georoc01's blog: "Ski Season"

Well, this weekend was the closing of most of the ski areas in Colorado. Skied at Vail and Keystone one last time this weekend. Hotel rates were cheap ($70 a night at a nice holiday inn). You would never know its springtime in the mountains. On the way up Friday night, a snowstorm had closed I70 at the Eisenhower tunnel. We sat there for 2 hours before the road finally reopened. However, it was worth it as the conditions were incredible. You would never know its mid april. They never had spring skiing conditions with corn now. They closed as if it was peak conditions in February. So another season has gone (although A-Basin is open till June), and onto summer activities.

A friend of mine had rented a condo for the week and invited me up for a couple of days and have to take advantage. The condo complex is known as Lift Line Condos, about one street south of the Marriott in Breckenridge. It is about a 75 yard walk from their to the lift. Not too bad. Our original plan was to ski Beaver Creek on Friday but an accident on I70 closed the road over vail pass. So we stayed at Breckenridge instead. We enjoyed 4" of new snow with powder everywhere. All 135 trails are open, with some of the best coverage I have seen. Skied all extremes of Breck, and with low winds, the weather was optimum as well. Some snow as we went back out today. But it was worth it. Another nice feature is that its a short walk into town where we had dinner last night at Bubba Gumps Shrimp Co. (A great choice during the lenten season). The food was good and the service excellent. Good Magaritas too. All in all, good couple of days in the mountains with friends and awesome ski conditions. Can't beat it!

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_8298920 Basically Breckenridge is following up on its Master Plan. They have been good enviromental citizens in their building of a gondola from town as an attempt to reduce the traffic up the mountain every day, especially the diesel busses. The idea of spreading out the ski traffic to a 5th peak would make the skiing there much better on busy weekends like this past one, were 45 minute lift lines in certain areas were common. And the article fails to mention that as smaller ski areas go out of business (Berthoud Pass comes to mind), more area is returned to the back country. Hopefully this won't bring out the eco-terrorists as the Vail expansion did, but you never know.

The last couple of weekends I have had the pleasure of going to Winter Park from Denver on the ski train. As anyone who lives in the Front Range knows, the worst thing about going skiing on the weekends is the drive up I70 to the ski areas. Its a traffic jam that would make the people in LA or San Francisco envious. Can double or triple the amount of time it takes. Since the 40's a train has been run from Denver up to Winter Park Ski area (http://www.skitrain.com/) . The Rio Grande runs daily trips on weekends from Christmas till the end of March. The train leaves about 7:15 in the morning and gets back to Denver about 6:30pm. In the club cars they serve breakfast in the morning and a light dinner in the evening. As far as Winter Park goes, the ski conditions have been fantastic. 70 inch base of some of the nicest snow I have ever skied. They added a new lift this year, the Panoramic Express which is the highest 6 passenger chairlift in the world, peaking out at over 12,000 feet. This is an annual trip that I do with my dad, and this year I got to do it as a company outing as well. Its a unique treat that everyone out here who skiis should try. They run a summer trip as well for those mountain bikers out there.

This morning we left with a plan to head to Breckenridge. However, heavy traffic and high winds led us to change our plans and head to Keystone today. The weather today was perfect, Sunny, no wind with temps in the 20's. Conditions were great too. Crowds were way up with some type of Winterfest going on for the Colorado Air National Guard. But we had a great time anyway. SO far a banner ski year is continuing. With lots of trips planned for February, should be great!

Well, this weekend was my annual Lake Tahoe ski trip. Arrived on Thursday and had a grand opening special on a room in the new Tuscany Tower at the Peppermill Reno . These rooms are incredible. When you walk into the new tower its like you have gone to a completely different hotel. just a few video poker machines at one of the new bars would let you know that its a casino. There is a new circular bar with large glass doors that will open to an atrium during the summer months. And a new cafe has opened, Biscottis, with the fancy coffees and gelatos on the main floor. Wifi was expensive ($11 a day), but really nice king size beds, marble bathrooms with oversized whirlpool tubs and large showers with dual heads. Skied on Friday at Northstar. Sunshine, blue skies and beautiful ski conditions for that friday. A far cry from last year's sub zero weather. The first change I noticed from my last trip to Northstar was that the free parking has been moved up near the main road. So now you have to shuttle up to the main lodge area. But you still have a long walk up to the gondola. The new lift over to outback mountain does help though. But we had a great day. Northstar has always been a great newbie mountain and did a great job with the rookies on this year's trip too. Saturday I went skiing up at Heavenly Valley. Conditions and weather was great, but the crowds were tough. Everyone must have decided to ski at Heavenly that day. One of the biggest crowds I have been in skiing in years. I fled off to do some tree skiing, and while not ideal, still made for some great fun. A little thin cover off the main trail made it a bit challenging though. They could really use some more snow. The new Olympic lift is a help and some new trails are nice. But crowds like this can be really frustrating when you are spending more time in lift lines than you do on the slopes. A good trip overall. Having the skiing/gambling partying atmosphere of the Reno/Tahoe area is unique and worth it for an annual trip. We have been doing this since I lived in San Francisco 10 years ago and my company had a condo up in Tahoe. Will definitely be back next year!

This weekend marks the opening of Montezuma Bowl up in Arapahoe Basin. Its the largest addition of terrain in the national, almost doubling the size of this ski area. Went up to the mountains on Friday. Snowing like crazy up there. Had snow knee deep in many places. A-Basin is located right on the great divide, making it one of the closest ski areas to Denver. Its also one of the few that have a lease arrangement that let them stay open into the summer months. They frequently stay open till July 4th. I recommend checking it out!

I found this website, it has some of the more unusual ski areas around the world. http://www.skifurther.com/ Also this week in Colorado...Friday at Keystone is the 36 hours of Keystone. Its a skiing marathon. Most people get a team together and rotate by the hour who is skiing, who is partying and who is sleeping. Its alot of fun. Also this weekend is the US stop on the world cup circuit at Beaver Creek. If you have never been to such an event, it definitely has a european feel, and to see the downhill in person really puts watching it on TV a shame. You really don't get an appreciation of the speed involved or how steep the course really is. I love skiing the course immediately after the downhill, its the one time a years its groomed. After that its volkswagon sized bumps all the way down.

I did get up for a few runs this weekend. The snow is mostly machine made, although the foot of fresh powder that fell last week did help. We have aways to go in Colorado to have what I would consider really good skiing, but its getting better. Made it up to Keystone, which is now skiing top to bottom on River Run. No real beginner terrain yet. From talking to friends and reports is that Copper Mountain has the best skiing in the state. Eldora is reporting a promising start too. Steamboat has had to delay their opening, we need to get more snow up north. I'm gone the next couple of weekends, but hope to catch up after that just prior to Christmas week.

FYI, this article was in the Rocky Mountain News the other morning. Sounds like its the Pacific Northwest that is getting the early snow this year. http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drm...745794,00.html Headed up tomorrow anyway. Thank god for manmade snow. Breckenridge opened last weekend and this weekend Vail, Winterpark and Crested Butte joined the mix. Hope for some good weather and think snow!