Colorado 2020-2021 Colorado Weather and Stoke (and beer)

[BTaylor]

Imperial Express at Breck was running this afternoon, but visibility was so poor at the time of my runs in Imperial Bowl and Whales Tail, I felt like a blind man groping my way to the bottom. I overheard a group of boarders up top joking about roping up for the descent.





The snow (10-12" fresh) was great and the visibility many, many times better in the trees off Chair 6, the Wanderlust backdoor run to Peak 6, and the Delirium forest exiting Bliss Bowl.

Hoping for a couple inches of refresh in the alpine this evening & good visibility in the morning.

 

[Noodler]

That truck looks like the car that caused a backup on I-70 today.

I decided to avoid the LL crowds and headed to Copper. Almost regretted it, but got to help a beginner get his skis back on and 'noticed' a snowboarder on a trail. Thought about racing the snowboarder. So glad my better judgment kicked in. When he took off, he straightlined the run. We acknowledged each other again on the shuttle, then started chatting. He and his skier friend are both from Fredericksburg VA where I grew up. And, oh, by the way, his top speed so far is 57 mph.

Copper's snow was nothing to brag about, but the human part of the day got high marks.

There was a backup on I-70 today? I wouldn't know as I flew down I-70 up to the mountain as I left my house at 5:30 a.m.

There wasn't any crowd at LL that I could perceive while skiing the mountain, but as I left I did note that note only did the Basin lot fill, but also the overflow lot and both of the Valley lots. Very surprising as we were pretty much skiing right on most lifts today with very little wait.

 

[Noodler]

Imperial Express at Breck was running this afternoon, but visibility was so poor at the time of my runs in Imperial Bowl and Whales Tail, I felt like a blind man groping my way to the bottom. I overheard a group of boarders up top joking about roping up for the descent.

View attachment 131498

View attachment 131499

The snow (10-12" fresh) was great and the visibility many, many times better in the trees off Chair 6, the Wanderlust backdoor run to Peak 6, and the Delirium forest exiting Bliss Bowl.

Hoping for a couple inches of refresh in the alpine this evening & good visibility in the morning.

Yep, we escaped the top of the mountain at LL (chair 9) for better visibility in the trees down lower. @Snowfan had a couple vertigo episodes and we did have one lap that was pretty much skiing by braille, but thankfully snow was deep and soft so it was all good.

 

[palikona]

Super Bowl and Jelly Roll skied great this AM...surfy and semi-fluffy in the morning - got a few faceshots on the way down.

 

[tball]

Copper got skunked. Just three inches new. A little dust on top is better than none.

This was a first for me. Looked like a snowcat broke down on Rosi's last night, so it was closed. I could see it driving in, a little down from here.



So, all the poor souls looking for their steep black groomer were instead diverted on to Overload for some refrozen dust on crust bumps.



Upper Enchanted was nice.



Tucker skis really well in spring conditions. Amazingly well for a base that's down to 38 inches. Kudos to Copper for keeping it open.





South facing Copper Bowl, on the other hand, is mostly closed and getting really thin.

I was on the fence about the Tucker lift. Now Tucker laps are my favorite thing. Open the backside!

 

[VickieH]

Copper Bowl is mostly closed and getting really thin.

The Lumberjack lift is closed too. Made it difficult today for some beginners.

OTOH, it kept people from taking a "3-hour tour" of Lyman's!

 

[tball]

The Lumberjack lift is closed too. Made it difficult today for some beginners.

Kokomo is still spinning, so the West Village hasn't shut down yet. We'll see what Monday brings. Green Acres and the Pitchfork lift are also still running. Just checked, and glad to see they are still selling $20 tickets!

 

[SBrown]

Open the backside!

I am hearing some exciting rumors!

 

[Doug Briggs]

Breck was in good shape today. I started off with a few tree runs (after stashing some beers for later.) The trees had a solid, fast base with most of what I encountered being 5 - 6" of untracked. Kind of fast; I once had to do a panic pivot stop with manual assist. Yikes.

When t-bar opened I got there quickly and had a great run on Ptarmigan. Semi-fresh on firm smooth base. Then it was on up Imperial for a couple of fun, hard charging runs on Powder 8s and CJ's. The day ended over on Peak 6. A number of Delirium tree runs and a few on Wonderland.

These longer ski days are getting easier but I was a little disappointed that it wasn't warm enough to merit going back for my beers. They'll be there the next day it's warm though. I made sure to put them over on Peak 8 as everything else closes after tomorrow.

 

[Doug Briggs]

A bittersweet day.


Waiting for the bus.

It was the last day for Peaks 6, 7, 9 and 10. All were in excellent condition, snow depth-wise. I went straight to Peak 6 hike-to late this morning (I could see it was open from my back porch) and did a run down E.S.P. and Felicity. Both were soft covering firm and were in the process of warming. Fair skiing that was good for you. The lower part of E.S.P. was soft and smooth. The best upper mountain turns of the day.


Top of 6 hike-to.


Looking over at Copper. It was their closing day, IIRC. I was wrong. They are open until the 25th.


My first run was down through the notch at the top, looker's left on the open space below then a jag to the skier's right to finish on the fresh untracked in the wide open space.

Then I went over to T-Bar and Imperial to do a CJ's run. Same as Peak 6 but a bit lumpier. I stopped at my beer stash and popped a frosty cold one. I continued down through the trees to Rocky and back to T-bar for a run through Outlaw. More lumpy skiing. One more stop at the stash and I finished the day with a final tree run.

 

[Ken_R]

A bittersweet day.

View attachment 131684
Waiting for the bus.

It was the last day for Peaks 6, 7, 9 and 10. All were in excellent condition, snow depth-wise. I went straight to Peak 6 hike-to late this morning (I could see it was open from my back porch) and did a run down E.S.P. and Felicity. Both were soft covering firm and were in the process of warming. Fair skiing that was good for you. The lower part of E.S.P. was soft and smooth. The best upper mountain turns of the day.

View attachment 131681
Top of 6 hike-to.

View attachment 131682
Looking over at Copper. It was their closing day, IIRC.

View attachment 131683
My first run was down through the notch at the top, looker's left on the open space below then a jag to the skier's right to finish on the fresh untracked in the wide open space.

Then I went over to T-Bar and Imperial to do a CJ's run. Same as Peak 6 but a bit lumpier. I stopped at my beer stash and popped a frosty cold one. I continued down through the trees to Rocky and back to T-bar for a run through Outlaw. More lumpy skiing. One more stop at the stash and I finished the day with a final tree run.

I though the T-bar was part of their late season operations

 

[Doug Briggs]

I though the T-bar was part of their late season operations

T-bar is on Peak 8. It is one of the ways to access Imperial.

 

[Ken_R]

T-bar is on Peak 8. It is one of the ways to access Imperial.

Ok so it will remain open, good good.

 

[dusty]

Copper is open until 4/25. Everything west aspect has been closed along with mt chief. Taco was skiing well still. Most likely Luv tomorrow for me.

 

[tball]

Where's the spring skiing? Seems like maybe I had a day weeks ago. The forecast for the weekend and closing Copper at looking good!

The last three days as Copper were fun. Firm and variable, but fun. Remarkably nice given how far we are into April. And the historically low base.

Tucker closed today per the trail report. It's not marked "Closed for the Season" like others, so there's still hope? Nice to see they opened Celebrity Ridge for the first time in weeks. North facing Union Bowl is a great consolation prize.

 

[nay]

My son and I were also at LL on Friday, and managed not only to not catch up with the @Noodler @Doug Briggs crew, but we also skied the mountain in exactly the wrong order and missed almost all of the goods .

9 wasn’t initially loading so we took 2 to avoid the Chet’s lines to 4 where there were luscious turns off the top to 8 where we caught the rope drop. Here we are 5th chair so stoked. Except look closely.



After hitting chunky refreeze underneath on about every turn on the first run, stuck to the mellower stuff skier’s right. Some smooth but still unpredictable so not much fun. This bit was nice so it got a pic.



Headed to 9 where the hoards had descended. Pretty much skied out by then any place that wasn’t a decent hike or seriously shark infested danger.




After that fresh and refreeze cocktail we retreated to 6 and Ptarmigan where there were certainly no fresh tracks, but the chowder was soft and fun without getting hammered underneath.



Probably not the worst day if the back of your pants look like this...but definitely a spring day done exactly the wrong order.

 

[Doug Briggs]

I'm sorry we missed you, @nay. It was a 'low angle' storm for sure, meaning with the base and the amount of snow, you wanted to ski low angles where the under-layer was smoother and you didn't have to edge hard to turn, thus missing the under-layer (almost) completely.

 

[Doug Briggs]

Today was a quick ski day as I had work to do (dang). Lifts start at 9:00 now. The lines were a bit longer than desired, but nothing more than a couple minutes. Things were beginning to soften when I left at 10:30.

 

[nay]

I'm sorry we missed you, @nay. It was a 'low angle' storm for sure, meaning with the base and the amount of snow, you wanted to ski low angles where the under-layer was smoother and you didn't have to edge hard to turn, thus missing the under-layer (almost) completely.

Yup I think some of the best turns were probably off Ptarmigan, so glad we just skipped that. 8 was particularly bad, even in customary deep spots.

Fluffy stuff for LL for sure.

 

[mikel]

The Lumberjack lift is closed too. Made it difficult today for some beginners. OTOH, it kept people from taking a "3-hour tour" of Lyman's!

Fairway, Prospector, and upper Roundabout are all closed. Here is something you might appreciate. When you did Lyman's, I'm not sure if you made a right on the CO Trail or if you made it to the rope where the trail actually goes left to Prospector but all of that area beyond that line is called "The Odyssey"