1/25 - 2/10, 2017, Summit County, Colorado

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This is part of my ski bumming season grand tour of the western US and Canada. (http://forums.alpinezone.com/showth...ski-bumming-season-2017-Part-II-North-America)

I'm putting the pure skiing parts for each states in their own threads. So people who are just interested in reading about the skiing in one particular location don't have to wade through all the other posts. This hopefully should also keep any one thread from growing too unyielding in length.


Day 1 & 2 (1/26-27) Keystone


The snow had stopped dumping 2 days ago. Now the big chill got a death grip of the region. It was in the teens and with a lot of wind. My local host suggest we go to Keystone this day because it's the most sheltered from the wind.


I haven't been to Keystone for ages. In truth, I've only been to Keystone once before. Wasn't impressed, and never gone back. But I knew my host knew the area best. So I just followed.


It hadn't snowed for a couple days now. But there's so much snow, and it's been relatively cold so the snow was well preserved. After a quick warm up run on Mozart the wide blue groomer, my friend took me straight to the Outback. Though on our way there, we had a slight detour on North Peak. On the chair, we could see the bumps on North Peak were delicious (full of soft dry powder in the trough)! So we dropped in at Gernonemo and had a blast!


Back up on North Peak, I almost wanted to re-do the bump run again. But my friend didn't even give me a chance to say anything and we went straight to Outback. I soon found out why. There were more of the same delicious powder filled bumps. But more, there were also easy tree runs that, although not entirely fresh track, were deep &soft! We surfed those many times and enjoyed ourselves enormously.


It was so good I went there again the next day. (coupled with the fact it was again in the teens with lots of wind again, so Keystone beats 'BreckenFridge' or A-basin which were the alternatives)


It entirely changed my impression of Keystone. With the knowledge of a local guide, we found tons of good snow to play with in a mountain that's just "meh" on my previous visit. (the groomers of Keystone do typically got scratchy after only a few hours post opening. So my previous "bad" impression was not baseless. It's just there ARE good play spots in Keystone if one knows where to go! And it being almost entirely below treeline, it's a good place to go on a stormy or windy days)


Sorry no pictures. Way too cold to bother pulling the phone out for picture.

 

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1/28, A-basin


This being Saturday, A-basin is the only reasonable choice. My friend refused to ski on a crowded Saturday. Besides, she has to work in the afternoon and evening. It's not worth fighting the crowd for a few hours. But for me, it's just another ski day. And crowds? What crowds? Not by eastern standard!


Though truth be told, parking was difficult. I didn't go up early enough, so ended up parking miles away and had to ride the shuttle bus in. On the other hand, that means I only have to walk a very short distance, from the car to the bus, then from the bus drop off to the lift. I actually PREFER to ride a bus over having to walk half a mile from the far corner of the parking lot to the chair.


Since I was alone, I expressed my way through the lift line via the single's line. And even that was only necessary for the bottom lift. All the upper mountain lifts were pretty much ski on. Though part of the reason being it's a cloudy day. If you know A-basin, its entire upper mountain are treeless. So when the clouds are in, it's pretty hard to tell where the snow ends and the fog begin. It's definitely "good for you" kind of skiing!


It's a short day, for that reason. I had enough "good" work after a few hours. More over, I had in mind something else I wanted to do later in that day.

This is the weekend of the Breckenridge Snow Sculpture Championship! So I took the opportunity to see some amazing snow sculpture!

 

[4aprice]

Good for you ABC. Been wondering what you were up to since Japan. Was out there part of the time you were and totally agree it was cold. Wearing masks and neck gators are not my usual west wardrobe.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ

 

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Totally. I had every warm piece of clothing on, and still end up having to take breaks inside to warm up. Never done that skiing in the west.

 

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1/30, Vail


Today is my friend's day off. So it's time for a little road trip. Vail it is. $25 parking be damned.


Upon reaching the top of Lion's Head, we found out too late there's actually a mountain tour geared towards blue/black skiers starting at a different location at that very hour. (it's not listed on their web site, so if you're heading that way and are interested, I suggest you call the guest service and ask for it. It sounded like a nice orientation tour, including the back bowls)


Not that we don't know where we want to go anyway. I've skied Vail quite a few times. So it's pretty easy to reach the same decision as my friend: head towards Blue Sky Basin by way of a tour of the glorious back bowls. My friend showed me several of her favorite lines, some requiring a little (not too big) jump off the cornies, which for some reason I didn't feel like doing. Probably had something to do with the less than ideal snow condition. It's been almost a week after the last snow fall. it's starting to show on the mountain...


We did find some soft snows in Blue Sky Basin and lapped it many times, enjoyed ourselvs enormously again. The skiing was really good by any standard, other than real powder day that is.


We finish the day by cruising easy groomers all the way back to Lion's Head. I've never done that in the past, so found it interesting.

 

[dlague]

Good you got to experience Keystone the way you did. The bump runs on North Peak are great. Outback has many nice runs too! We always enjoy it but it can get crowded. We only ski the weekend so we never experienced the cold. A Basin also has some serious bump runs that I find to be challenging of the Pali Lift.

Keep up the fun!

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1/31, Beaver Creek


It's been a long time since I've been to Beaver Creek. So it's time for a re-visit.


Since we missed the upper level mountain tour of Vail, I looked up the time and meeting place of Beaver Creek, and made sure I was there at the right time at the right place. Found myself the only guest of their tour of the day!


Unlike most mountains' free tour which typically only covers green and blue runs, Beaver Creek's free mountain tour is 20% green, 40% blue and some blacks! Though I found out they so over-rate their runs the blacks were more like steep blues. Still, it doesn't distract from the experience. It's nice to be led around to see the WHOLE mountain. True to the reputation of Beaver Creek, the free tour also includes a free hot chocolate break! Definition of pampering.


After the tour, I decided I could use some adventure on their "advance" terrain that are ungroomed (the free tour only cover groomers). My first run of choice unfortunately, turned out to be coral reef glazed over with slick ice! Fortunately, a ski patroller was fixing some marker half way down the run. So I slip-n-slide my way to him and asked what's the best way out of that endless field of coral reef. Once pointed the right way, I found perfectly soft bumps with powder in the trough. Good enough to repeat, minus the ice-glazed coral reef entry. Sadly, the day ended too soon (this being January, the sun is low so a lot of the runs fade into the shadow pretty early in the afternoon).


And I missed the 4 o'clock cookie! But considering I was enjoying myself with the powder filled soft bumps, cookies are definitely a lower priority.

 

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2/1, A-basin


Today, the sun came out and the sky is clear as a bell! It's the perfect day to go to A-basin!!!


East Wall was skiing fantastic!!! The snow was soft and surfy. There're just millions of lines one can choose. Saw quite a line of people hiking up from the traverse. The snow looked really good. But I wasn't in the mood to hike.


Instead, I went over to Zuma bowl. More soft surfy snow everywhere. Just a beautiful day.

I'll let the picture do the talking.

 

[dlague]

Love Zuma Bowl - especially coming off the ridge. Which BTW would be perfect for a Chinese Downhill!

 

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2/2 Breckenridge


My host works in Breck in the afternoon. So we went for a early morning start before she reports for work.


The groomer on Peak 10 was soft yet fast. The wind was blowing (as usual for Breck) and moving snow from upper slope and dumping them on the slope, refreshing the surface better than the best groomer cat! There's almost no one around. So we lapped it many times as quickly as we could.


Despite the wind, we suddenly noticed the t-bar was running. And then the Impreial chair too. We had to leave the wind blown freshies we were lapping to go to the t-bar? Such hard choice we had to make!


But as quickly as they openned it, the wind had a different idea for us. Just as we grabbed the t-bar, it stopped. After a few minutes, we were told the wind was too strong and they can't run the t-bar any more. Soon after, Imperial chair was also closed, which we sort of expected.


It's getting close to the time for my friend to report to work. With both the t-bar and the Imperial down, there's not a lot of interesting terrain for my friend the local ski bum. So she left to rest up for the start of her long work day.


I went back to Peak 10 only to find the Falcon chair was also on wind hold. Well, it's time for lunch anyway...


Even after lunch, the Falcon chair was still not running. So Peak 10 was out of play. Unfortunately, the rest of Breck's lower mountain consist of mostly glorified greens mislabled as blues, and cross country skiing on the greens. I aimlessly cruised around for a bit and decided to throw in the towel.


Quitting early also gave me a chance to go see those gorgeous snow sculptures in daylight, which is a totally different experience.

 

[dlague]

We like Peak 10. Did you consider skiing E Chair or Chair 6. Lots of challenging stuff over there. We are not huge fans of the bottom sections of Peak 8 or 9 but the trails down the middle and to skiers left are decent runs on Peak 8. Peak 9 you are also best lapping the Mercury Lift. Runs on Peak 7 are not bad either but Independence Lift gets busy for that reason. I assume Peak 6 was probably closed down too. We have been lucky so far as we have not experienced any wind on our trips there so far.

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[dlague]

Totally. I had every warm piece of clothing on, and still end up having to take breaks inside to warm up. Never done that skiing in the west.

We have not either - temps are generally consistent.

Sent from my SM-G930P using AlpineZone mobile app

 

[dlague]

1/30, Vail


Today is my friend's day off. So it's time for a little road trip. Vail it is. $25 parking be damned.


Upon reaching the top of Lion's Head, we found out too late there's actually a mountain tour geared towards blue/black skiers starting at a different location at that very hour. (it's not listed on their web site, so if you're heading that way and are interested, I suggest you call the guest service and ask for it. It sounded like a nice orientation tour, including the back bowls)


Not that we don't know where we want to go anyway. I've skied Vail quite a few times. So it's pretty easy to reach the same decision as my friend: head towards Blue Sky Basin by way of a tour of the glorious back bowls. My friend showed me several of her favorite lines, some requiring a little (not too big) jump off the cornies, which for some reason I didn't feel like doing. Probably had something to do with the less than ideal snow condition. It's been almost a week after the last snow fall. it's starting to show on the mountain...


We did find some soft snows in Blue Sky Basin and lapped it many times, enjoyed ourselvs enormously again. The skiing was really good by any standard, other than real powder day that is.


We finish the day by cruising easy groomers all the way back to Lion's Head. I've never done that in the past, so found it interesting.

Lift traversing the back bowls is a nice way to go. Better that lift traversing the front side where there are more people. But I would assume one the sun hits that snow with out refresh snowfall then it could get a bit crusty. Have not skied Blue Sky yet. Plan on it next trip. Skiing across the frontside makes for some long runs.

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2/6 A-basin: day before storm.


The snow is coming!!!


At least that's the forecast. But getting up in the morning, there's no sign of snow. Instead, there's high wind, bits and piece of cloud. So I took a chance with A-basin, hoping the high wind might actually freshen up the slope with some wind blown powder. I was in luck!!!


A very knowledgeable ski host suggest I beeline to the Palivincini lift. As I rode up on the lift, I notice the wind had been dumpping snow on the slopes on the chair's right. So it's a no-brainer to drop right into that thick coat of freshly deposited snow!!!


The only "problem" was the entire Pali area have moguls as big as one can imagine, befitting the hardcore reputation of that sector of A-basin (and to a degree defines A-basin's reputation as an "advanced" mountain). And those on the lower mountain had NOT been refreshed with new snow like their upper mountain cousin. So it's just survival skiing to get through the lower part as quickly as possible to enjoy the freshies on the upper mountain!


As good as the skiing was, the cloud finally came in. It's getting hard to see the slope. So I switched back to the East Wall for a few more runs before calling it quits.


Better save my legs for the powder days forecast for the next couple days...




2/7 & 2/8 Keyston Snowing! Skiing through the snow.


The snow finally materialized!!!


Keystone's website was showing they've got 4" overnight. That's a lot of snow, which I figure should cover up all the slick groomers!


Unfortunately, I had a phone interview in the morning (east coast morning) so I didn't get to Kaystone till around 10. The parking lot was almost full. And indeed, there's about 4" of snow on the ground. And the snow had temporary stopped.


Up in the mountain, the 4" of new snow didn't last very long. The high traffic runs had almost got scraped to the slick hard pack snow underneath. But I wasn't worried. I knew the places to go: in the trees in the Outback. There were a lot of trees in Keystone, and a lot of different lines. So no worry about scraped up groomer runs.


Even the sun poked its head out once in a while, just to brighten the day up. The rest of the time, more and more big flakes kept on falling. Eventually, the scraped up groomers got covered up by fresh snow again. So by late afternoon, it's cruising on the hero snow of the groomer time!


I didn't go till last chair, which for Keystone would have been 8 pm thanks to night skiing. I did skied till last day light though, which was about 4:30.


Repeat the next day, another 4". This time, I got there a bit earlier (still not quite first chair, but I wasn't exactly highly motivated. With no competition, there's a lack of motivation). The trees got deeper. The bumps got more softies in the trough. The skiing even better!


People were lining up for the cat ride to the open bowl ($10/ride). But I can't see much in the whiteout so decided to save my money for the time being. There's more than enough for me to play with (imagine a kid in a candy store, telling him there's MORE candy in the next store isn't going to make him leave!)

 

[dlague]

All the runs of Pali lift are awesome, well at least the runs I have been on. There are a couple that I have not yet been on because they are really steep and bumped and with a single edge catch - holy shit you are in for a ride!

Looks like we crossed paths. We were at Keystone on the 6th and had a great day. The runs were a bit firm in spots but edging was still good. It was certainly better than eastern ice! However that eastern ice is now an afterthought! While it has been quiet here lately - 3-8 inch bursts - New England seems like the place to be!

 

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All the runs of Pali lift are awesome, well at least the runs I have been on. There are a couple that I have not yet been on because they are really steep and bumped and with a single edge catch - holy shit you are in for a ride!

I'm really not into super steep stuff.

When there's powder, there's usually powder all over the place. I just enjoy myself equally well in the less steep slopes.

Occasionally, I found powder in the steep areas and I'll ski it. But I really don't seek the super steep stuff out on purpose. I would go so far to say I only find myself in steep terrain only as a result of powder chasing that ended up being there.

Looks like we crossed paths. We were at Keystone on the 6th and had a great day. The runs were a bit firm in spots but edging was still good.

Yes, looks like we did.

I like the open wide skiing at A-basin. It's just not a place to be on a cloudy day. So if I think the snow is good, AND there's good visibility, I got there as my first choice.

 

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2/9 A-Basin Day after Storm!


Finally, the snow stopped and the sun came out!!!


It's time to go see the glorious open slopes of A-basin! (Vail, unfortunately, didn't get much out of this storm. So it's not quite worth the $25 parking and the extra 1/2 hr drive)


The sun were in and out of the clouds. Beggar can't be choosers. One just had to work with what one got. First, I stayed lower under the trees for best visibility. Though as the day wore on, the sun came out more and more. So it's time to cross over to the Zuma bowl.


There's good powder to be had, albeit mostly tracked (during the day as the snow were coming down, can't be helped). It was nonetheless soft powder. It was great fun to surf those all day.

 

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2/10 Breckenridge


The sun was out at full force. But the wind was up and gusty. I had a dilema of where to go.


I had good experience with A-basin in high wind, and not so great experience with Breckenridge in high wind. Just the way their lifts are organized. So on such a windy day, I lean towards A-basin. Except there's a monkey wrench in there.


I have another phone interview scheduled for 3pm. And there's no cell service at A-basin. It's the latest time I can request because that's 5pm on a Friday in New York! I would have had to stop skiing around 2 and drive back to civilization to take that call.


So reluctantly, I went to Breckenridge instead. That may have turned out to be a lucky coincidence. Because there's a traffic stoppage on I-70 just east of Silverthorne, some of the people decided to divert to A-basin.


Still, predictably, all the top of mountain lifts at Breck were on wind hold. Even the gondola were only doing dry runs. So it's buses from the parking lot to the various bases. And the lines were on the long side.


Fortunately, the lift lines doesn't affect me quite as much. There's always the single's line. And the 9" total they got from the past 3 days worked wonders in the north facing slopes. The Burns and the runs under the E-chair were full of deep soft powder! The skiing was so good, at 2:30 I contemplated blowing the interview and just kept on skiing!!!


In the end, I made the sacrifices of taking my call in one of the mid-mountain lodge (10 mile station) at 3pm. That call turned out to be the one that resulted in my having to return back to the east for an in person interview! Good or bad? Remains to be seen if a job came out of it.

I managed to ski a couple more runs after the call. All in all, a great ending of my 2 1/2 week stay in the Summit county. I may be stopping here again later and spend another couple weeks there at the tail end of my great circle tour on my way back east. Who knows.

After skiing, I drove over Vail pass to spend the night at Glenwood Springs. Snow was predicted for Friday night to Saturday morning. I didn't want to deal with all the Saturday morning traffic plus the snow over Vail pass. This way, I can lazily roll out of bed late in the morning and still make Park City before dinner time stress free.

 

[dlague]

I'm really not into super steep stuff.

When there's powder, there's usually powder all over the place. I just enjoy myself equally well in the less steep slopes.

Occasionally, I found powder in the steep areas and I'll ski it. But I really don't seek the super steep stuff out on purpose. I would go so far to say I only find myself in steep terrain only as a result of powder chasing that ended up being there.


Yes, looks like we did.

I like the open wide skiing at A-basin. It's just not a place to be on a cloudy day. So if I think the snow is good, AND there's good visibility, I got there as my first choice.

Great place to be for spring skiing or holiday weekends!

Sent from my SM-G930P using AlpineZone mobile app

 

[dlague]

2/10 Breckenridge


The sun was out at full force. But the wind was up and gusty. I had a dilema of where to go.


I had good experience with A-basin in high wind, and not so great experience with Breckenridge in high wind. Just the way their lifts are organized. So on such a windy day, I lean towards A-basin. Except there's a monkey wrench in there.


I have another phone interview scheduled for 3pm. And there's no cell service at A-basin. It's the latest time I can request because that's 5pm on a Friday in New York! I would have had to stop skiing around 2 and drive back to civilization to take that call.


So reluctantly, I went to Breckenridge instead. That may have turned out to be a lucky coincidence. Because there's a traffic stoppage on I-70 just east of Silverthorne, some of the people decided to divert to A-basin.


Still, predictably, all the top of mountain lifts at Breck were on wind hold. Even the gondola were only doing dry runs. So it's buses from the parking lot to the various bases. And the lines were on the long side.


Fortunately, the lift lines doesn't affect me quite as much. There's always the single's line. And the 9" total they got from the past 3 days worked wonders in the north facing slopes. The Burns and the runs under the E-chair were full of deep soft powder! The skiing was so good, at 2:30 I contemplated blowing the interview and just kept on skiing!!!


In the end, I made the sacrifices of taking my call in one of the mid-mountain lodge (10 mile station) at 3pm. That call turned out to be the one that resulted in my having to return back to the east for an in person interview! Good or bad? Remains to be seen if a job came out of it.

I managed to ski a couple more runs after the call. All in all, a great ending of my 2 1/2 week stay in the Summit county. I may be stopping here again later and spend another couple weeks there at the tail end of my great circle tour on my way back east. Who knows.

After skiing, I drove over Vail pass to spend the night at Glenwood Springs. Snow was predicted for Friday night to Saturday morning. I didn't want to deal with all the Saturday morning traffic plus the snow over Vail pass. This way, I can lazily roll out of bed late in the morning and still make Park City before dinner time stress free.

If you make it to Summit County look me up via PM.

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