mondeo
New member
Day 1: Breck
Bluebird, wind effected, warm.
My first trip out west, not entirely sure what to expect. Figured I'd hit Breck Friday as I'd heard it gets pretty crowded on the weekends, and if it had the Lake Chutes I figured the terrain would be pretty good. Headed to the T-bar, hit the lower part of the North Bowl first. Prett fair amount of chop, but nothing too bad and didn't seem any harder than anything in the East. Probably too much of a confidence builder, headed up to Peak 8 next.
The 150ft vert climb up to the top at 13,000 ft is a little rough 16 hours after being at sea level, but decent view. Wind was whipping pretty good, making the traverse across the Lake Chutes a bit tricky. Not having dropped a cornice before, figured I probably shouldn't do my first into 50 degree chutes. The last chute (Wacky Tim's, per picture below,) had an entry that was about 50% cornice and 50% non-cornice, decent lines through a couple rock bands below that. Dropped in, and found the best snow of the day - a little wind packed, but skiing very smoothly.
Figured I'd give myself some more time before hiking again and that I needed some more practice dropping cornices, headed over to the Peak 7 bowl and then Whale's tail. These were getting a bit more traffic than the Lake Chutes, resulting in a decent amount of chop. After a few runs there, headed back to Imperial and, after waiting a few minutes for the wind to die down a bit, hit 9 Lives where the cornice was only a couple feet. Again, good snow. Wandered around a bit after that, over to Peaks 9 and 10, slightly disappointed. I thought there were cliffs everywhere out West, none to be seen (not that there was enough snow to drop them anyways.) I'm assuming there's more gnarly stuff at Breck other than the Lake Chutes if I had time to explore more, but overall got the feel of the mountain as being a nice family mountain with a few steeps and steep bump runs here and there, and incidentally it has the Lake Chutes as well. Figured I'd hike to the Chutes once more, probably shouldn't have.
Cornice into Zero chute wasn't too bad, a few rocks below but I had space for a couple turns to slow down then pick my way through. I think I made it in ok, but some where between landing and the second turn...
After the first second of "Oh sh** rocks," it was probably 10-15 seconds of tomahawking, noticing that only one of my skis was coming down with me, and thinking "this hike is going to be a real b**** if I don't stop right now." It was, figure about 300ft vertical post holing up 40+ degree slope to get the first ski, which served as a climbing aid for the next 100ft to the second. Then backtracking my steps most of the way down to softer, lower pitch snow where I could actually step back into my skis. Mildly humbling experience. Headed back up to ski the Peak 7 bowls for the rest of the day, rode the lift with a guy who had a friend that had my story beat - fell on Elevator, over the cliffs/rocks there, broke his helmet, goggles, and snowboard, and walked away unscathed.
Day 2:
Copper
Hardpack/wind effected/chop, softening later. Sunny morning, overcast from ~1PM on.
After skiing the lower elevation stuff at Breck after it had started to cool down yesterday, I figured it would be a little rough today. Early on I was right, hit a few bumps in the Resolution bowl and it was set up crud. Headed to the Spaulding bowl, about the same snow conditions as the Peak 7 high alpine stuff at Breck the day before. Did that a few times, then headed over to Copper Bowl. More of what I was expecting from Colorado than Breck, plenty of rocks and drops to make things a bit more playful - just not enough snow to play with. Got a bit more cornice dropping experience with stuff I wouldn't tumble as far with and with no rocks below, best part was anywhere you had to drop a cornice there was actually a couple turns of nice snow before entering the chop. With the sun out, things softened a little by 11AM-noon, but then the sun went into hiding and firmness set in. Did a couple last bowl runs before deciding it wasn't worth it, then hit Brenna's Grin a couple times. Nice little bump run, would've rather been on something other than my Wateas though.
Copper beats Breck hands down in my book. Nothing as gnarly as the Lake Chutes, but a lot more balanced, with enough more interesting stuff overall. Just more fun. And maybe it was the weekend vs weekday crowd, but the people seemed friendlier as well. A lot more chatter on the lift and lift line.
Bluebird, wind effected, warm.
My first trip out west, not entirely sure what to expect. Figured I'd hit Breck Friday as I'd heard it gets pretty crowded on the weekends, and if it had the Lake Chutes I figured the terrain would be pretty good. Headed to the T-bar, hit the lower part of the North Bowl first. Prett fair amount of chop, but nothing too bad and didn't seem any harder than anything in the East. Probably too much of a confidence builder, headed up to Peak 8 next.
The 150ft vert climb up to the top at 13,000 ft is a little rough 16 hours after being at sea level, but decent view. Wind was whipping pretty good, making the traverse across the Lake Chutes a bit tricky. Not having dropped a cornice before, figured I probably shouldn't do my first into 50 degree chutes. The last chute (Wacky Tim's, per picture below,) had an entry that was about 50% cornice and 50% non-cornice, decent lines through a couple rock bands below that. Dropped in, and found the best snow of the day - a little wind packed, but skiing very smoothly.
Figured I'd give myself some more time before hiking again and that I needed some more practice dropping cornices, headed over to the Peak 7 bowl and then Whale's tail. These were getting a bit more traffic than the Lake Chutes, resulting in a decent amount of chop. After a few runs there, headed back to Imperial and, after waiting a few minutes for the wind to die down a bit, hit 9 Lives where the cornice was only a couple feet. Again, good snow. Wandered around a bit after that, over to Peaks 9 and 10, slightly disappointed. I thought there were cliffs everywhere out West, none to be seen (not that there was enough snow to drop them anyways.) I'm assuming there's more gnarly stuff at Breck other than the Lake Chutes if I had time to explore more, but overall got the feel of the mountain as being a nice family mountain with a few steeps and steep bump runs here and there, and incidentally it has the Lake Chutes as well. Figured I'd hike to the Chutes once more, probably shouldn't have.
Cornice into Zero chute wasn't too bad, a few rocks below but I had space for a couple turns to slow down then pick my way through. I think I made it in ok, but some where between landing and the second turn...
After the first second of "Oh sh** rocks," it was probably 10-15 seconds of tomahawking, noticing that only one of my skis was coming down with me, and thinking "this hike is going to be a real b**** if I don't stop right now." It was, figure about 300ft vertical post holing up 40+ degree slope to get the first ski, which served as a climbing aid for the next 100ft to the second. Then backtracking my steps most of the way down to softer, lower pitch snow where I could actually step back into my skis. Mildly humbling experience. Headed back up to ski the Peak 7 bowls for the rest of the day, rode the lift with a guy who had a friend that had my story beat - fell on Elevator, over the cliffs/rocks there, broke his helmet, goggles, and snowboard, and walked away unscathed.
Day 2:
Copper
Hardpack/wind effected/chop, softening later. Sunny morning, overcast from ~1PM on.
After skiing the lower elevation stuff at Breck after it had started to cool down yesterday, I figured it would be a little rough today. Early on I was right, hit a few bumps in the Resolution bowl and it was set up crud. Headed to the Spaulding bowl, about the same snow conditions as the Peak 7 high alpine stuff at Breck the day before. Did that a few times, then headed over to Copper Bowl. More of what I was expecting from Colorado than Breck, plenty of rocks and drops to make things a bit more playful - just not enough snow to play with. Got a bit more cornice dropping experience with stuff I wouldn't tumble as far with and with no rocks below, best part was anywhere you had to drop a cornice there was actually a couple turns of nice snow before entering the chop. With the sun out, things softened a little by 11AM-noon, but then the sun went into hiding and firmness set in. Did a couple last bowl runs before deciding it wasn't worth it, then hit Brenna's Grin a couple times. Nice little bump run, would've rather been on something other than my Wateas though.
Copper beats Breck hands down in my book. Nothing as gnarly as the Lake Chutes, but a lot more balanced, with enough more interesting stuff overall. Just more fun. And maybe it was the weekend vs weekday crowd, but the people seemed friendlier as well. A lot more chatter on the lift and lift line.
