Winter Park - 1/22/19

[speden]

Salvaged my Denver trip with a powder day at Winter Park today. There was about 6" of fresh dry powder when we hit the slopes in the morning. And the crowd was small since it's a Tuesday, so the powder lasted most of the day. The upper mountain seemed to have gotten even more since some of the trails were nicely buried. It was my first time at Winter Park, and I'm pretty impressed with the place. Lots of nice glades and different terrain options. Some of the lifts are kind of slow, but it wasn't a big problem.

I had some fun runs in the Parsenn bowl, with deep powder in the trees there. I also liked most of the trails off the Sunnyside lift. In the afternoon when my legs were getting tired, I hit some mellow glades that run all along the side of the High Lonesome Express lift. Nice medium pitch and endless lines that felt like about a mile long glade. Pretty cool.

Temps were on the chilly side in the low teens and dropping through the day. Didn't really feel it much since I was skiing hard, but noticed my nose and fingers getting unusually cold sometimes and they would tingle when I'd warm them back up. Probably could have gotten frostbite on a day like this if you weren't careful.

Here are a few pics:



Does this look familiar? Same tunnel design as they used at Killington, but with nicer brickwork.


Heard and then spotted a couple of wood peckers at work in the Parsenn bowl. Any bird experts know the name of this bird?


Nice and deep in the glades. What a difference compared to the sucky skied out glades I got at Copper yesterday. Just thick pillows of powder and my Ripsticks floated like champs in it.

 

[speden]

Here are a couple more pics:



Looks like Tom Brady decided to ski today instead of getting ready for the Superbowl. Glad he's got his priorities in order.


I hope to get in a few more runs tomorrow morning before my afternoon flight home. They have been closing highways here due to icing and crashes in the passes, but hopefully that's all cleared up by tomorrow so that I can get to the airport. We had to drive the long way to Winter Park last night due to I-70 being closed.

 

[Edd]

Nice report! I’ve never skied WP.


Sent from my iPhone using AlpineZone

 

[speden]

Nice report! I’ve never skied WP.

Yeah, it wasn't on my radar either, but Zand wrote a trip report about it last year and it piqued my interest. Really glad I tried it.

 

[Zand]

Did you get to anything in the Eagle Wind area? Great glades in there and had the best snow on the mountain when I was there.

 

[speden]

Got in about an hour and a half this morning before heading to the airport. No fresh powder today, but they had groomed yesterday's snow to racetrack like packed powder. I think I set some personal best maximum speed runs this morning. Before my trip I was debating if I should put warm temp or cold temp wax on my skis. I went with the cold temp and that was a good choice since it was single digits in the morning. The ripsticks are really stable on packed powder, so I was just flying down some of the trails and they were mostly deserted. Got in a couple glade runs too which helped to keep me warm. So now I'm sitting at the airport and naturally my flight home is delayed an hour.

 

[speden]

Did you get to anything in the Eagle Wind area? Great glades in there and had the best snow on the mountain when I was there.

No I didn't get around to it. The glades in the Parsenn area were rated blue and I was finding them to be at my limits, so I figured the black runs in the Eagle Wind area might be too hard for me. Wish I could have spent a few more days there and worked my way up to the harder stuff since there was lots of powder in the trees. Didn't have time to try stuff off Mary Jane either. Looks like I'll need a return trip at some point.

 

[legalskier]

Didn't have time to try stuff off Mary Jane either. Looks like I'll need a return trip at some point.

Drunken Frenchman is probably the longest bump run I've ever been on, just awesome. The problem for me was lack of oxygen- do half a dozen turns & had to stop for air. Hope you stopped by Sunspot for lunch- a midmountain lodge that puts most main lodges to shame.

 

[gladerider]

Drunken Frenchman is probably the longest bump run I've ever been on, just awesome. The problem for me was lack of oxygen- do half a dozen turns & had to stop for air. Hope you stopped by Sunspot for lunch- a midmountain lodge that puts most main lodges to shame.

agreed. drunken frenchman is a lot of fun. my favorite area would be mary jane.