Some great skiing weather outside today. 65 and thunderstorms at the end of January.
My sunburn is still peeling from Cali. 
Awesome conditions finally coming into play at Holiday Valley again. Snowed for a little while I was there yesterday and they’ve probably got about 10" or so over the weekend, hopefully more today.
I leave today for Killington, VT and will be taking a lot of photos. I’ll be sure to post some. Going riding Tuesday and Wednesday.
Went to Holiday on Saturday. Great conditions and wasn’t very cold either.
I went out last Thursday; needed a “Mental Health Day”. Was great conditions, groomers to 3’ of powder, anything and everything you could want.
Was the most solid day of riding I’ve had since I moved here.
Got back from Colorado on Monday. Epic weekend. Rode Breckenridge on Friday, Vail Saturday and Breck again on Sunday.
Friday’s conditions were awesome, I’m just jealous I missed out on the thursday powder day. Saturday and Sunday were nice Bluebird days. Vail was super crowded on Saturday, but if you stuck to Blue Sky Basin area, it was manageable. Blue Sky Basin Glades runs were phenomenal. Powder was so deep I kept falling and it would take minutes to get back from it. My wife was just laughing and taking pictures, instead of offering up her ski poles. As soon as we headed back towards the back bowls and frontside, it was mobbed. Superbowl kept the crowds away from Breck on Sunday, and they opened up Imperial Bowl, which is the highest ski lift in North America, so we got to ride that twice. So Epic.
Awesome times at Killington, VT. A lot of photos to edit and video to go through. One video of my brothers friend crashing and shooting across the hill infront of my path… hit him with the board and flipped. Both ok, but holy shit! Didnt get this on video which I’m pissed, but I told my brother (not so advanced at skiing) to hit what looked like a little snow bump built up on the side of a run. Well I decided to cut infront and hit it just before he did… Yeah, what I thought was going to be a 10ft jump ended up being me saying “oh fuck” the second I left the ground, looking at the ground drop out from under me like I was jumping a little steeper than Sunrises steep part. I ended up jumping about 50-60 ft down the hill landing in the middle of smaller molgus. Landed then bounced and washed out. I never scared myself so badly. I know its a learning experience I need to be aware of for Utah, which could be death if misjudged like that.
anyways, heres a blury shot my brother took for me.
:tup:
Only time that would be death is if 1) you do that next to trees/light poles or 2) you didn’t survey the run before you went jumping and didn’t know your landing areas.
On that note, we just had a guy fall off a 100’ cliff while skiing back-country. Didn’t know the path/route and took a wrong turn… whoops. He survived, but is in a world of hurt.
What’s going to “bite” you out here are the variability in the snow on the runs. One run can go from a nice groomer, to just enough powder to make it fun, to 3’ of powder that will suck you in waist deep in a second. Fresh wax each time out and just be ready for it and you’ll be good to go.
Cant wait, I’ll be ready for it for sure. As for what I did, it was a blind hit and blind landing for sure. Never took a look at the run and never decided to see what could happen. lol
Made it out to HV last night. Conditions were ok, a lot more ice than I was expecting. Felt like a lot of man made snow as well.
KB has been great the past few weeks, we keep getting dumped on… I rode Holiday 3-4 times so far and KB has been significantly better every time, and less busy.
But mostly i’m super excited to ride Tahoe at the end of the month, and the trips costing under 500. Shwing !
I think the thing that bugged me the only time I went to KB was the length of time the lifts took to get to the top. About as long if not longer than going Out East to the mountains there. I know they got dumped on more than HV did though this last blast, which KB definitely needed.
Howd you pull that off?
digging yourself out of powder suuuuuuuuuuuuuucks
Especially without a shovel in waist deep! My last time out I got sucked into a 3+’ deep section I wasn’t expecting and it took me a solid 15 mins to dig out and get moving again. Nothing like trying to get on top of the snow and getting buried again.
That I could see being very tiring at 10,000ft as well.
I kept falling in the glades runs in colorado in deep stuff. falling on your back and trying to get back up so hard. Try putting your hand down and it just sinks into the snow up to your armpits. My wife has a hilarious picture of me on my back in super deep snow that I couldn’t get out of.
Don’t even get me started on the elevation change, I REALLY struggled. Barely slept at all, hacking up a lung on the mountain from breathing so hard, muscles tired after 2 minutes of hard riding, etc…
I was never so happy to get off the plane and breath in a nice deep breath of sea-level air.
The base at Breck is 9500 feet. The highest ski-lift accessible run starts right 12,900 feet.
Combined with a heart condition… exhausting! It required a few min break once I got down to the lift… Namely enough time to stretch, take a quick break to pound Monster #2 for the day, and get back in line. LOL. And I did that the 2nd run of the day, where I was the 6th chair.
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Have to completely adjust your breathing techniques, almost focus on continuing to breath and deep breaths. As for the sleep, that’s odd, most people sleep like a rock due to the reduced O2.
There is a reason everywhere you go in Breck has free water, you need to hydrate in that climate and h2o obviously has oxygen!
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PS: it is puking in east aurora right now.