jimk
Well-known member
2015 Geezer Ski Bum Tour – AlpineZone #1
By Jim Kenney
Schweet Day at Beaver Creek, Feb 5, 2015
Is it bad form to post a trip report on a western mountain on AlpineZone? I hope not, it's all good in my book.:smile:
I’m about a week into a two month ski sabbatical and hope to visit a number of ski areas in the western US in February and March. I am currently based for a fortnight in the historic little railroading town of Minturn, CO, located halfway between Vail and Beaver Creek ski areas. I am traveling solo for the first month of the trip and will be joined by my wife, our four adult children, and friends for all or part of the second month.
I don’t know about you, but I find recreational skiing much more rewarding doing it with friends and family than when I’m alone, although it's all good.:smile: I had observed through his posts on AlpineZone that regular member SkiNEwhere was a transplant from New England now in Colorado and when I got out here (on that glorious Superbowl Sunday) I sent a message to him to see if he wanted to show me around some of his stomping grounds. We met and skied together on 2/5/15 at Beaver Creek on a gorgeous, sunny Colorado day, one of those days when the air temps might have been 30, but it felt like 50 under an electric blue sky.
Even though we have about a 30 year age difference between us SkiNEwhere was super nice and patient with this old geezer. It has snowed a few inches almost every night or day I’ve been out here and from my mid-Atlantic perspective the whole mountain had great snow. We covered a lot of ground and SkiNEwhere had me constantly sucking wind. He’s a strong and fearless skier. Remember, this is the guy who bent his Soul 7’s like a pretzel earlier this winter and then was clever enough to wrangle a free 2015 replacement pair from Rossignol!
Even SkiNEwhere was impressed with the beautiful weather yesterday and I told him it was the kind of blue sky/dry powder conditions for which Colorado is famed. We skied all over the humongous Beaver Creek layout including traversing across some of the race courses for the FIS World Ski Championships that are currently underway at Beaver Creek and Vail. At around 1PM we stopped skiing for about 30 minutes to watch the men’s Super G finals while munching a bag lunch on a knoll beside a ski trail overlooking the jam packed finish stadium. We didn’t see Bode Miller’s big crash, but from skiing so close to the steep and icy courses and riding a lift just overhead of them it was obvious to us how dangerously close to the edge these world cup guys and gals have to race to come out on top.
SkiNEwhere took me to a few places at Beaver Creek that I would hesitate to enter alone in dumb tourist mode, such as Stone Creek Chutes and Royal Elk Glade. I’m glad I became familiar with him through his posts on AlpineZone and reached out to him. He did a great job guiding me to these areas which feature expert, offpiste terrain.
I’ll let a big batch of photos tell the rest of the story. Most of these feature skiNEwhere as my way of thanking him for a great day. All photos by Jim Kenney (IIRC must post photos in groups of five.)
We started way over by the Arrowhead trail complex and skied a pretty glade there:
Good snow everywhere:
skiNEwhere up close:
Beaver Creek panorama, Birds of Prey race courses in center, Grouse Mtn right, Royal Elk Glades far right:
Race course below, minutes before closing lift for race time, Steep and race hard:
By Jim Kenney
Schweet Day at Beaver Creek, Feb 5, 2015
Is it bad form to post a trip report on a western mountain on AlpineZone? I hope not, it's all good in my book.:smile:
I’m about a week into a two month ski sabbatical and hope to visit a number of ski areas in the western US in February and March. I am currently based for a fortnight in the historic little railroading town of Minturn, CO, located halfway between Vail and Beaver Creek ski areas. I am traveling solo for the first month of the trip and will be joined by my wife, our four adult children, and friends for all or part of the second month.
I don’t know about you, but I find recreational skiing much more rewarding doing it with friends and family than when I’m alone, although it's all good.:smile: I had observed through his posts on AlpineZone that regular member SkiNEwhere was a transplant from New England now in Colorado and when I got out here (on that glorious Superbowl Sunday) I sent a message to him to see if he wanted to show me around some of his stomping grounds. We met and skied together on 2/5/15 at Beaver Creek on a gorgeous, sunny Colorado day, one of those days when the air temps might have been 30, but it felt like 50 under an electric blue sky.
Even though we have about a 30 year age difference between us SkiNEwhere was super nice and patient with this old geezer. It has snowed a few inches almost every night or day I’ve been out here and from my mid-Atlantic perspective the whole mountain had great snow. We covered a lot of ground and SkiNEwhere had me constantly sucking wind. He’s a strong and fearless skier. Remember, this is the guy who bent his Soul 7’s like a pretzel earlier this winter and then was clever enough to wrangle a free 2015 replacement pair from Rossignol!
Even SkiNEwhere was impressed with the beautiful weather yesterday and I told him it was the kind of blue sky/dry powder conditions for which Colorado is famed. We skied all over the humongous Beaver Creek layout including traversing across some of the race courses for the FIS World Ski Championships that are currently underway at Beaver Creek and Vail. At around 1PM we stopped skiing for about 30 minutes to watch the men’s Super G finals while munching a bag lunch on a knoll beside a ski trail overlooking the jam packed finish stadium. We didn’t see Bode Miller’s big crash, but from skiing so close to the steep and icy courses and riding a lift just overhead of them it was obvious to us how dangerously close to the edge these world cup guys and gals have to race to come out on top.
SkiNEwhere took me to a few places at Beaver Creek that I would hesitate to enter alone in dumb tourist mode, such as Stone Creek Chutes and Royal Elk Glade. I’m glad I became familiar with him through his posts on AlpineZone and reached out to him. He did a great job guiding me to these areas which feature expert, offpiste terrain.
I’ll let a big batch of photos tell the rest of the story. Most of these feature skiNEwhere as my way of thanking him for a great day. All photos by Jim Kenney (IIRC must post photos in groups of five.)
We started way over by the Arrowhead trail complex and skied a pretty glade there:
Good snow everywhere:
skiNEwhere up close:
Beaver Creek panorama, Birds of Prey race courses in center, Grouse Mtn right, Royal Elk Glades far right:
Race course below, minutes before closing lift for race time, Steep and race hard:
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