Winter Park with the Black and Gold

Not much to report on Saturday the 21st of January regarding snow conditions, but the crowds were out in full force. Oh yea, that’s because there happened to be this one insignificant AFC championship game between the Donkeys and the best team in the world – the Pittsburgh Steelers! Since the game was on Sunday, I really only wanted to ski on Saturday (along with every other yahoo from Denver thinking the same). Pretty crowded… yuk.
Anyways, I met up with my co-worker Ana and her hubby Andy – they both snowboard, however, they rip. I dragged them down some pretty crazy black bump runs on the Jane because it’s where all the good snow accumulated from a nice week of dumpage. Suck it up I told them, and they followed! We ended up having a really fun time despite the busy lift lines.
After a few hours, I headed back down the mountain for a Saturday evening pre-football fiesta at the Hofbrau – Colorado Steeler headquarters.
I think I have a few pics stuck on my digi cam; I’ll post em later if I end up with any worthy shots.

Another Winter Park Ski Report

Days 17 and 18 seemed to roll by with the quickness this weekend at the Winter Park resort. OK snow combined with warmer temps made for a fun weekend. I love this time of year because my legs are in prime condition which allows me to stop less and ski more. Duh. So now that I’m skiing most of the day with only 1 beer/lunch break; time certainly seems to speed up :( Monday’s… yuk.

WP/MJ had it goin on as usual during the 14th of January. I met with an eFriend of mine, Danno, and skied most of the day on Saturday mainly over on the Mary Jane bumps. BTW, sorry about dragging you down Jeff’s Chute… we seemed to find every rock imaginable on the steep double-black face. Though, with the expected snow on the way for this coming weekend, the Chuttes area on the Jane will certainly be a killer time soon enough.

Now that a really sweet snow-packed base has had time to set up, Winter Park has decided to fire up the Snowcats for some overtime grooming of runs that usually are a bit bumpy for this time o year. Yep, that’s right folks; all the baby boomer locals (and Texans) have complained loud enough to make WP/MJ officials smooth out things to make it easier for them to ski… whatever. Let the pillaging begin.
The 18th was a fun morning. Only skied about 2 hours because i had to run back to my bro's to watch the Steelers beat-down the Colts! What a game. Denver - you better watch out when you meet up with the Stillers!

Here’s a half groomed picture of Engledive that lives on Winter Park side of the mountain. BTW, I’ll at least give that to em… they only groom half the run in most cases. But why did they have to groom over my favorite skiers-left line off the Prospector Lift? Given.













See ya next time folks. Hopefully a Crested Butte TR is coming up...

Second Helping of Telluride

Yep, i'm a slacker. Sorry for the delay folks; I believe I still need to post a few more pictures of the remainder of my Telluride ski trip.

I guess it figures that it has snowed well over a foot of snow since I left Telluride... Anyways, the snow wasn't grand but the views certainly were. Here are some shots from way up high on the mountain looking at the surrounding valleys and peaks.

Mary Jane Telemark Turns - Google Video

Mary Jane Telemark Turns - Google Video
Placed a couple videos up on Google's new video hosting site. Here's one of my favorites.

Telluride Trip Report

My first long-distance ski trip of the 05/06 ski season directed me towards the Uncompahgre Wilderness of the Telluride mountain region in Southwestern Colorado. Having never driven past Glenwood Canyon on I-70 during daylight hours, I was really looking forward to the drive out west near Grand Junction and then directly south towards Montrose and finally through Box Canyon into Telluride.

Getting there took a few hours, however, was totally worth it even with $2.34 gas prices. On the other hand, snow conditions at Telluride sucked to say the least. Not that I didn’t enjoy the mountain, I’m just saying that the southern resorts have gotten the shaft all year. Yet another reason why a bad snow year at Winter Park is a good snow year anywhere else. Anyways…The steeps through the trees and the amazing views of the surrounding mountain ranges easily made up for the not-so-favorable icy/crud skiing conditions. See for yourself below.

Just a small mountain range west of Dillon







Copper Mountain to the right, 10 Mile Range behind











Heading into the Vail Pass Area








Glenwood Canyon about halfway through












Entering Grand Junction












More pics to come very soon..

New Years' Report VII

Things started out a bit foggy (thanks Meg and Lou) at Breckenridge Saturday morning - the last day of 2005. It didn't help that things didn't turn out all that hot at the bottom of lift whatever a the base of Breck during our arrival; it took about 20 minutes to get on the chair. Welcome to Summit County Colorado.
Things got better from there on out though. Chair 6 runs were goin off, Horseshoe Bowl, Ore Bucket area; all were just loaded with really fun snow that seemed to not track out as fast as I thought for how many people were scanned.
Apparently, my digi cam was not playing well with me, or maybe it was the other way around. I failed to take any pictures due to a low battery issue on my $50 best eBay purchase ever. Sorry folks. I'll get back to Breck one of these days to take pictures of the famous Imperial Bowl super quad lift (over-rated, sorry it had to be said).

I almost forgot...
Sunday and Monday were both spent back at the home mountain of Winter Park. Not much new snow to report except for the fact that the foggy routine continued. Yea, continued in my brain. It was not fun driving 2 hours the day after new years - if you know what I mean. Also no pictures were taken because I didn't figure out that the cam crapped out until I got home from the 3 day weekend. Not to worry though, Telluride is coming up next. Please check back soon.