Does Vail still Suck? Mini TR

I want to preface this mini TR by saying that I like reading trip
reports, and I think that I am probably speaking for a lot of others
that frequently read RSA. Tis the season for trips and weekends away
so write one if you have one.

It was raining when I jetted out of Iowa this last Friday night
12/10/2004. It was a small regional jet, (CRJ 700 I think) These
small jets are fast. Into the wind and we were still hauling some
serious ass.

http://home.mchsi.com/~uglymoney2/gps.jpg

I picked up my rental car and drove straight to our condo that was
high above Silverthorne with a view of the lights on Keystone from the
hottub on the porch. Ignoring all words of advice and common wisdom,
I celebrated my sprint to altitude with a beer tasting demonstration.
All of them tasted great!

http://home.mchsi.com/~uglymoney2/natetastingbeer.jpg

Thankfully, the altitude didn't bother me this time around. The condo
was nice, $100 for the weekend total ($20 apeice) with every penny of
that being donated to help fight breast cancer. A good deal for
everybody thanks to the very generous owner of this property.

Saturday didn't suck at Vail. They opened the backside and
Blueskybasin that morning. It all tracked out quickly, but these were
my first turns of the year, and it was hardly anything to complain
about. A pic of my friend somewhere in Blue Sky.

http://home.mchsi.com/~uglymoney2/terrytele.jpg

We had several runs like that, or better. The snow was kind of heavy
on top with a light layer underneath (thus all the slides), and it
made for easy face plants when your tips went for a dive.

A pic under the ridge on Blue Sky where it had slid to the ground.

http://home.mchsi.com/~uglymoney2/blueskyslide.jpg

Blue Sky Basin is mostly very flat except for bits and pieces, like
off this ridge. Any hype that it receives is not well deserved. Good
exposure, but just not enough mountain. It worked well enough for us
on Saturday. Loooking back at Vails backside from BSB.

http://home.mchsi.com/~uglymoney2/bl...ngbackside.jpg

That picture is a reminder, that if nothing else, Vail really is huge.

The days good Karma: I scalped a ticket off a guy with extras for
cheap. He must have recognized me as a tightass from a distance,
because he beelined right for me and offered me the deal as I was
mililing about the base area. I was very happy to bypass the
outragous ticket rates being charged at the window. Also, double good
Karma, there were lots of beautiful (lay) woman at Vail on that day.
We even managed to ride the lift with a couple of them succsessively,
as if by chance, but in truth, I believe they were stalking us. So
Vail isn't all bad after all.

Apres ski didn't suck either. Things got a little strange though.

http://home.mchsi.com/~uglymoney2/pureagave.jpg

Sunday at A-Basin also did not suck. What snow they had was in
excellent shape, if a bit thin, but it is filling in. Plenty of
bombed stuff had slid.

http://home.mchsi.com/~uglymoney2/abasinf.jpg

The chutes need a lot more snow of course, so I snapped a pic for
Ullr.

http://home.mchsi.com/~uglymoney2/abasinf1.jpg

My rental from Enterprise had a faulty dome light. I notified them
when I dropped the car off and they gave me ten bucks off the rental
without any prompting, which amounted to a 25% discount. $33 with tax
was the total for the weekend.

http://home.mchsi.com/~uglymoney2/rental.jpg

I will rent from them again. I hate cab forward DMX vehicles though.
That damned pillar is always in your way when going around corners.

Lastly, this was my first ski trip with a digital camera (a cheap HP
m407 4.1 mp). Its a lot of fun using a digital, and I can see how it
could get addictive. Now that Astro is layed up, maybe he will be
loaning out his D100 on weekends?

nate

On Tue, 14 Dec 2004 00:59:25 GMT, Sven Golly
wrote:

uglymoney wrote in
:

Blue Sky Basin is mostly very flat except for bits and pieces, like
off this ridge.

The lower part of BSB down the ridge can get very steep in spots especially
toward the bottom of the lift.

Sven thanks for the reply and clarification.

The top of BSB is completely flat, so you have a point. It does steep
up a bit in the name of returning skiers to the bottom eventually.
Nothing seriously steep though. The stuff off the ridge pictured has
some pitch, but it is short, with long runouts. Behind the ridge,
through some trees, a couple of pitches that are probably 800 or 900
vertical exist that are a bit tough to find, and held untracked snow
for a bit that morning. Nice, but nothing spectacular.. The stuff
close to the bottom of the lift has only a moderate pitch. Like I said
though, I really had nothing to complain about Sat. It was a great
day. My friends had fun, I had fun, and we made an ad for Coors at
Midvale after our legs turned to noodles. Long live cheap beer, 24
ounce cans, and bluebird days in December:

http://home.mchsi.com/~uglymoney2/vailcoorshappy.jpg


At the same time, when a resort charges $77 for a lift ticket, they
should have the goods. Vail doesn't have the goods. Its catwalk
city, the skiable lines are too short, too flat, and overskied. The
trees are too tight, the backbowls have a nice flat pitch but are way
too exposed to the sun and to high speed quads that constantly dump
too many skiers onto their sun baked snow, and the frontside of Vail
is littered with catwalks, cutoffs, short lifts, crowded y's, weak
skiers, ice, and weak terrain that lead to the need for catwalks in
the first place.

As mountain, Vail is well run, well maintained, and for that I give
them credit. The brilliance of Vails marketing over the decades is
extraordinary. Unfortunately, when you break through the fur, the
costumed dogs at the base, the expensive shops, the ridiculous folks
walking around the town pretending that money is buying them happiness
with their truth telling frowns and those beady eyes that are trained
not too meet those of a stranger, it is still Vail. A large crustal
movement, or volcanic activity might improve my assessment.

When you ski Vail why does someone always say, "Vail is the best there
is". What? No. Vail still sucks. People that think its the "Best
there is" are part of the reason that it sucks. If everybody thought
it sucked, and I was left alone to ski it, I'd prolly be give a rating
of 'flat' rather than 'crap'. Its amazing how much of an impact
Vail's marketing can have on people. People freely blurt out
information that has been burned into their brains by marketers.

Honestly, I really like Beaver Creek. It is a no hassle mountain
that is worth skiing. I've no gripe with Vail as a corporation. The
Beav is fun. No serious steeps, but no major flaws. An excellent
mountain for cruising. Vail is flawed. Its only asset seems to be its
size, its rock free slopes, and its snowfall averages as compared to
others in the area that have better terrain.

A-Basin, as limited as it was on Sunday, offers a better overall ski
experience than Vail, along with free parking - vs $16 at the ramps in
Vail.

Vail still sucks.

nate