This has been only a decent season in Colorado overall... but the late season has been very good. So I booked a last trip to visit friends and ski a few more days in late April (23-30). I wound up skiing 6 days, and even golfing one. I also got to meet a couple more folks from here I've only been familiar with online, which is always fun.
Saturday - 1/2 day at Copper, with @MattSmith and Jess
Sunday - Copper, with @MattSmith
Monday - Vail, solo
Tuesday - A-Basin, with @Drahtguy Kevin, @SkiNurse, and Kevin
Wednesday - Golf with @MattSmith, @Noodler, and Chris
Thursday - Vail, solo
Friday - Vail, with Jess
It was a fun week and great way to end my season with my most days ever, at 27!
Leaving DC you can get some nice views from the plane...
I got into Eagle airport Saturday early, and breezed through picking up my bags and getting my rental car, fast enough to make the ride over to Copper rather than just meet for après. Conditions were wintry with some new snow!
Looking toward the Sky chutes and other chutes
@MattSmith in yellow heading down Kaboom off Sierra lift... the snow was very nice in this area and we lapped it a few times.
We wound up doing some extra après on Saturday, as Vail pass was closed and we were stuck at Copper. But extra après isn't really a problem... Me, Jess, and @MattSmith here
On sunday, Matt and I went back to Copper... with the new snow almost everything was open, except for the T-bars... even Copper Bowl and Three Bears lift were open. Here's Matt heading into Copper Bowl
Pano across the bowl to the Three Bears area (Tucker Mountain)
Riding the Three Bears lift... I'd never been up before, but the snow was good so we skied it twice
The view off the back of Tucker Mountain of Clinton Gulch dam and reservoir
Rendezvous area coming back from Copper Bowl
Matt and me on Rendezvous lift (I think)
Monday I skied solo at Vail... more new snow and a lot of soft turns. Here is a view on Avanti.
Somewhere else in the Avanti area
I skied Riva Ridge top to bottom, which I'd never done, through lots of cut up stuff like this. About 3030 vertical - took a little while.
Off Chair 4 in the mid-Vail area, lots of folks were hucking this cliff... some just barely or crashing, but at least one guy took it big, kept his speed, and threw a nice backflip off the lower lip (below the cliff out of the pic here).
Mid-Vail view and more cut up pow up high... though it would get super slushy late on the lower mountain, in the high areas it stayed really nice.
View of the closed back bowls and Blue Sky Basin from the top of Northwoods area. At times, I had entire huge runs in Northwoods pretty much to myself.
I skied these all week... worked well in mixed conditions (they're Blossom Whiteouts/AM77s)
No SkiTalk stickers on them, but they do have the website name on the tails...
Tuesday I got to do my first official Tuesdays In The Snow at A-Basin... I'd seen this view a lot online or in pics; Nice to see it in person!
View of the East Wall early. It had gotten pretty tracked up with the new snow the day before.
Riding up Lenawee lift to the high alpine.
People were still hiking to ski the chutes.
I met up with @SkiNurse (center), @Drahtguy Kevin (right), and Skinurse's cousin Kevin (left)
@SkiNurse ripping through Montezuma Bowl
Montezuma Bowl pano
@Drahtguy Kevin viewing the East Wall from the new Steilhang hut
Wednesday was golf, so no skiing. But Thursday I was back at Vail solo again... it was a gorgeous day! Avanti area pano:
Northwoods area. It was really nice carving conditions and plenty of room to make huge turns. Lots of fun!
Friday Jess and I skied Vail to close out my season. They had a bit more new snow, but it wasn't set to warm up much, so things were very re-frozen. So we waited out some softening by hitting the iconic Little Diner for breakfast...
Avanti area - compared to the soft stuff earlier in the week, this was just a BIT more solid (i.e. completely ice)
Jess on the lift a little while before the white-out
Snow and wind coming in... when the wind picked up it was nearly a whiteout at times and had us retreating to the lodge
Windy conditions and low vis
After it blew through, there was some soft stuff... but it was very sticky for some reason, despite my newly yellow-waxed skis
Jess at the bottom of Northwoods/Flapjack. This doesn't look like much, but getting down there in a random mix of sticky and icy pockets, and strong winds, was an adventure and accomplishment! (It was pretty terrible skiing, as you can tell by how many others joined us. The Ministry of Bad Ideas would have been proud.)
And that was it for my season! Leaving the next day I did get some nice views of the I-70 resorts... Vail and BC here:
I already can't wait for next season!
Saturday - 1/2 day at Copper, with @MattSmith and Jess
Sunday - Copper, with @MattSmith
Monday - Vail, solo
Tuesday - A-Basin, with @Drahtguy Kevin, @SkiNurse, and Kevin
Wednesday - Golf with @MattSmith, @Noodler, and Chris
Thursday - Vail, solo
Friday - Vail, with Jess
It was a fun week and great way to end my season with my most days ever, at 27!
Leaving DC you can get some nice views from the plane...
I got into Eagle airport Saturday early, and breezed through picking up my bags and getting my rental car, fast enough to make the ride over to Copper rather than just meet for après. Conditions were wintry with some new snow!
Looking toward the Sky chutes and other chutes
@MattSmith in yellow heading down Kaboom off Sierra lift... the snow was very nice in this area and we lapped it a few times.
We wound up doing some extra après on Saturday, as Vail pass was closed and we were stuck at Copper. But extra après isn't really a problem... Me, Jess, and @MattSmith here
On sunday, Matt and I went back to Copper... with the new snow almost everything was open, except for the T-bars... even Copper Bowl and Three Bears lift were open. Here's Matt heading into Copper Bowl
Pano across the bowl to the Three Bears area (Tucker Mountain)
Riding the Three Bears lift... I'd never been up before, but the snow was good so we skied it twice
The view off the back of Tucker Mountain of Clinton Gulch dam and reservoir
Rendezvous area coming back from Copper Bowl
Matt and me on Rendezvous lift (I think)
Monday I skied solo at Vail... more new snow and a lot of soft turns. Here is a view on Avanti.
Somewhere else in the Avanti area
I skied Riva Ridge top to bottom, which I'd never done, through lots of cut up stuff like this. About 3030 vertical - took a little while.
Off Chair 4 in the mid-Vail area, lots of folks were hucking this cliff... some just barely or crashing, but at least one guy took it big, kept his speed, and threw a nice backflip off the lower lip (below the cliff out of the pic here).
Mid-Vail view and more cut up pow up high... though it would get super slushy late on the lower mountain, in the high areas it stayed really nice.
View of the closed back bowls and Blue Sky Basin from the top of Northwoods area. At times, I had entire huge runs in Northwoods pretty much to myself.
I skied these all week... worked well in mixed conditions (they're Blossom Whiteouts/AM77s)
No SkiTalk stickers on them, but they do have the website name on the tails...
Tuesday I got to do my first official Tuesdays In The Snow at A-Basin... I'd seen this view a lot online or in pics; Nice to see it in person!
View of the East Wall early. It had gotten pretty tracked up with the new snow the day before.
Riding up Lenawee lift to the high alpine.
People were still hiking to ski the chutes.
I met up with @SkiNurse (center), @Drahtguy Kevin (right), and Skinurse's cousin Kevin (left)
@SkiNurse ripping through Montezuma Bowl
Montezuma Bowl pano
@Drahtguy Kevin viewing the East Wall from the new Steilhang hut
Wednesday was golf, so no skiing. But Thursday I was back at Vail solo again... it was a gorgeous day! Avanti area pano:
Northwoods area. It was really nice carving conditions and plenty of room to make huge turns. Lots of fun!
Friday Jess and I skied Vail to close out my season. They had a bit more new snow, but it wasn't set to warm up much, so things were very re-frozen. So we waited out some softening by hitting the iconic Little Diner for breakfast...
Avanti area - compared to the soft stuff earlier in the week, this was just a BIT more solid (i.e. completely ice)
Jess on the lift a little while before the white-out
Snow and wind coming in... when the wind picked up it was nearly a whiteout at times and had us retreating to the lodge
Windy conditions and low vis
After it blew through, there was some soft stuff... but it was very sticky for some reason, despite my newly yellow-waxed skis
Jess at the bottom of Northwoods/Flapjack. This doesn't look like much, but getting down there in a random mix of sticky and icy pockets, and strong winds, was an adventure and accomplishment! (It was pretty terrible skiing, as you can tell by how many others joined us. The Ministry of Bad Ideas would have been proud.)
And that was it for my season! Leaving the next day I did get some nice views of the I-70 resorts... Vail and BC here:
I already can't wait for next season!
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