Ski Season is Around the Corner!

[P-E]

Had one of the best days skiing today in quite some time.   Snowed last night in the white mountains.  Conditions at Bretton Woods were great. 

 

[Road Guy]

It’s been a good year...

 

[goodal]

There is skiing in Indiana? What’s the elevation drop?

600'.  Its the best we can do in middle america without driving 10 hrs.  Counting the days until Steamboat (end of March).  We are bringing my sister and her fam along.  Just ordered everyone new goggles last night.  WHoohooo.

 

[FLBuff PE]

I got a new pair of ski boots that came in last week. I've been in my current pair of Solomons for ~8 years, and they are all packed out. Got a pair of Head Nexo Lytes, which weigh about half of what the Solomons weigh. I'm psyched to see how they do this weekend.

 

[Road Guy]

goodal - You should have some great late season snow, they keep getting dumped on every week!

Buff - I cant find it but I could swear I keep seeing a "spring" day pass at Snowmass for $60 on a facebook advertisement - am i hallucinating? I am sure it was a Mon- Fri only type of deal?

And I think we are going to just get  a Loveland pass next year and a 4 pack to either copper or winterpark - I am done with that BS at the Tunnel.  A few thousand people sitting around for 3 hours because 20 people want to drive a FWD min van and other 2wd cars into the mountains when they are calling for 15 IN of snow..

When they did away with the Copper / Winter Park Combo pass we chose Copper - I do think its a better ski resort than WP but maybe I need to revisit that..

 

[FLBuff PE]

I don't know about that $60 pass, but it might be part of the Ikon Pass. I liked WP when I've skied there (once), more than Copper. I agree about you having to deal with the tunnels. I did it in college, and am spoiled now. If you can avoid the I-70 sh!t show, do it!

 

[Road Guy]

The things I dislike about WP is that 50% of the time i used to go the Panoramic Lift is closed (the one that take you to the top of Mary Jane and the back bowls) - And when you take 4-5 people it can be a pain to keep everyone together, Seems I lose an hour just trying to find people at the end of the day. But guess that's a MP (my problem)

Out of 20+ days I have really only had 2 bad days getting home. Each of those was because of massive snow dumps one of them I drove to back to Denver via Leadville, South to Buena Vista (4 hours) and last Sunday when I didn't get home until 2 am or so. Other times we leave super early, get there before they open and leave at 1:00.

My gut told me sunday to take the back way home through Breck - Fairplay, the wife wanted to 'trust" google that said it would only be 2.5 hour drive... always go with your gut

enjoy the new boots!  - i think I may ski one more day and call it quits..

 

[Dexman PE PMP]

I remember when we had season passes in college we always made a point to be off of the mountain by 2:30. 3pm at the latest.  If the snow was really good we would stay until the lifts were closed and then would spend the evening in Frisco/Silverthorne for dinner.  Granted that was 15+ years ago and the traffic has only gotten worse.

My favorite hills were always Copper and Breck.  Keystone was always an icefield and wasn't a fan of the layout/terrain at Winter Park (a lot of flat areas that really suck for snowboarders). Only reason we would go to WP was to avoid the tunnels on really bad days.

 

[Road Guy]

Echo that on WP- the north side is miserable on a snowboard and it’s very easy to take a wrong turn - if I can get the wife to consistently ski at Mary Jane and we can all stay on that side of the park then it may be worth it.

One thing I will say- I have never rode in snow up to my waist before - the back bowl was insane - not sure if that was worth the car ride though but it was pretty awesome day of skiing.

Just one of those days where you don’t want to stop or else you are swimming/ which could be dangerous.

I always say I’m gonna take a year off and get a fat bike or something but then by the time summer ends I am ready to ski again...

 

[cement]

interesting read: https://coloradosun.com/2019/03/06/colorado-avalanche-i70-mountains-roads/?fbclid=IwAR0npBf1cVHLQTwSGvX1mOLmw5JOPY_FUM2jFUs9zGeKXlSAgcsTBnSKCZc

 

[Dleg]

Cool article and videos.  That must have been a fun engineering project (the Gazex installations).

 

[Road Guy]

I don't see how people are still heading into the backcountry with all this snow, seems we are getting 1-2 deaths a week lately  

One thing I believe the corridor needs is a VMS at the Silverthorne exit & near the Breck exit that tells you how long it is to the tunnel and how long to Denver (like they have WB into the mountains) it would allow people to make a decision whether to head towards 285 or not.  Because Google sucks it told us from Silverthorne it was a 2.5 hour drive so we chose the tunnel and then it all went to shit...

* none of the VMS East Bound were working on the West side of the tunnel - -I don't recall any of them ever giving out travel times, just the typical BS about the ramp metering

& do you know if they are actually fining people that are not in compliance with the traction law?  Maybe that's to harsh for the current Co leadership..

 

[cement]

There's signs posted on the east side that if you proceed without proper equipment and block the road the fine is over $1000.  It should be shown more prominently and enforced by the police.  You should write the governor and local elected officials. Seriously. 

Rental car agencies should be required to give warnings about what the traction law means and that a front wheel drive with "all season radials" is not equipped for mountain driving.  Like @Road Guy saw, a few bad actors can have a huge impact.

 

[mudpuppy]

There's signs posted on the east side that if you proceed without proper equipment and block the road the fine is over $1000.  It should be shown more prominently and enforced by the police.  You should write the governor and local elected officials. Seriously. 

Rental car agencies should be required to give warnings about what the traction law means and that a front wheel drive with "all season radials" is not equipped for mountain driving.  Like @Road Guy saw, a few bad actors can have a huge impact.

So for an out-of-towner who is planning to drive I-70 from Denver to Utah in early May in a rental car, what do I need to know?

 

[Road Guy]

Hopefully it will have let up by then - so I would just check the weather and snow pack to see what’s left- we typically ski through April and I always take a 4WD vehicle with me(but that’s also my daily driver)

This past weekend was he most I have seen chains on regular cars in the 6 years I have lived here.

 

[Road Guy]

Also copper mountain and Arapahoe basin ski resorts are actually closed today due to snow...

 

[cement]

I told my wife that it might be a good weekend to stay home since they are predicting more avalanches to hit the highway and she looked at me like I murdered a puppy.

And away we go!

 

[Road Guy]

Eldest went today- sounds like t was pretty epic- said it was a total ghost town.

I am gonna tune up my mountain bike

 

[FLBuff PE]

I drove down to Denver Wednesday night, and cars (including me in my 4WD Tacoma) were fishtailing on the way up to Eisenhower from Silverthorne. That sucked! The drive home Friday afternoon was ok until West Vail, when the snow started. Skiing on Saturday was F'AWESOME!

 

[Road Guy]

although they were doing some avalanche mitigation i think this past weekend would have been a good one to go! I noticed no traffic in the am or pm.

Debating going this weekend - We could use a few more days but I have a feeling we still have a good month of skiing left before it gets slushy and icey?

Copper raised its Season PAss to $550, IKON is $649,WP pass is $450, Loveland is $450... Guess I will do the IKON next year, it appears they allow you to pay with installments?

Also I told the two kids who are above 18 they should pay their season pass next year?  Doesn't seem harsh to me considering minimum wage is like $12 bucks an hour here..