Honest snow reports for Keystone and Breck

I'm hoping to get to Breck and Keystone the end of next week for about
9 days of skiing, first use of this seasons 3-mountain pass. The
Keystone and Breck web sites are pitiful in their non-descriptions of
amount of terrain and lifts that are open. I sent them (Vail Resorts)
a nasty gram complaining about this, but that won't help me get
accurate info in the meantime. Does anyone have a Chester
Bullock-like report on Breck and/or Keystone conditions. Vail Resorts
should take lessons from the A-basin web site.

H. R.(Bob) Hofmann

On Sat, 29 Nov 2003 at 16:31 GMT, H. R. Bob Hofmann penned:
I'm hoping to get to Breck and Keystone the end of next week for about
9 days of skiing, first use of this seasons 3-mountain pass. The
Keystone and Breck web sites are pitiful in their non-descriptions of
amount of terrain and lifts that are open. I sent them (Vail Resorts)
a nasty gram complaining about this, but that won't help me get
accurate info in the meantime. Does anyone have a Chester
Bullock-like report on Breck and/or Keystone conditions. Vail Resorts
should take lessons from the A-basin web site.

H. R.(Bob) Hofmann


I made the same complaint by email and also in person yesterday at
Keystone. I was told that they're working on it, and that I wasn't the
first person to point them to the A-Basin website.

Anyway, Keystone yesterday. I'd never been to Keystone before, and my
previous two ski days this season have been at A-Basin, so those are the
grains of salt with which to take my report.

Keystone has some greens and blues open; I didn't ask about how many
greens were open, but I believe they said that Peru lift was open and
servicing greens.

Summit Express, the first lift from the huge parking lot (afaict),
serviced three blues and a green. The green was Schoolmarm and leads to
the Montezuma lift. Two blues, Flying Dutchman and Spring Dipper, were
packed powder, developing moguls along the right side throughout the
day. I believe they opened up Bachelor just yesterday, so it was
fluffy, with treetops, bark, and loose rocks with which to contend. To
be honest, I don't think I'd ever skied anything quite like that, since
this is the first year I've ever gone anywhere early-season.

A lot of blue runs looked like they were on the verge of being opened.

My fiance and I *both* got chunks torn out of our new skis. That would
probably qualify as "our own damn fault for taking new skis
early-season." It wasn't just Bachelor; there seemed to be a lot more
rocks lurking in wait at Keystone than at A-Basin. Okay, maybe they're
not chunks, but my brand-new skis' bases now look worse than those of my
five year old pair ...

My only real complaint was River Run, the run you have to take to get to
the base chairlift. It's icy, somewhat steep, and, as it's the only
game in town right now to *get* to that lift and the base area, it is
absolutely covered in people, many of whom are prone to falling. It's a
mess. Apparently, it's not unusual for that run to get icy, but the
sheer volume of people who have to use it right now is making it worse
than usual. Too many people always make me nervous; too many people
skidding out on ice make me worry about being able to stop in time. My
fiance, who's a much stronger skier than I am, didn't find it quite as
disconcerting, but he managed that by bouncing along the very edge of
the trail.

At A-Basin, I was wondering why they haven't installed high-speed quads;
at Keystone, I see why. Sure, at A-Basin, you stand in line at the
lift, but once you get to the top, you have room to maneuver. At
Keystone, there are no lines to speak of, but once you get to the top,
the crowds are a major pain.

--
monique

H. R. Bob Hofmann wrote:
I'm hoping to get to Breck and Keystone the end of next week for about
9 days of skiing, first use of this seasons 3-mountain pass. The
Keystone and Breck web sites are pitiful in their non-descriptions of
amount of terrain and lifts that are open. I sent them (Vail Resorts)
a nasty gram complaining about this, but that won't help me get
accurate info in the meantime. Does anyone have a Chester
Bullock-like report on Breck and/or Keystone conditions. Vail Resorts
should take lessons from the A-basin web site.

As of last Thursday and Friday, Breck had the Peak 9 lifts open, only. I
heard that Peak 8 was to open something like the 13th. Where they have made
snow, the coverage is 100% but gets scraped to icy spots in just a couple
of hours. Pretty dang crowded, too. Hit it early and fast.

Mike...

--
Littleton, Colorado (reply to msaemisch at yahoo dot com)
See my ski photography at: http://PowderDay.us
Carpe powder-diem

"Let Mikey Ski It!" wrote in message ...
H. R. Bob Hofmann wrote:
I'm hoping to get to Breck and Keystone the end of next week for about
9 days of skiing, first use of this seasons 3-mountain pass. The
Keystone and Breck web sites are pitiful in their non-descriptions of
amount of terrain and lifts that are open. I sent them (Vail Resorts)
a nasty gram complaining about this, but that won't help me get
accurate info in the meantime. Does anyone have a Chester
Bullock-like report on Breck and/or Keystone conditions. Vail Resorts
should take lessons from the A-basin web site.

As of last Thursday and Friday, Breck had the Peak 9 lifts open, only. I
heard that Peak 8 was to open something like the 13th. Where they have made
snow, the coverage is 100% but gets scraped to icy spots in just a couple
of hours. Pretty dang crowded, too. Hit it early and fast.

Mike...

I talked to a patroler on Thursday and asked about them opening trails
and he said they are not going to open anything else until the 15th.
Don't know how true that is but it certinaly looks like Peak 8 and 10
are ready to go. I've talked to a couple of people who have hiked up
and skied Peak 10 and had some thin spots on the main run but the
snowcats could take care of it. Spitfire and Cosair are both ok on
the west half of the trail but rocky on the other half. I think their
decisions on when to open Peak 8 and 10 are more monetary than
conditions.

snoig

(H. R. Bob Hofmann) wrote in message om...
I'm hoping to get to Breck and Keystone the end of next week for about
9 days of skiing, first use of this seasons 3-mountain pass. The
Keystone and Breck web sites are pitiful in their non-descriptions of
amount of terrain and lifts that are open. I sent them (Vail Resorts)
a nasty gram complaining about this, but that won't help me get
accurate info in the meantime. Does anyone have a Chester
Bullock-like report on Breck and/or Keystone conditions. Vail Resorts
should take lessons from the A-basin web site.

H. R.(Bob) Hofmann

Well, conditions are fairly mediocre. We're supposed to get some snow
in the next day or two so check back after that. I think Breck and
Keystone are delibrately keeping terrian closed to get Front Rangers
to go to Vail where there is more terrian open with more snow.

snoig

(H. R. Bob Hofmann) wrote in message . com...

I blasted both web sites again today when I called their 800 number.
If you want to give them some grief, the phone number for all of Vail
resorts is 1-800-842-8062. I think you have to wait for prompt 6 to
speak to a human. Tell them their web sites for Breck and Keystone
need to give open trail and lift information, and for Keystone, to put
up a simple trail map like the one that is on the Breck web site.
Maybe if they get enough complaints they will do something before
closing next Spring.

Don't know if you've seen this Keystone site. It's hidden under the
'3 mountain' link. I far prefer it to the interactive maps that many
of the resorts have gone to.

http://keystone.snow.com/info/trailmaps.asp

David

(snoig) wrote in message . com...
(H. R. Bob Hofmann) wrote in message om...
I'm hoping to get to Breck and Keystone the end of next week for about
9 days of skiing, first use of this seasons 3-mountain pass. The
Keystone and Breck web sites are pitiful in their non-descriptions of
amount of terrain and lifts that are open. I sent them (Vail Resorts)
a nasty gram complaining about this, but that won't help me get
accurate info in the meantime. Does anyone have a Chester
Bullock-like report on Breck and/or Keystone conditions. Vail Resorts
should take lessons from the A-basin web site.

H. R.(Bob) Hofmann

Well, conditions are fairly mediocre. We're supposed to get some snow
in the next day or two so check back after that. I think Breck and
Keystone are delibrately keeping terrian closed to get Front Rangers
to go to Vail where there is more terrian open with more snow.

snoig



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

(David Leach) wrote in message . com...
(H. R. Bob Hofmann) wrote in message . com...

I blasted both web sites again today when I called their 800 number.
If you want to give them some grief, the phone number for all of Vail
resorts is 1-800-842-8062. I think you have to wait for prompt 6 to
speak to a human. Tell them their web sites for Breck and Keystone
need to give open trail and lift information, and for Keystone, to put
up a simple trail map like the one that is on the Breck web site.
Maybe if they get enough complaints they will do something before
closing next Spring.

Don't know if you've seen this Keystone site. It's hidden under the
'3 mountain' link. I far prefer it to the interactive maps that many
of the resorts have gone to.

http://keystone.snow.com/info/trailmaps.asp

David

David - Thanx - Even the Keystone/Vail Resorts PR folks don't seem to
know about that site and the availability of the non-interactive map.
Shows what happens when a place gets too big.

Bob Hofmann

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?
--
monique

danko wrote:

(snoig) wrote in message . com...
Well, conditions are fairly mediocre. We're supposed to get some snow
in the next day or two so check back after that. I think Breck and
Keystone are delibrately keeping terrian closed to get Front Rangers
to go to Vail where there is more terrian open with more snow.

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.

Given the limited amount of snow this year so far, they are saving the
other trails for the Xmas crowds. Have to show them a good product you
know, so they might come back next year. Speaking of which, good
article in yesterday's Denver Post about why Colorado ski visits are
down, and how it could be worse without season pass wars.
http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,...?search=filter

--
Chester Bullock,
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