Chester's Somewhat Daily Report - 2/18/05

Yesterday started out well. Got up, wasn't tired, got out of the house
by 6:45. I-70 traffic was nearly non-existent, and the roads were bone
dry. Until I got to the Tunnel. Then they were snowpacked, but still
not really all that bad. Got onto the other side of the Tunnel, and
happened to glance at my mirror. It has a thermometer in it, and it was
reading -4F. Whoa! Going to be a chilly day.

Traffic rolled along fine until I got just past Frisco (on my way to
Breckenridge). Traffic was all backed up. Turned out there was a nasty
accident just past Farmer's Corner. Took quite a while to get through
the 3 miles or so of backup. Still made it to the parking lots at a
decent time though.

Got all my gear on, turned on the MP3 player, and headed for the bus.
Riding along, on my way to Peak 9, excited for what the day holds. Then
the bus stops abruptly. Driver tries to restart, no go. Tries again.
Still no go. She opens the doors and some of us get out and start
walking. Lucky for us, we were pretty close to Beaver Run. I think I
only walked maybe 200 yards to get to the lift. Piece of cake.

Jump on, and am pretty excited by what I see. Lots of fresh snow
everywhere. Looks like the snow report (10" new, 20" last 48 hours) was
dead on. Also looks to be a total locals day, as the place is fairly
busy for a Thursday. But hey, it's a powder day, so what else could be
expected?

Get to the top of 9, take my normal warm up down Volunteer to Shock, and
catch the midway load on the Peak 8 SuperConnect. Get to the top of 8,
then head over to Chair 6 to see what the deal is. It's closed. Do a
lap back down to the SuperConnect. Back up to Chair 6. Sign says they
will open about 9:30 or 9:45. Line is pretty long already. I notice E
Chair is running, so I go down to it. Ride up to top of 9.

Catch Inferno virtually untouched. Maybe 3 tracks down it so far. Drop
in, and am rewarded with nice deep snow. A bump run first thing in the
morning wasn't what I was expecting, but I had all kinds of fun doing
it. Head down to the SuperConnect again, then up to the top of Peak 8.
Looks like the T-bar is turning, so I head in that direction. Even
bigger line than the one at Chair 6 (which still wasn't running). Not
wanting to wait in line, I head over to Peak 7 for a quick lap.

Come back to the T-bar, and the lines are down to a reasonable level.
Jump in the queue. Get on and go. They are bombing Peak 7 with hand
charges. Just takes 2 to get approximately 75% of the hill to go.
Pretty cool to watch (I love dynamite).

Get to the top, they have everything to the skiers left roped off. Only
choice is to do something around the Bowl. Riding up the lift though, I
noticed some untouched stashes. The Bowl is heavily tracked out at this
point. I stay as far left as possible, riding the rim of the bowl to
what I hope is fresh powdery goodness. It has to be better than what I
am in at the moment - alternating fields of deep powder and wind blown
hardpack. Gotta love being at the top of the mountain.

Get down near where the trees start, and I notice that there are no
tracks going where I want to go. Score! Start bounding through the
trees, making effortless turns, skis just floating. Clear the trees,
dive into a steep open pitch, then more trees. How is it nobody has been
here yet? Why are they just tracking out the bowl, skiing choppy stuff?
Who cares, this rocks!

Get to the cutoff to get to the north side of the T-bar line. Wondering
if anyone saw where I was at and are now poaching my lines. Get through
the queue, then back on the lift.

Go back to the same place. Only one other set of tracks where I had
been. Too good to be true. Did a few laps there, then called it a day.
Easily a top 5 powder day for me. Have to knock off early though,
playing volleyball later in the evening, don't want to be totally useless.

People wonder if I actually work. I have taken 3 days off this season to
ski during the week. It's a matter of priorities. I am lucky enough to
have a job where I can take mid-week days off. Sure, it counts against
vacation time, but it is so worth it. Especially on a day like
yesterday. Crystal clear skies, deep fresh snow, untouched stashes.
What better reason to take a day off?

----------------------
Chester Bullock,
Colorado Mountain Cams, Snow Conditions, Opinionated Reports
http://www.black-diamond.com
AIM: tenxible YahooIM: ccb247