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Crested Butte and Monarch: Mmmmm Good!
It was a good weekend. Last week both resorts were getting a foot here,
eight inches there just about daily. The cumulative effect has been very good. You can't even find that hard layer under there anymore unless you go to the spots where every single beginner scrapes a turn to head back to the lodge, but those spots are easy to miss anyway. I skied Monarch on Friday (burnin up that PTO). Only reporting an inch over night, but they got 18 the day before. It cleared up and was sunny and beautiful. Oh, and 12* F so the snow was super dry and fluffy. Monarch is a great place to find fresh turns even a couple of days after a storm and it did not disappoint on Friday. I demo'd some new Vokl tele skis, the T-Rocks where were a blast. I skied until I couldn't turn anymore, which was from about 10:00 until 3:30. I stopped once for about 20 Minutes to get some water and a snack but it was too goon not to keep skiing and being solo that day I had nobody to hold me back. Saturday was my day to hang out with my 22 Month old son. We got a bunch more snow overnight (maybe a foot in the yard, 18-24 on the mountain) and my boy and I had a fun day of sledding and playing in the snow and drinking hot chocolate to warm up. I even built him a sledding ramp in the yard from the huge pile of snow that slides from my roof. Mommy went up and ripped up the new snow at Crested Butte. She returned with stories of waist deep powder and a harrowing drive. Then Sunday morning I checked the reports and once again Crested Butte was the winner in the snow accumulation contest. Monarch was reporting 9 and CB was reporting 17 inches. CB it was! I took my tele setup and my alpine stuff because I wanted to tele (trying to be a better pinner this year) but figured some backup equipment was a good idea. I poached the conference room in my old office building at the base and it was nice to get changed away from the blizzard going on outside. I started on the tele skis which I quickly discovered were in desperate need of wax. The snow was heavy and wet and that combined with the sticky bases and free heels made for a challenging first couple of runs. I skied some blues and black mogul runs, which were really fun, but that ski setup was not right for the conditions so I went back down and changed into my TNTs and Super Mountains. People were lining up at both the North Face and High lifts, but the T's were not being loaded so I continued to ski other stuff while waiting for the control work to conclude on the good stuff. I met up with some friends and we did a couple of Paradise laps (Ruby Cheif bumps were mostly buried so they were easy and FUN!). Then we saw the NFL (North Face Lift) line start to move, and the hiking traverse was also open. We decided to hike it since the line was long and got up there with the first wave of hikers while most of the lift-riders were still waiting in line. Then my buddy Steve and I had one of the best runs I've done in years. We traversed in to Powder Rock Glade (also known as glade #4) and there were no tracks in it at all. I eyed a little bump above the cliff band that would give an extra lift and a higher takeoff point. A couple of speed-check turns and then I pointed 'em and let 'er rip. Oh, it felt so good quietly flying over the rocks. Time stands still during these moments. I lowered the landing gear as I saw the ground approaching, not sure exactly how the snow would be and poof! I big, ol' face shot and no smear needed to scrub speed. I managed to start turning again quickly as the slope falls away and found myself just touching down to change direction here and there and floating the rest of the pitch. It was magical. I spent the rest of the day trying to repeat that moment and came pretty close a couple of times, but it was never as fresh, or I'd go OTB or something. I also had some great Headwall runs, but the line at the High Lift was long all day. For my final run they had just opened the front side through the Flatiron. I had a great, really fresh run down Flatiron and nailed the four or five stair steps in the trees for the latter half of the run and got home totally exhausted. Just in time to shovel... ....and then get up this morning and shovel some more. I also see CB got another 16" overnight and there's another storm on the way. I haven;t seen CB like this for about 10 years and it sure is good to see! Matt (back in the office for at least a day or two) |
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#2
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On 2005-01-10, MattB penned:
It was a good weekend. Last week both resorts were getting a foot here, eight inches there just about daily. The cumulative effect has been very good. You can't even find that hard layer under there anymore unless you go to the spots where every single beginner scrapes a turn to head back to the lodge, but those spots are easy to miss anyway. [snip details] Sounds like a great weekend, Matt! -- monique Longmont, CO |
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