(danko) wrote in message
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

Well, I wrote the original post about bad conditions about two weeks
ago. Since then conditions have improved quite a bit with one 8"
storm and one 4" storm and other trace amounts. As far as advanced
terrian goes, there was plenty open on and off over the three days you
were there but you just had to keep a watch on how and when to access
it. Patrol has had quite a bit open on a limited basis. Yesterday I
skied the Mine Crotch trees, Mineshaft, Pscyopath trees and Pscyopath
Gully. Devils Crotch was also open. All pretty challenging terrian.
While you were here, I skied Cimmeron, Corsair and The Burn.

Since we are starting to get snow, patrol is opening up a bunch of
those trails on a limited basis (a couple of hours a day) just to get
them compacted. They usually do it during the week since they already
have a full plate on the weekends.

Vail Resorts is trying to save money now since they lost $8.5 million
last season. The snow is here, they just haven't staffed up yet. You
probably would have been better off skiing at Vail while you were here
since they have had more snow and have about 2 or 3 times the terrian
open.

As far as the lower Peak 8 black runs go, I think they label them that
way for the tourists. They are pretty much un-groomed blue runs but
it does give all the flatlanders an ego boost to say that they skied a
black run. Keeps them coming back. Peak 10 and 6 chair have the real
single black runs.
snoig