spring_mountain_high
New member
Landed in Denver on 2/23. It was a beautiful day, so warm that I drove with the windows cracked on the drive from the airport to Downtown. This would change. Went to see Furthur in Broomfield Saturday night with some college buddies that I have not seen in 20 years, and by set break, it had started snowing in earnest. Sunday morning I woke up to see that it was still coming down and about 4-5 inches had accumulated. The drive out of the Denver metro area and up 70 was a white-knuckler for sure in my rented Ford Focus hatchback. Somehow I lucked out and never had to get going from a dead stop on an incline, because I would have been screwed. Made it from Broomfield to Breck in just under 4 hours, a trip which should have taken 2, tops. Breckenridge seemed to have picked up 6-8 from the storm. Stayed in Pine Ridge condo complex near the bottom of 4 o'clock road. Place was adequate, but although they advertise as 'ski-in/ski-out', this is not really the case. Yes, you can ski back to the complex on the 4 o'clock trail, but to 'ski-out' it would have been a 200 yard uphill trek to the snowflake lift, which I was told sucked big time as it is too slow. I opted to take the shuttle to peak 9 base area every day. The advantage of being at the bottom of 4 o'clock road was the easy walk into town.
Monday, Ski Day 1, I told myself I was going to stick to cruisers, get the lay of the land and generally take it easy. It took all of 2 runs for that to go out the window. As one can imagine, having never skied anywhere but the East, and with fresh snow from Sunday still plentiful, I was like a kid in a candy store. Even though I stuck mainly to peaks 9 and 10, I could not stop myself from seeking out easier tree and bump runs. The Burn, Spitfire, Corsair(?) and Grit were all a lot of fun and I felt OK at the end of the day, but...
Tuesday, Ski Day 2, I woke up feeling a bit hungover, which made no sense because I did not drink the night before. Even though I was hydrating and peeing every 15 minutes it seemed, the altitude was maybe getting to me, so I decided to try to take it easy again. I guess going from 400ft to 10,000ft above sea level can do that to you. Also I was on Rossi S3's about 10cm longer and 20mm wider than my skis, so I was on more ski than I'm used to. Sticking again to peaks 9 and 10, I hit the runs that I missed Monday, but again could not resist the call of more challenging terrain. It snowed lightly and steadily all day, resulting in 3-5 inches. I did knock off a little earlier, and decided to re-fuel by going out for BBQ for dinner instead of eating in. Ribs, beans and potato salad proved to be the prescription to my altitude issues.
I woke up Wednesday feeling much better. I started out warming up on peak 8, Frosty's Freeway, Rounders, High Anxiety, and then decided to head to the T-Bar. This was a good idea. Not only was it fun riding a T-Bar for the first time in many years, Horseshoe Bowl was a ton of fun. Lulu's was steep and powdery and not too tough for lightweight like me in that you could basically pick where you wanted to turn. Did that a few times and then headed up the Imperial Chair. I did not hike to the summit because I am an out of shape fat-ass and needed all my energy just to make it down the hill unharmed. First course was Imperial Bowl back down right under the chair. That was so nice I went back up and traversed over to Whale's Tail. At the bottom of the bowl there I had the option to take the obvious run out, but ended up following a group traversing left to what I'm guessing was Ore Bucket. The traverse was a bit sketchy with some rocks showing through. Once we got over there it was a somewhat tight chute of soft bumps. I may have gotten in over my head a little bit, but I survived and was glad to have made the effort. A few more runs on peaks 8 and 7 and I called it a (great day). My legs were rubber, I had exhausted my water, I was sweating and gasping for air. Yep.
Thursday was my final day and I spent the majority of it on groomed terrain across all the peaks. I had pushed myself and did not want to ruin the trip with a stupid injury on my last day plus I had the drive back down to Denver in front of me. The drive back down was uneventful and much easier than the trip up. Stayed in Denver Thursday night and flew home Friday morning. Big shout out to the wifey for watching our 3 year old all week, allowing me to make the trek.
I never made it out of Breckenridge as the 2500 acres was more than enough to keep me occupied for 4 days. I know some (most?) will scoff at my amazement with the place and how challenged I was, but again, this was my first time skiing anywhere but the East. I would say that some of the groomed expert terrain might not have warranted the rating, but I guess like everywhere it is only relative the resort's other terrain.
Thanks again for all the info, and I will throw up some pictures later.
Monday, Ski Day 1, I told myself I was going to stick to cruisers, get the lay of the land and generally take it easy. It took all of 2 runs for that to go out the window. As one can imagine, having never skied anywhere but the East, and with fresh snow from Sunday still plentiful, I was like a kid in a candy store. Even though I stuck mainly to peaks 9 and 10, I could not stop myself from seeking out easier tree and bump runs. The Burn, Spitfire, Corsair(?) and Grit were all a lot of fun and I felt OK at the end of the day, but...
Tuesday, Ski Day 2, I woke up feeling a bit hungover, which made no sense because I did not drink the night before. Even though I was hydrating and peeing every 15 minutes it seemed, the altitude was maybe getting to me, so I decided to try to take it easy again. I guess going from 400ft to 10,000ft above sea level can do that to you. Also I was on Rossi S3's about 10cm longer and 20mm wider than my skis, so I was on more ski than I'm used to. Sticking again to peaks 9 and 10, I hit the runs that I missed Monday, but again could not resist the call of more challenging terrain. It snowed lightly and steadily all day, resulting in 3-5 inches. I did knock off a little earlier, and decided to re-fuel by going out for BBQ for dinner instead of eating in. Ribs, beans and potato salad proved to be the prescription to my altitude issues.
I woke up Wednesday feeling much better. I started out warming up on peak 8, Frosty's Freeway, Rounders, High Anxiety, and then decided to head to the T-Bar. This was a good idea. Not only was it fun riding a T-Bar for the first time in many years, Horseshoe Bowl was a ton of fun. Lulu's was steep and powdery and not too tough for lightweight like me in that you could basically pick where you wanted to turn. Did that a few times and then headed up the Imperial Chair. I did not hike to the summit because I am an out of shape fat-ass and needed all my energy just to make it down the hill unharmed. First course was Imperial Bowl back down right under the chair. That was so nice I went back up and traversed over to Whale's Tail. At the bottom of the bowl there I had the option to take the obvious run out, but ended up following a group traversing left to what I'm guessing was Ore Bucket. The traverse was a bit sketchy with some rocks showing through. Once we got over there it was a somewhat tight chute of soft bumps. I may have gotten in over my head a little bit, but I survived and was glad to have made the effort. A few more runs on peaks 8 and 7 and I called it a (great day). My legs were rubber, I had exhausted my water, I was sweating and gasping for air. Yep.
Thursday was my final day and I spent the majority of it on groomed terrain across all the peaks. I had pushed myself and did not want to ruin the trip with a stupid injury on my last day plus I had the drive back down to Denver in front of me. The drive back down was uneventful and much easier than the trip up. Stayed in Denver Thursday night and flew home Friday morning. Big shout out to the wifey for watching our 3 year old all week, allowing me to make the trek.
I never made it out of Breckenridge as the 2500 acres was more than enough to keep me occupied for 4 days. I know some (most?) will scoff at my amazement with the place and how challenged I was, but again, this was my first time skiing anywhere but the East. I would say that some of the groomed expert terrain might not have warranted the rating, but I guess like everywhere it is only relative the resort's other terrain.
Thanks again for all the info, and I will throw up some pictures later.
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