Category — Mountain Life

Vail Resorts has decided to do a special gift for skiers this coming year with the rollout of a new Epic Pass. For $579. The new Epic pass offers unlimited skiing at all the Vail Resorts including Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone, and Arapahoe Basin. There are no Blackout dates, period. This is an amazing promotion considering that it undercuts even the merchant passes available for employees working in these resort towns.

Compare this to the current year pricing…

This year, the same unrestricted pass would have cost $1,849
For employees in the Vail Valley, who have always gotten the best deal, an unlimited pass WITH RESTRICTIONS would have cost $869

Why the sudden change of strategy in pricing? Who knows, maybe all the real estate development needs a boost, maybe skier numbers need a boost, maybe they are hedging the threat of decreasing skier numbers due the the big R forecasts. Is a Recession on the way, are we already in one, are we on our way out of one, or is it all a big scare? Let the economists wrangle with that one, I’m just happy to have a great deal thrown my way.

Of course not everyone is happy about this. The Vail Valley in particular is wrestling with some predictions on what the increased traffic will do the the roads throughout the valley. Citing “Epic Problems” on the way many worry this will be a disaster for travelers and those working in the Valley.

Guess that’s why you are supposed to buy some real estate and head up there on Friday night to stay under your own roof.

What do you think? What ski pass, if any, will you buy next year?

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So I finally got a chance to do the famous Winter Park Ski Train. With my ties to Vail it took me a little longer to give this a shot, but I am glad I did.

I’ll do a quick summary for those of you who are thinking about it. First of all, groups are the best. We had a group of 107 folks so we pretty much ruled a car and a half. At first I think everyone worried about seats and being right next to each other but the reality is that with train travel everyone is walking, talking, leaning, moving pretty much all the time. It’s a social scene on wheels.

The views are amazing, although again this became second place quickly to everyone being social. Yet far more scenic than a flood of taillights on I-70.

If you live downtown the Ski Train has a special appeal. We walked over the bridge in Riverfront Park right at 7:00 for our 7:15 departure. I personally set my alarm for 5:30 to take the pup for a long walk and to give me quite a bit of time cushion just in case, so it is not a good night to plan a big Friday out on the town.

Then on the train everyone greets each other, has fun, and kicks back and RELAXES all the way up. No white knuckle driving, no fighting traffic, and there is always a place to buy coffee or breakfast only a short walk away. Some slept, some read the paper, most chatted. Nice.

On the way back this gets magnified into a huge social gathering. Beverages flow throughout the car, there is laughter everywhere and no one is driving. What a great solution for downtown residents… instead of trying to balance doing apres with the drive home and fighting crowds on that sometimes painful return the ski train becomes the apres location. No risk, no worries. One person said it was just like staying in the mountains with no worries about the commute. Considering I carried my skis there and back in less than ten minutes I’d have to agree.

Some bits of advice for you…

Avoid car 2. It’s behind the engine so the front is sealed. Don’t worry, you don’t get any fumes but the lack of ventilation gets TOASTY. We had folks stripping down to the minimum so maybe chair two will be the naked car. Your choice.

There isn’t much you can do about this worry, but if you get behind a slower train your trip could take a bit longer. This happened on our way up but not on our way back. Not too bad, some folks slept longer and the train is comfy. But keep this in mind if you are making strict plans involving timing and make sure you have a puppy sitter on reserve in case your return is late.

Get your food or drink quick if you want it. They sold out of burritos pretty fast on the way up and while they had beer all the way through the trip back, the Stella was the first to go. Don’t forget they close the catering car when they think they are 30 minutes away from the station. This might be longer so if you want stock up before they close.

There is a great lounge car with scrabble and other games. Consider grabbing a spot there for awhile if you have a small group but be quick if you want a seat.

We will be doing the Ski Train again. Give it a shot for yourself. I forgot to mention that the train stopped on a cross track exactly where another train was heading at us. The folks in our car started getting a little bit nervous as it got closer.. and closer… and closer. Then we quickly moved, picture is one of others below.

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Really, the snow is AMAZING!! Taken from the back bowls the snow is up to your knees. Wow!!

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I love snow.

The past two days have been spent skiing the fresh powder of Vail and I can tell you that it is wonderful. Sunday I was doing some training for some volunteer work I signed on for. I’ll fill everyone in on this in a later post but in the meantime check out these pics. All of Monday was spent in Blue Sky Basin and the back bowls and it was NICE!!

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Yep, the mountains are getting the big dump we have all been waiting for.

Okay, I just skied Vail for two days and here are the runs that rock right now.

Dealers Choice
Northwoods
NorthStar
Lodgepole

And the rest of Game Creek Bowl was filling up with snow when I left. Sorry these are mostly cruisers but they are well covered and as soon as this storm is done I am sure there will be a ton more.

And after chatting with some of the locals working in the restaurants in the Village I also learned some additional scoop. First, many many tourists canceled their plans to hit Vail due to the terrible snow reports. Hotels have space and those same folks can’t react quick enough to fill up those rooms with bodies. So that means so much more room for skiing with less people.

Not bad.

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Passing through Vail today and happy to report that snow finally hit. With reports of only a few inches at Vail, Beaver Creek, and Summit it’s nothing spectacular but it is a step in the right directions.

And it is COLD!!! Took a quick shot of the temperature outside from my car in the wee hours of the morning and they are expecting -5 tonight in the Vail Valley.

That means snow is being made.

Vail officially opened today and Beaver Creek moved it’s opening from today to Friday. Pray to the snow gods everyone!!

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Sometimes even I don’t like progress.

I just found out that yesterday was the last day for the highline lift in Vail to run in its old school two seater set up. The highline lift is one of the slowest lifts still out there, certainly for Vail. It also provides access to some of the funnest bump runs in Vail including two of my favorites…Blue Ox and Highline. Blue Ox is pictured above credit to mangler.

These bump runs have been known to locals for years for their long stretches of moguls that start forming day one of the season and get carved to perfection throughout the year. Also, as a local we always knew that the tourists and wanna be’s would be intimidated by the bumps or ticked off by the slow, ancient two seater lift. This was just fine with us and we enjoyed knowing that even on the busiest days we might find a reprieve from the crowds in this secret stash and were less likely to be sitting on the chair next to some bunion of life chatting on his or her cell phone.

Those days are going to be gone next year. Vail, as part of their improvement process, will be replacing this funky old two seater tradition with a new high speed quad. Here come the tourists. Darn.

Now maybe on a Wednesday when the hill is empty I’ll love the quick lift for myself, but after a telemark trip down this hill I might just prefer the few extra minutes to rest the legs. Maybe my feelings aren’t so mixed.

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I just happened to run across this site and wanted to share it, but I admit it’s not for everyone.

The site is called Lost Bags, Lost Souls, a Skiing Misadventure and is an online documentary of a journey across the world to ski a far remote mountain.  I won’t give away all the episodes, which I couldn’t do anyway since I haven’t seen them all.  But to give you a taste, there is a great discussion of a rather unusual philosophy concerning jet lag.

The theory is that jet lag is not just physical, it is spiritual.  Our souls can’t keep pace with our bodies when traveling that fast so it takes time for  our souls to catch up.  We are essentially “lost luggage” ourselves until we join back together.  Hmmmmmm.. and I thought it was just the cocktail I had at 30,000 feet.

Worth checking out, and a trip I would love to take myself.

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Last night we drove to the mountains. As we arrived the dumping started, and it just kept right on snowing all night and up until about 2:00 today. 16 inches in Beaver Creek as of this morning. The photo above was the chair on our deck at about Midnight.

So get in your cars and head to the mountains. It’s warmer up here and it is also where the snow is.

What can I say, I think that I am a snow beacon. The last time I was up here was the other big storm this year.

Thats all for now, friends are driving up to join us and there are things to get ready.
Happy Skiing!

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New Chutes at Beaver Creek… YEAH! My favorite spot so far has been Grouse Mountain which on a powder day can be a real treat, but now something new. If you love chutes, there are now 180 acres of new terrain in Stone Creek Chutes. Expert skiers and riders can experience short, steep gladed, backcountry-like runs inbounds! Chutes range from 400-600 vertical feet in length with pitches up to 45 degrees. To access Stone Creek Chutes, take the Cinch Express Lift (#8).

Beaver Creek will drop the ropes on its expert Talons terrain on the flanks of Grouse Mountain and Larkspur Bowl this Saturday, Dec. 9. The resort will have 12 lifts running, serving 89 trails and 1,307 acres of terrain starting at 9 a.m. Saturday. The resort received more than two feet of snow last week.

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