherine and Parker. Parker wants to do the Royal Elk Glade. I'm skeptical about the whole deal, but Parker prevails. I must be getting old, because bumps in the trees are not all that exciting to me any more. Parker leads us through to some nice slots on the far skier's left. The snow is softening up and the temperature is downright balmy by the time we get down into the canyon.

Cath and I have had enough of that, so we do a couple of runs down Larkspur. We hit the bumps on Lupine first, and then Loco. It's getting good and mushy, so the bumps are pretty fun.

I.

II.

I head back over to the park to find Dylan. We take a couple more runs and call it a day.

For the evening festivities, Mary and Frank come and visit and we have a little ice cream and cake to celebrate Ruthanne's 75th birthday (which is in two weeks, but everyone is here now. We then have an epic game of scrabble which I kind of half participate in as I play some guitar and try and get Internet access on the computer.

The End of Winter: Part II
19 March 2010, 6:15 am.

The weather report calls for 8-12" of snow overnight so I set my phone alarm for 6am to check the snow report. The plan is to go to Vail if it snows enough. It takes me 15 minutes to get net access and see that Vail is reporting a paltry 1" of fresh. That, on top of 50-degree slush from the day before doesn't sound so appealing. I go back to bed and get up around 7:30. That turned out to be a mistake.

We have a big breakfast and my plan of getting out early turns out to be getting out not so early. We mosey out around 8:45 and get to the gondola around 9. The snow is falling on Kayla at the lower mountain access. Dylan, Brian and I head up for some early runs on Grouse Mountain. Brian kills it on the K2 Hellbents. I'm jealous since I'm having a hard time keeping my tips up out of the 8-12" of heavy gak that actually fell.

Brian shreds down the Ptarmigan run. We do four runs down Grouse Mountain before the pow is ravaged. The bumps are out of the question--you can't really see the bottoms and it's rough going.

Dylan also enjoys the conditions.

We meet the rest of the crew at the bottom and head over to the Birds of Prey with the idea of going down Redtail. Diane is having a hard time in the gak--the BeaverWorld grooming machine is now match for this spring storm. Dylan, Parker, Brian and I peel off skier's left into the glades and find some freshies in the trees. We've found the stash.

On the next ride up I spy the aspen groves over on skier's right of Redtail and suggest we give that a go. We do, and it's a veritable playground. Brian and Dylan shred through the trees.

I. We found it!

II. The Aspen Grove

III. The base is a little thin

IV. But the powder is deep

V. One shred requires another

VI. Tree slalom

VII. It's steeper in some spots

VIII. I'm a powder bird!

IX. Dylan gets the pow coming...

X. And going.

XI. Brian stomps the pow

XII. Last turns

Diane and the rest of the crew peel off for the bottom. The conditions are just too much, plus it's getting close to lunch time. We tell Kayla we're going to do one more down the glade, but in typical fashion, one turns into two, plus we still have the 4000 vertical foot descent to the base. Brian suggests some trees off the bottom of Latigo (near the half-pipe). We get in there and it's a little tight, but we get a few good turns in. We stop for lunch.

Most of the crew calls it a day at this point, but Beth, Cath, Heather, Parker, Frank and I head out for some more adventure. By now the storm is in full force and the wind is howling and it's nearly a blizzard. We head over to President Ford's run and everyone but Frank bails. Frank and I take a couple more runs and then throw in the towel around 3:30.

I. President Ford's

II. Frank

It was nice getting a few runs in with Frank. He just had a knee replacement and was feeling strong. I was amazed, but definitely empathize--skiing hurts a lot more now than it did when I was 21. The idea is to keep on skiing as long as I can.

This was a pretty epic powder day--the best since at least December, and more like last season (see post from March 31st, 2009). You gotta love Colorado--one day sunny and 50 degrees, the next, 10" of fresh pow! What a way to end winter.

Day 4: Vail

17 March 2010, 8:50 am

Here we are standing in the line of the Eagle Bahn gondola. Top of the mornin' to ya... it's St. Patty's day and once again, I'm wasting it on the slopes. Perfect!

This used to be Lionshead, but now all the lower lifts are something or other "bahn." The definition of bahn:

n. circuit, fixed route, regular route; orbit, course, pathway; train

I get how it relates to a ski lift, but I don't see how the German relates to a U.S. ski resort. I think they are trying too hard. Of course, the Lionshead base has been completely redeveloped in the past few years to look like a European village. I guess the Colorado mining town appeal is better left to Leadville or Telluride. That said, the European theme comes off as contrived to me. Whatever, it's not my money. A cool $3 million will get you a place in the building behind Dylan in the picture above.

To me, Vail is about skiing. It's still my favorite resort of all the places I've ever been. It has to do with the variety (more than 50% expert), size, and sheer volume of the place (nearly 6000 acres). Vail is, to say it in a word, HUGE.

Dylan gives that "let's go" look.

We go. Off the top of Lionshead, I mean the Eagle Bahn, we head over to Game Creek Bowl to gain elevation. We do the short walk (the walks can be long at Vail) and head down Hunky Dory over to Mid-Vail. From there, we take the #4 Mountaintop Express to the top of the Mountain. We take a cruise down Northwoods and hit the Northwoods Express. We decide the line is a little long and head to the back side down through the Poppyfields of China Bowl. It's a little early and the snow is crusty from the day before.

Mt. of the Holy Cross

Those bowls are big. China and Sunup Bowl from the top of Skyline.

We head over to Blue Sky Basin and hop on the Skyline Express. We do a run down "In the Wuides" which starts good and gets icier as we go down. Dylan is getting anxious and wants to head for the park. We ride up Earl's Express and hit Cloud 9 through Big Rock Park back to the Orient Express lift. We then head down Highline (a very long and mogul filled double-black) to the "Briskwalk" over to Golden Peak.

The riders at Golden Peak are amazing. We're seeing double corks, backflips, rodeos and all kinds of crazy stuff. Parker and I are just enjoying watching. Dylan wants to hit the park. We ride up the Golden Peak Express and ski into the Golden Peak Terrain Park.

This sucker is big. A mini-pipe, a full pipe, three sets of jumps from medium size to huge, and several feature sets.

Dylan sets straight to work.

I.

II.

III.


The riders go big at Vail. First time I've ever seen a double-cork (apologies for the quality).


Dylan hits the features.

Dylan shreds the jumps.

The mood is festive all around the resort, but fewer people are wearing green than you might expect. It reminds me of St. Patty's days past. For several years we would go up to Steamboat where we had lots of friends and places to stay. One year, someone started boiling a chicken. Someone had the brilliant idea to add green food dye to this boiling chicken. This was in the morning before we went out for a hard day of shredding.

When we get back in the afternoon, the chicken had turned a sickly shade of green. Of course, it being St. Patty's day, there was always alcohol involved and we started drinking heavily in the afternoon. The good ideas always come out after the appropriate buzz is attained. This particular day, the idea was to tie the chicken to a piece of fishing line and put it out on the sidewalk that was the main thoroughfare between the legendary Tugboat and Gondola Square. The trick was as people walked by, we would yank the line and the chicken would hop. This got some outstanding reactions from passersby. We were nearly falling off the deck laughing. This went on for some time, until it got dark and we headed out to the bars. I guess you had to be there to fully appreciate the fun.

Back to Vail.

Eventually, Parker and I tire of watching the action and head up over the top of Golden Peak and back to Highline. We do a few runs down the groomed, very fast, and very steep, Blue Ox. We finally head up to the Two Elks lodge for a quick break and lunch. As an aside, Two Elks was burned down once before they completed it. The arsonists were part of a extreme environmental group loosely based in Eugene. The nerve.

Parker shreds down through the Dragon's Teeth.

We eventually, hit Roger's Run to download on the Golden Peak Express back to the top of Golden Peak (see the map since this probably doesn't make sense if you haven't been there.

We pull Dylan off the park and do a few more runs off the top and finish up with some rambles down the Mountaintop Express.

We end the day down Riva's Run to Tourist Trap. Parker plays the part of tourist.

An outstanding day. I love Vail and look forward to going back soon.

Day 3: The Beav

16 March 2010, 7.15am

We rise late... at least for this trip. It might have something to do with going to bed early--about 9:30 or so last night. Dylan and I were the last ones to bed down; we stayed up and read until about 10.

Catherine (executive chef) and Beth (sous chef) cook flapjacks and sausage for breakfast. The boys man up and chow down while the rest of us take it a little easy.

Some of us (Craig) go for the good stuff. Nothing wrong with a little engineered nutrition for breakfast and ramen for lunch. At least for Craig.

The Gang of Four leave as the advance team to scope out the conditions. We hit the gondola from Avon over to the parking lot at about 9 am. Parker is still working on gearing up.

Craig tells Parker to man-up and take the Mandall.

We get stuck on the Lower Beaver Creek Mountain Express for about 15 minutes while the staff contemplate whether to allow folk who stay in Avon onto the mountain. The tag line of Beaver Creek is "not exactly roughing it." Based on what I saw today, it works. It also makes me wonder how many people here are here to ski. I'm pretty sure I saw a lot of people that don't exactly like the sport. Whatever. Here, it's about being seen in the right places with the right clothes and the right gear with the right people. At least for some. For the rest of us it's about a hard day of fun!

We get up past lift 18 and enjoy the awesome scenery that Beaver Creek offers. I forgot how beautiful it is here.

Craig kindly snapped a photo of the Parker crew at the top of the Centennial lift. Thumb's up baby!

We head from lift 18 over to the Birds of Prey and up to the Zoom Room where Dylan starts his day of throwing down in the park. His game in the park improves about about 3-squared today. It will be great to see what he is doing by Saturday.

I. The Zoom Room

II. Dylan hits the kickers in the Zoom Room

III. They don't call it the Zoom Room for nothing

Speed is radar controlled at The Beav--or at least so they say. I think I get why. A big portion of the mountain is groomed to within an inch of its life and is very fast. This encourages people to ski at speeds beyond their abilities. Plus there are a lot of people here. Most of them don't really want to ski and don't really know how which compounds the danger and adventure factor.

Dylan hits the Lumber Yard, the half pile and The Rodeo Terrain park. For the rest of the day.

We go through the Bear Cave and the gang hits the half pipe. The pipe here is at least 18 feet. I ski through and nearly get vertigo. I have a newfound appreciation for the world class pipe riders. When you get in, it's a lot bigger than it looks on t.v. Twenty feet out of a twenty plus foot pipe is a lot of air. Dylan gets his legs right away. He's not quite getting out of the pipe yet, but give him a day or two.

The pipe is cool, but The Rodeo is cooler. All the mountains here have enormous parks with lots of features that range from easier to insane. The key element of a good park apparently is a cool name.

Dylan opts to skip lunch, which is good since he's having a blast and we're going over to arrowhead which is a five-mile ride to the other side of the mountain (like I said, this place is BIG). Jay and Ruthanne bring lunch and the girls put on the high fashion.

We head out and do several high speed runs off the Arrowhead--which is perhaps the best cruising I've experienced anywhere. Few people venture over to this side, even though it's tame enough for beginners. Moreover, the runs have lots of S-turns and rollers. We have a couple of great runs down Little Brave, the last of which is skiercross Bob v. Parker. What a kick.

Craig lost his ticket somewhere over on Arrowhead and is ready to call it a day. The lifties recognize him and let him take a couple of rides without the ticket. We're going to work our way the five miles back over to the park, and Craig rolls the dice and comes along. He doesn't have his pass, but he paid his money. We ride back to Chair 18 which gets us back to the upper mountain. He's ready to grovel if necessary, but the liftie is having his snack and doesn't scan us. Karma lets him back onto the upper mountain where he spends the rest of the day without being scanned.

Parker, Craig and I ride up Grouse Mountain Express and do a quick run down Screech Owl. The bumps are surprisingly good--we'll hit that later in the week. We then run up the Birds of Prey where we separate--I go to find Dylan over at The Rodeo and Parker and Craig stick to the upper mountain where Craig won't get scanned.

I catch up with Dylan on Centennial and we get a run down that and a couple more down the Cinch through the Zoom Room. The rope is up on the last run, but we duck and get one final ride.

We do the 4.5 mile run down the Zoom Room, through the Lumber Yard, down the half-pipe only to get roped off at the Rodeo. Oh well, it's getting late.

I. Dylan scales the 18-foot level of the pipe

II. Dylan rides the pipe

We accept that it's late and ride to the bottom. We ride the three escalators (this is Beaver Creek, walking is for the poor and infirm) to the bus stop. We see Parker and Craig in the line, but they don't wait. We get on the very next bus down to the gondola that goes over the creek and back to town. We see Craig and Parker in line for the gondola, but they blow us off and don't wait. You'd think it was 1977 all over.

There's about 1000 people on the bus and it's hotter than hell so we can't wait to get off. We jump at the gondola rather than staying on the bus, and arrive at the Weston (hoy hoy!) ten minutes later. We walk five minutes back to the condo and call it an awesome day. To top it off, we chill for a few and then go over to the community center where we sit in the hot tub with the vacationing cartel folks. Awesome.

Three days, three different ski resorts. Nothing like a little variety to keep things interesting. And fun!

Tomorrow: Vail!