dlague
Active member
Conditions: Powder, powder chop on a nice PP base
If you cannot make it to the mountain on a powder day first thing in the morning, what is the next best thing you can get – that’s right soft powder bumps, some left overs and a trail poach or two!
After skiing Keystone the day before and going home in the middle of the storm, we were excited for a powder day at Breckenridge. We drove by Breck on our way home to see what the route was like. Hoosier Pass is no joke! With an elevation of 11,542 ft and a boat load of switchbacks heading home was very interesting. As a result, we opted not to try to get there early since the storm was still dumping and predicted to do so until 11 ish so that became our target time. It afforded us to sleep in a little longer and stopped for breakfast along the way. We got to Hoosier Pass and they had done a decent job clearing it which was nice, did not know what to expect with about a foot of snowfall since we drove through last.
So we arrived at 11:30 and it was still snowing lightly and we parked in the lot next to Gondola North in town which takes you to Peak 7 and Peak 8. It makes three stops – one residential and two at peak bases. We will probably take that option again. Parking was $12. When we arrived to Peak 8, the Dew Tour was happening and there was quite a buzz. It was a winter wonderland and as you can imagine our excitement was crazy. Just looking around we liked Breck already.
From the Rocky Mountain Super Chair (Quad), our first run was on a traverse (Columbine) over to Northstar. This run skied beautifully with soft bumps everywhere and powder leftovers off to the side. We cut into the trees sometimes to catch some freshies. What we found to be amazing was how soft the powder felt and how easy it was to turn in the powder as well as powder chop. It was a different type of snow than we had experienced before. Up to this point we had skied groomed runs and thin layers of fresh in Colorado and Banff. The huge early rise on our skis cruised over the snow effortlessly as if they were designed for that purpose (Dynastar Cham 97 – me, and 87 – wife). For our next few runs we opted to ski off the 6 person Colorado Super Chair on runs like Four o’clock to Springmeier and Crescendo. It did not matter which run we were on the powder bumps were everywhere which were also fun to jump from and were playful. The one thing that struck us was the amount of safety signs there were like No Jumping, Ski Fast Lose Pass, No Passing Zone (totally absurd), No Straightlining, Stay in Control, etc. In addition, every “Slow” sign had a ski patrol watching for speeders. A couple of times my son and I would race a section and we would have to slam the skis sideways due to a yellow coat.
Around 1 pm, we headed in to the bar for a beer and then sat outside (bar was packed). We watched a little of the Dew Tour on a large screen since the event was not set up for public attendance – could not ski to it but you could hike to it however not too many chose that option.
After a quick break, we headed back up the Colorado Super Chair (BTW moves fast) to ski down Four O’clock over to Peak 9. Felt like we were at a whole other resort. It was much quieter their and the restaurant/bar seemed almost empty, the trails there were pretty empty as well. We skied from the Beaver Run Super Chair and skied Sundown because we wanted to do the Epic Race but it was not set up yet. Our next run was on American which had a steeper top section with nice bumps then mellowed out and ended on Sundown. Everything seemed more subdued at Peak 9, more groomed out, less buzz yet this seemed rather enjoyable – ski on ski off. We will probably explore Peak 9 more over the upcoming weekends, but for now that was good and we wanted to head back on Peak 8 Super Connector but poached a trail and it sent us to an obscure area where there was a double that took us over to Peak 8’s beginner area – opps! I was getting later in the afternoon and my wife was wiped but she opted to do one more run. We got on the Colorado Super Chair and took another traverse trail (Pathfinder) over to Dukes Run. This trail had a short head wall and then dropped into more really nice soft bumps. Almost like a final treat and it felt like one of our most enjoyable runs.
While my wife was toast, my son wanted me to do a couple runs with him and our runs were spotted from the chair. The primary route was Spruce which was a very fun bump run that was well spaced. However, my son had other ideas and we skied through islands of trees that are unlabeled in the map. In fact there are lots of trails and connectors that are not shown. On happened to be an old liftline or something of that nature. It was steep and super narrow, however about a third the way down I bailed because rocks were exposed but my son skied it. I cut through the trees back to spruce for more bumps. We then cut back into the trees to ski a narrow path that took us close to the base across a section of barely tracked out powder. Our last run was down Spruce again and it was top to bottom nonstop and by the time we were finished my quads were on fire.
We finished our day at the bar at the base of Peak 8 and chilled to great music and lots of people with smiles on their faces talking about how great the day was. This ended up being one of our top days and they are not even 20% open. Considering what was open, conditions were near perfect and skiing Breck was one that we were looking forward to. There were 35 open trails many that we never got to ski. Then again, I felt we skied a lot for a half day. The runs seemed long, lifts were fast. Next time we will focus on a Peak at a time.
Based on where we live Breck will probably become our home base. The town is awesome too!
If you cannot make it to the mountain on a powder day first thing in the morning, what is the next best thing you can get – that’s right soft powder bumps, some left overs and a trail poach or two!
After skiing Keystone the day before and going home in the middle of the storm, we were excited for a powder day at Breckenridge. We drove by Breck on our way home to see what the route was like. Hoosier Pass is no joke! With an elevation of 11,542 ft and a boat load of switchbacks heading home was very interesting. As a result, we opted not to try to get there early since the storm was still dumping and predicted to do so until 11 ish so that became our target time. It afforded us to sleep in a little longer and stopped for breakfast along the way. We got to Hoosier Pass and they had done a decent job clearing it which was nice, did not know what to expect with about a foot of snowfall since we drove through last.
So we arrived at 11:30 and it was still snowing lightly and we parked in the lot next to Gondola North in town which takes you to Peak 7 and Peak 8. It makes three stops – one residential and two at peak bases. We will probably take that option again. Parking was $12. When we arrived to Peak 8, the Dew Tour was happening and there was quite a buzz. It was a winter wonderland and as you can imagine our excitement was crazy. Just looking around we liked Breck already.
From the Rocky Mountain Super Chair (Quad), our first run was on a traverse (Columbine) over to Northstar. This run skied beautifully with soft bumps everywhere and powder leftovers off to the side. We cut into the trees sometimes to catch some freshies. What we found to be amazing was how soft the powder felt and how easy it was to turn in the powder as well as powder chop. It was a different type of snow than we had experienced before. Up to this point we had skied groomed runs and thin layers of fresh in Colorado and Banff. The huge early rise on our skis cruised over the snow effortlessly as if they were designed for that purpose (Dynastar Cham 97 – me, and 87 – wife). For our next few runs we opted to ski off the 6 person Colorado Super Chair on runs like Four o’clock to Springmeier and Crescendo. It did not matter which run we were on the powder bumps were everywhere which were also fun to jump from and were playful. The one thing that struck us was the amount of safety signs there were like No Jumping, Ski Fast Lose Pass, No Passing Zone (totally absurd), No Straightlining, Stay in Control, etc. In addition, every “Slow” sign had a ski patrol watching for speeders. A couple of times my son and I would race a section and we would have to slam the skis sideways due to a yellow coat.
Around 1 pm, we headed in to the bar for a beer and then sat outside (bar was packed). We watched a little of the Dew Tour on a large screen since the event was not set up for public attendance – could not ski to it but you could hike to it however not too many chose that option.
After a quick break, we headed back up the Colorado Super Chair (BTW moves fast) to ski down Four O’clock over to Peak 9. Felt like we were at a whole other resort. It was much quieter their and the restaurant/bar seemed almost empty, the trails there were pretty empty as well. We skied from the Beaver Run Super Chair and skied Sundown because we wanted to do the Epic Race but it was not set up yet. Our next run was on American which had a steeper top section with nice bumps then mellowed out and ended on Sundown. Everything seemed more subdued at Peak 9, more groomed out, less buzz yet this seemed rather enjoyable – ski on ski off. We will probably explore Peak 9 more over the upcoming weekends, but for now that was good and we wanted to head back on Peak 8 Super Connector but poached a trail and it sent us to an obscure area where there was a double that took us over to Peak 8’s beginner area – opps! I was getting later in the afternoon and my wife was wiped but she opted to do one more run. We got on the Colorado Super Chair and took another traverse trail (Pathfinder) over to Dukes Run. This trail had a short head wall and then dropped into more really nice soft bumps. Almost like a final treat and it felt like one of our most enjoyable runs.
While my wife was toast, my son wanted me to do a couple runs with him and our runs were spotted from the chair. The primary route was Spruce which was a very fun bump run that was well spaced. However, my son had other ideas and we skied through islands of trees that are unlabeled in the map. In fact there are lots of trails and connectors that are not shown. On happened to be an old liftline or something of that nature. It was steep and super narrow, however about a third the way down I bailed because rocks were exposed but my son skied it. I cut through the trees back to spruce for more bumps. We then cut back into the trees to ski a narrow path that took us close to the base across a section of barely tracked out powder. Our last run was down Spruce again and it was top to bottom nonstop and by the time we were finished my quads were on fire.
We finished our day at the bar at the base of Peak 8 and chilled to great music and lots of people with smiles on their faces talking about how great the day was. This ended up being one of our top days and they are not even 20% open. Considering what was open, conditions were near perfect and skiing Breck was one that we were looking forward to. There were 35 open trails many that we never got to ski. Then again, I felt we skied a lot for a half day. The runs seemed long, lifts were fast. Next time we will focus on a Peak at a time.
Based on where we live Breck will probably become our home base. The town is awesome too!
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