realskiers

Early Season Happiness!

Gary probably didn?t realize it at the time, but when he invited me to Whistler to ski with him & Ed back in 2005; it was a life changing moment. I was unable to attend due to multiple commitments. I decided that THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG WITH YOUR LIFE WHEN YOU CAN?T SKI WHISTLER DUE TO ?COMMITMENTS?!

When Ron extended an invitation to ski Beaver Creek in December, I knew I needed to go. Why not! High Mountain turns before Christmas; this should be a requirement for every skier!

Since nothing exceeds like excess, I decided to add a few extra days to the 3 day ski event in Beaver Creek. Why not start in Snowbird with local friends a week early? Why not invite my daughter, an ASU student, to ski with me in Utah & Colorado?

I was able to send my ski gear to Superior ski at Snowbird. I was hoping for an early season dump, so I sent the Volant Spatula, Dynastar Inspired by Nobis & Fischer Sceneio S500 ahead for binding & base work. It was nice to just pick-up the new-to-me gear in ready to go condition on December 07th and meet my local friends, Lynn & Peter Colgren to ski Snowbird. Jim Ratliff also was on hand along with a local friend of the Colgrens.

The weather was perfect with moderate temps and blue skis, but the snow was thin. Snowbird needs about 100 inches of snowfall to have sufficient coverage, and the YTD total was about 70 inches at that point. No matter, we were able to cruise the hardpack and we skied the empty slopes like it was a private giant slalom course. Lynn & Peter are excellent skiers and were very considerate to take us around. It was a day of rapid dissents and high speed cruising that was very enjoyable.

My Daughter and I drove to our next destination, Snowmass on the following day. Snowmass had excellent coverage and was also empty. I could ride the Big Burn chair and only see four skiers spread across thousands of acres. Candice & I continued our high speed hooligan skiing and enjoyed the town of Aspen. There is something very earthy about Aspen that the newer upscale resorts can?t match.

Karl a.k.a. ?Shreadhead? from Epic invited Candice & I for some extreme skiing at Ajax, but we bowed out. Karl has a beautiful single family home in Aspen and flew home to Chicago in a Corporate Jet. Some people have the life?

I skied Monday morning in Snowmass and enjoyed the falling snow. I think I skied 14000 vertical in about 3 hours. I then drove to Beaver Creek as the snow fell along Glenwood Canyon. Parts of I70 were later closed do to multiple accidents.

With my Daughter back in Tempe, I meet up with Ron, Ed & Gary for beer. We then drove to Beaver Creek Lodge, a palace of marble and fine fabrics. The Village is equally beautiful, a post-classical version of the perfect European Alpine Village.

The skiing was excellent. The combination of snowmaking, grooming and 10 inches of new snow made the conditions ideal.

Part II to follow.