Park City Mountain Resort 2/26

Conditions: hard pack
Weather: forties
Gear: snowboard

Another beautiful day! Not quite as blue sky as yesterday, but a little warmer. A very nice day to be out.


(Porcupine Ridge from the base of Silverlode.)

Pretty much an exact repeat of yesterday. But this time on a snowboard. And with some friends from Atlanta. Thanks guys.


(Trail map.)

Not nearly as crowded as I thought it would be. The President's Week crowd must all be flying home today. Glad I'm not at the airport!

'til later,
- Jeff

Park City Mountain Resort 2/25

Conditions: hard pack
Weather: upper thirties
Gear: skis

What a beautiful day! I've had some pretty good days this year, but many of them have been in snow or under clouds. Today, the weather was *perfect* !!! Beautiful blue skies and nice warm temperatures. Awesome.


(Top station of Silverlode.)

I started with a few runs on Silverlode. All groomers. All out. Plenty of fun.


(Bottom of Silverlode.)

Then I met up with Pete, a former colleague, and we made a few more runs under Silverlode before heading over to McConkey's by way of Single Jack and Thaynes. Comstock was in great shape - groomed overnight and just slightly softened by the warm morning sun.


(Me.)

We had a few nice runs off of McConkey's including a run through the bumps. They were in pretty good shape - not quite as hard as I had feared. We wrapped up the day with a run down Silver Queen and lunch at El Cubasco.

Not a bad day at all.

'til later,
- Jeff

Park City Mountain Resort 2/18

Conditions: hard-pack, dusting of powder
Weather: COLD - near 0 with strong winds
Gear: skis

The word for the day: COLD! It was near 0 degrees with a constant wind -- bitter! Still, it was nice to be out. The weather probably helped keep some of the holiday crowds inside (President's Day is Monday), so the lines weren't bad at all.

I did mostly groomers today. Just laying down some high-speed turns and enjoying it. I did my share of tree skiing in Colorado and figured I'd try something different for a day. Skiing fast can be fun.

Looks like we're in for a pretty good storm tonight. I may try and get up early tomorrow and enjoy the powder.

'til later,
- Jeff

UPDATE: The storm didn't turn out to be so I went back to bed and got some much needed sleep. I'll try again next weekend.

Beaver Creek 2/4

[Updated with pictures.]

Conditions: powder, packed powder
Weather: low twenties
Gear: skis

Day number six in a row for me! I've never skied that many days in a row, but it was worth it. Vail reportedly got 41" the week I was there. And I had to make a few more runs before heading back home.

My goal for the day was to make it over the Birds of Prey downhill and ski that. This was the World Championship course from 1999 and a regular host of a World Cup Downhill each year. And it's steep! The first pitch was awesome and quite icy to boot. I can't even imagine what it must be like to ski at 60 mph. This is the third World Cup/Olympic downhill course I've skied: Lake Placid (1980 Olympics), Snowbasin (2002 Olympics), and Beaver Creek (1999 World Championships). I have a tremendous amount of respect for the athletes that do this for a career.


(Looking down at Avon from Grouse Mtn.)


("Reneglade".)

After a few more runs across the mountain, I loaded the ski gear in the car for the 6 hour drive back home. Not a bad week of vacation at all.


(Parting shot.)

'til later,
- Jeff

Vail 2/3

[Updated with picture.]

Conditions: powder
Weather: 20, snow, wind
Gear: skis

Wow! Even more snow. 13" by some accounts. And it snowed all day. Waist deep powder in spots. Sick! But way fun.

I skipped the gondola and headed up Born Free to Pride to Game Creek to get me to Sun Down Bowl. There was seriously powder up to my waist in spots! Absolutely incredible! One of my best runs of the year.

After lunch, I dropped down Dragon's Teeth on my way to Orient Express and again had waist deep powder. Another best run of the year. Have I ever mentioned that Vail has some of the best terrain in the country?!?


(Sick powder!)

I spent most of the afternoon playing in the back bowls and Blue Sky Basin. There seemed to be shorter lines back there and incredible snow in the trees. I never get tired of this stuff. Well, my legs got a little tired, but still, I didn't let it slow me down!

Warning: Vail gets crowded on powder days. I swear half the city of Denver must have taken the day off and come up to ski. Lines to get off the freeway, to get into the parking garage, for the gondola, and for many of the chairs. I'll forgive them because the snow was so good, but I can't imagine what this place is like on a holiday!

'til later,
- Jeff

Beaver Creek 2/2

[Updated with pictures.]

Conditions: powder, packed powder
Weather: low twenties, snow in the morning, wind in the afternoon
Gear: skis

Another day, another snowstorm. I had to brush a good 6", maybe 8", of snow off the car this morning for the short drive over to Arrowhead. And it kept snowing right up until noon.


(Looking back at my tracks.)

I pretty much repeated my tracks from Monday and Tuesday. I've found the terrain that I like and I'm happy to stick to it. I did get out of bounds a bit off Larkspur where I ran into a nice couple from Washington. Hailey and Mack and I enjoyed a few runs in Royal Elk Glade before my legs were burning for a break and I stopped for an early lunch.


(Traversing to Beaver Creek.)

As the next front came through, it got windy as heck and made for a chilly, low visibility afternoon. But, as always, there was nice snow in the trees to I stayed there as long as I could.

Remind me to do more legs at the gym! You can have bulging biceps, six-pack abs, and gorgeous shoulders but what really matters for skiing is quads! I hereby vow to do more legs when I workout.

'til later,
- Jeff

Vail 2/1

[Updated with pictures.]

Conditions: powder, packed powder
Weather: low twenties
Gear: skis

Wednesday morning, Kyle and I headed over to Vail. Vail is one of the most incredible mountains that I know. There is so much skiable terrain. You really have to ski it to believe it.

I got to the mountain a little bit earlier than Kyle, so made some runs off of Pride Express on the front side. The terrain there isn't really anything special, but there weren't many people there either. It was a good place to get my legs warmed up before heading for the trees.


(The "Parade of Cats" - grooming continues into the day to provide corduroy for everyone.)


(West Wall on our way to Two Elk for lunch.)


(China Bowl - the stuff I dream about.)

When Kyle showed up, we made our way to Northwoods. There are some incredible runs off this lift, but everyone seems to know that and so it attracts too many people. We only did one run there before hitting Two Elk for lunch. I'm sure there are other places to eat on the mountain, but this is the only one I've ever been in. It can be nutty crowded on the weekends, but it wasn't bad at all today.

After lunch we headed to the back bowl and Blue Sky Basin. It was more of a grey sky today -- the tops of the lifts were in the clouds making for lousy visibility. But we had some awesome runs off of Skyline. There was plenty of knee deep powder in the trees and very few other tracks. Blue Sky Basin has some of my favorite terrain anywhere, but it's been discovered so try to hit it on a weekday away from the holidays.


(The base of Skyline, enroute to Blue Sky Basin.)


(Decisions, decisions!.)

My legs are holding up better than I had expected. It's been a while since I skied three days in a row and a very long time since I did three powder days in the trees in a row. Hopefully they'll hold up for a few more days!

'til later,
- Jeff