jaywbigred
Active member
So we are out at Breck, today (Wed. 3/12) being our midweek offday, I thought I'd post the first 3 days' reports:
3/9 - Our first day, and we wake up to bluebird skies and, contrary to what we had been told by a few people supposedly in the know, no lift lines. Despite discovering that our rental was not, in fact, actually ski-in, ski-out, we had a great time, skiing mostly the terrain on Peaks 10 and 9. We warmed up on some blues off the Beaver Run Superchair, incl. Lehman, Briar Rosa, Cashier, Bonanza and Columbia. Then we hit the bumps on American and Peerless a couple times each, which were fun, good lines, not too steep, but plenty of work with fairly rutted troughs in places. A short break for lunch, then skied Devil's Crotch (leg/energy burner), Sizzler, Corsair, Grits ( a few times) before the run home on Cimarron. A good, long day, but we would regret it on...
Before it exhausted us.
3/10 - Though the weather called for warmth, the gray sky made it a little chillier than Sunday. I decided to become the 6th in a "private lesson" including a bunch of my friends, who were looking to improve their bump skiing. Though I love bumps and ski them more often than others in the group, I wanted to hear what an instructor had to say, knowing full well that I might not agree with it all. I was happy when she spent almost all of our lesson teaching elements of absorption and extension, starting with groomer drills (Sundown, Volunteer, and Shock) and then moving us to learner's bumps on Crescendo, which were nice. Then she took us up the T-bar to Horseshoe Bowl, where she separated me from the group and forced me to ski the steepest section of the bowl. It was legitimately steep, but didn't have bumps on it, so I wasn't that into it. Further, with the gray/white sky, the light + thin air + steepness made for a pretty disorienting experience. From there we took the Imperial Chair up (WAY up, ~12,800 ft at the top) and skied some small, newly forming bumps on some decently steep terrain, skiing out the bottom down to Boneyard, where we found some crunchy bumps, a result of the warm, sunny weather on Sunday, and the orientation of the face (eastern?). They reminded me of night skiing bumps at Mountain Creek in highschool, and were not, in any way, fun. we then took the E double up and skied some great bumps on Peerless, where everyone really put their new knowledge to use. We finished it off with some pathetic-but-fun pipe skiing, and then said good bye to our instructor. After a quick lunch, we Peerless two more times, and then a run on Corsair and the Burn, and then called it a day.
8/11 - We woke up to an even warmer bluebird day on Tuesday, and decided that we had to take advantage of it. After warming up on Peerless, we went over to the T-Bar and while some re-covered their prior day's runs in the Horseshoe Bowl, a couple of us separated and skied through some rocky sections of Contest Bowl. We rode back up the T-Bar from there and skied Debbie's Alley, Vertigo, and Y-Chute (or at least, the non-hike-to portions of same). Bc we got a quasi-late start, we decided to have some energy bars on mountain, and wait until 3:30 après ski to eat our sandwiches. We spent the rest of the day playing around the rocky (and still crunchy, in the shade) Easter facing trails under and around the 6 Chair. After 4 runs or so there, we skied down on Boneyard to the E Chair, from which we skied Sizzler to Lehman to the Ten Mile Station, for après, which, I have to say, kinda sucked. They were closing when we got there, so we only got one beer (albeit, a $10, 24 oz. Coors), and that was only after pleading with the manager to stay open an extra few minutes. From there we skied Cimmaron home. We were plenty sore.
Top of the T-Bar
More tomorrow and Friday.
3/9 - Our first day, and we wake up to bluebird skies and, contrary to what we had been told by a few people supposedly in the know, no lift lines. Despite discovering that our rental was not, in fact, actually ski-in, ski-out, we had a great time, skiing mostly the terrain on Peaks 10 and 9. We warmed up on some blues off the Beaver Run Superchair, incl. Lehman, Briar Rosa, Cashier, Bonanza and Columbia. Then we hit the bumps on American and Peerless a couple times each, which were fun, good lines, not too steep, but plenty of work with fairly rutted troughs in places. A short break for lunch, then skied Devil's Crotch (leg/energy burner), Sizzler, Corsair, Grits ( a few times) before the run home on Cimarron. A good, long day, but we would regret it on...
3/10 - Though the weather called for warmth, the gray sky made it a little chillier than Sunday. I decided to become the 6th in a "private lesson" including a bunch of my friends, who were looking to improve their bump skiing. Though I love bumps and ski them more often than others in the group, I wanted to hear what an instructor had to say, knowing full well that I might not agree with it all. I was happy when she spent almost all of our lesson teaching elements of absorption and extension, starting with groomer drills (Sundown, Volunteer, and Shock) and then moving us to learner's bumps on Crescendo, which were nice. Then she took us up the T-bar to Horseshoe Bowl, where she separated me from the group and forced me to ski the steepest section of the bowl. It was legitimately steep, but didn't have bumps on it, so I wasn't that into it. Further, with the gray/white sky, the light + thin air + steepness made for a pretty disorienting experience. From there we took the Imperial Chair up (WAY up, ~12,800 ft at the top) and skied some small, newly forming bumps on some decently steep terrain, skiing out the bottom down to Boneyard, where we found some crunchy bumps, a result of the warm, sunny weather on Sunday, and the orientation of the face (eastern?). They reminded me of night skiing bumps at Mountain Creek in highschool, and were not, in any way, fun. we then took the E double up and skied some great bumps on Peerless, where everyone really put their new knowledge to use. We finished it off with some pathetic-but-fun pipe skiing, and then said good bye to our instructor. After a quick lunch, we Peerless two more times, and then a run on Corsair and the Burn, and then called it a day.
8/11 - We woke up to an even warmer bluebird day on Tuesday, and decided that we had to take advantage of it. After warming up on Peerless, we went over to the T-Bar and while some re-covered their prior day's runs in the Horseshoe Bowl, a couple of us separated and skied through some rocky sections of Contest Bowl. We rode back up the T-Bar from there and skied Debbie's Alley, Vertigo, and Y-Chute (or at least, the non-hike-to portions of same). Bc we got a quasi-late start, we decided to have some energy bars on mountain, and wait until 3:30 après ski to eat our sandwiches. We spent the rest of the day playing around the rocky (and still crunchy, in the shade) Easter facing trails under and around the 6 Chair. After 4 runs or so there, we skied down on Boneyard to the E Chair, from which we skied Sizzler to Lehman to the Ten Mile Station, for après, which, I have to say, kinda sucked. They were closing when we got there, so we only got one beer (albeit, a $10, 24 oz. Coors), and that was only after pleading with the manager to stay open an extra few minutes. From there we skied Cimmaron home. We were plenty sore.
More tomorrow and Friday.
