So I had no real plan on this vacation other than sort of follow the snow and hope for the best. I loosely planned on Telluride and Crested Butte but that all changed and I'm perfectly o.k. with it. This turned out to be an awesome trip from begining to end! Every day I managed to ski great snow.
Day 1-My plane flew into Denver at 10 am. I got my shitty little rental car (chevy aveo) threw my stuff in it and went to town to visit a friend briefly. I made it quick and hit the road. Passing Loveland around one I considered stopping but wanted that day to adjust to the altitude a bit. I pressed on to Grand Junction and arrived around four to sunny skies and may-like weather. This caused a little concern as I wasn't sure how bad things were going to crust over. I planned on skiing t-ride the next day but decided to get to bed early and drive to Utah the next day to meet up with maineskier69, his wife, Thaller and Whaller. Very glad I made this last minute decision.
Day 2-Armed with some newly aquired blueberry kush and the desire to ski pow I hit the road early for a leisurely little 5+ hour drive to Pow Mow. Somewhere between Price and Provo I got my first chance to see how fucking awful a Chevy Aveo handles in the snow. More on that later.
I arrived shortly before noon to a couple inches of fresh over a crust. Slowly as the day wore on the skiing got better and the north facing stuff was sweet, light pow. Towrds the end of the day it was all good really! They were nice enough to let me stay in what I would consider the very finest of resort accomadations I've ever experienced. In return I made it my business to earn my keep by cooking. That night I braised some beef with red wine, aromatics and served it with a simple mashed and veg (can't remember).
Day three. Cold came in strong and coupled with the wind shut the whole joint down. We had a short but glorious down to the bottom of Paradise lift only to have to be hauled out by snowcat. This was a process that took a good deal of time as there were quite a few folks waiting down there. No big deal, the mountain was buried pretty good and noone would be tracking it that day. I used this down day as an opportunity to put together a thought out meal. Joel from Sugarloaf also showed up in the hovel after driving down from J-Hole. Went to Ogden to shop for the food.
It went like this I think:
Fresh spanikopita
Seared sea scallop, citrus ginger butter
Thaller made some Green Curry shrimp that kicked ass
Roast beef tenderloin, salt sugar rub, red wine shallot pan sauce
Asparagus?
Oh yeah a pearl cous cous salad with artichoke/tomato, some sort of vinagrette (I think it was lemon but don't recall, The blueberry does that to me
This would be eaten another day.
Day four-ahhh yes, paradise lift, cat skiing, powder country-very nice day. I took some pics.
The ladies getting some lightning ridge:
Thaller finds why a little wind can be your friend:
A work of art indeed:
Maineskier 69 off paradise lift I believe:
MS69 posing for a religious inspiration poster:
Whaller cleaning up:
I had such so much fun that day, we definately got a ton of great skiing in. I reluctantly packed my stuff up and hit the road by 530. My friend was off the next couple days and reports of a fluke snowstorm at little old Powderhorn motivated me to get back to Colorado. Besides I had a fresh bag of hawaiian skunk and some stuff called Jack's Cleaner waiting for me. I made good time to Green River and pushed the envelope on how fast an Aveo can go between there and grand j. I slept like a baby that night.
Day five/six-Powderhorn
Who here has skied Powderhorn? Ha that's what I thought.
My expectations were pretty low despite them reporting 18 new. 18 was on the low side IMO on the upper tree shots. It was deep, as light as any powder I've ever skied. Looking from the base it looks like a mellow little area(although 1600 acres with a couple hundred people isn't too shabby. It was cold, this kept all the locals away. Hell they all live in the warmth of the desert, 10 degrees is too cold even with fresh snow, None else comes here except for Grand Valley folk. It was all ours.
The trees were exceptionally good here. We even explored beyond the resort boundry and found some crazy shit! There are several mud/rockslide areas that provide challenge. The place skis really big, lots of exploring. It sits high on Grand Mesa (one of the worlds largest mesas) and if you were to tour the flat top it would offer limitless backcountry. It is all fairly sheltered, similar to steamboat. The trees are also similar to steamboat, maybe a little tighter, certainly less traffic.
Some p-horn pics
A view of the desert valley:
We found some nice mixed forest:
The sky was the limit. We jumped off stuff all day in the woods with zero consequence:
Fartbag!:
Lot's of slide areas like this in and out of bounds, Fun!:
This snow was actually softer than it looks!:
Yours truly dropping in to a nice little stand of trees:
It doesn't snow on the western slope!:
Off topic, a really cute pic of the dog I took last summer:!!!!!!!!
This is my first installment. I have to figure out how to get pics off my phone (me=techtarded). When I do I will write a second tr. Lets just say it starts with a very drunken nite and a cute chubby girl in grand j, moves to a stormy day at sunlight, a deep pow day at Loveland and another at LL that takes the cake on this whole trip! There is also massive abuse to the Aveo that needs to be discussed:flame:
Day 1-My plane flew into Denver at 10 am. I got my shitty little rental car (chevy aveo) threw my stuff in it and went to town to visit a friend briefly. I made it quick and hit the road. Passing Loveland around one I considered stopping but wanted that day to adjust to the altitude a bit. I pressed on to Grand Junction and arrived around four to sunny skies and may-like weather. This caused a little concern as I wasn't sure how bad things were going to crust over. I planned on skiing t-ride the next day but decided to get to bed early and drive to Utah the next day to meet up with maineskier69, his wife, Thaller and Whaller. Very glad I made this last minute decision.
Day 2-Armed with some newly aquired blueberry kush and the desire to ski pow I hit the road early for a leisurely little 5+ hour drive to Pow Mow. Somewhere between Price and Provo I got my first chance to see how fucking awful a Chevy Aveo handles in the snow. More on that later.
I arrived shortly before noon to a couple inches of fresh over a crust. Slowly as the day wore on the skiing got better and the north facing stuff was sweet, light pow. Towrds the end of the day it was all good really! They were nice enough to let me stay in what I would consider the very finest of resort accomadations I've ever experienced. In return I made it my business to earn my keep by cooking. That night I braised some beef with red wine, aromatics and served it with a simple mashed and veg (can't remember).
Day three. Cold came in strong and coupled with the wind shut the whole joint down. We had a short but glorious down to the bottom of Paradise lift only to have to be hauled out by snowcat. This was a process that took a good deal of time as there were quite a few folks waiting down there. No big deal, the mountain was buried pretty good and noone would be tracking it that day. I used this down day as an opportunity to put together a thought out meal. Joel from Sugarloaf also showed up in the hovel after driving down from J-Hole. Went to Ogden to shop for the food.
It went like this I think:
Fresh spanikopita
Seared sea scallop, citrus ginger butter
Thaller made some Green Curry shrimp that kicked ass
Roast beef tenderloin, salt sugar rub, red wine shallot pan sauce
Asparagus?
Oh yeah a pearl cous cous salad with artichoke/tomato, some sort of vinagrette (I think it was lemon but don't recall, The blueberry does that to me
This would be eaten another day.Day four-ahhh yes, paradise lift, cat skiing, powder country-very nice day. I took some pics.
The ladies getting some lightning ridge:
Thaller finds why a little wind can be your friend:
A work of art indeed:
Maineskier 69 off paradise lift I believe:
MS69 posing for a religious inspiration poster:
Whaller cleaning up:
I had such so much fun that day, we definately got a ton of great skiing in. I reluctantly packed my stuff up and hit the road by 530. My friend was off the next couple days and reports of a fluke snowstorm at little old Powderhorn motivated me to get back to Colorado. Besides I had a fresh bag of hawaiian skunk and some stuff called Jack's Cleaner waiting for me. I made good time to Green River and pushed the envelope on how fast an Aveo can go between there and grand j. I slept like a baby that night.
Day five/six-Powderhorn
Who here has skied Powderhorn? Ha that's what I thought.
My expectations were pretty low despite them reporting 18 new. 18 was on the low side IMO on the upper tree shots. It was deep, as light as any powder I've ever skied. Looking from the base it looks like a mellow little area(although 1600 acres with a couple hundred people isn't too shabby. It was cold, this kept all the locals away. Hell they all live in the warmth of the desert, 10 degrees is too cold even with fresh snow, None else comes here except for Grand Valley folk. It was all ours.
The trees were exceptionally good here. We even explored beyond the resort boundry and found some crazy shit! There are several mud/rockslide areas that provide challenge. The place skis really big, lots of exploring. It sits high on Grand Mesa (one of the worlds largest mesas) and if you were to tour the flat top it would offer limitless backcountry. It is all fairly sheltered, similar to steamboat. The trees are also similar to steamboat, maybe a little tighter, certainly less traffic.
Some p-horn pics
A view of the desert valley:
We found some nice mixed forest:
The sky was the limit. We jumped off stuff all day in the woods with zero consequence:
Fartbag!:
Lot's of slide areas like this in and out of bounds, Fun!:
This snow was actually softer than it looks!:
Yours truly dropping in to a nice little stand of trees:
It doesn't snow on the western slope!:
Off topic, a really cute pic of the dog I took last summer:!!!!!!!!
This is my first installment. I have to figure out how to get pics off my phone (me=techtarded). When I do I will write a second tr. Lets just say it starts with a very drunken nite and a cute chubby girl in grand j, moves to a stormy day at sunlight, a deep pow day at Loveland and another at LL that takes the cake on this whole trip! There is also massive abuse to the Aveo that needs to be discussed:flame:
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