"Monique Y. Herman" wrote in message .. .
On Mon, 15 Dec 2003 at 17:05 GMT, danko penned:

Just got back from Breck yesterday. I'll second the mediocre
conditions. Peaks 8 and 9 were somewhat open. 7 and 10 had no
lifts/runs open. When we left there were ~10 lifts open. On 8 & 9
most of the green, and a good portion of the blue runs were open.
Only one blue-black run was open that we found and I could not find a
single open black. Snow condition was good, but thin. Foliage was
showing through in many spots. About half the open trails were being
groomed daily. A number of the blue runs (briar rose for example) had
some bumps where I didn't remember bumps from previous trips. This
might be becuase of the lack of regular bump/advanced runs. My wife
and I spent three days skiing and hit every open run multiple times.
Temps were around 20 degree highs each day. Not bad but it was pretty
windy at the tops. Crowds were not bad dispite the limited amount of
open terrain. Lift lines at peak 8 were much worse than 9. I was
pretty bummed about the lack of advanced terrain open, and was iching
to try the new blue runs at the base of peak 7. They were not open
however.

-danko


Huh. I skied down Callie's Corner?, which is a short black, yesterday.
It had a warning sign about exposed terrain but was open, with better
snow than just about any other run. There was one tiny brown spot, but
the rest was fluffy, and since it had a warning sign, it was empty.
Yum!

We took a lift over what looked like a nice little jump park, too. I
didn't check it out, but that seems like it might have provided a little
zest.


Briar Rose sucked yesterday. The moguls didn't upset me, but I hit a
rock just about every other turn.

My s.o. saw a sign at Breck that greens and blues are groomed daily,
which he took to mean that blue-blacks are "blue steepness but not
necessarily groomed." Certainly the blue-blacks did not seem very
challenging from a steepness perspective. Anyone have thoughts on that?


I must have missed Callie's... or it opened after we left (Saturday
noon'ish). Either way I'm a little bummed I missed it. I neglected
to mention the terrain park as it was in use by the Vans snowboard
competition and was unaccessible to "normal" skiiers. As for the
blue-black runs, I'm not sure how they grade them. On previous trips
to Breck I've hit the blue-black runs on peak 10. They were steeper
than the other blue runs on 8 and 9, but did not necessarily have
bumps. If I remember correctly they were also pretty much all groomed
except for a strip along the side. Nice runs just to open up on for
straight downhill speed. Anyway, this is probably the last time we
go early season. It is just too much of a dice roll when it comes to
snow condition to make up for the cheaper costs.

-danko