Friday, November 28, 2008

November 16, 2008: Vail



(a week before opening!) Being as I'm sitting in Florida right now and have been enjoying the beach for the last few days I realized that I had some major blog catching up to do as I'm about two weeks and a couple of cities behind. So here goes...
November 16-After an excellent day of early season Loveland turns on the 15th with Tom, Mel and the usual tele crew; we were driving home and debating a trip up Butler Gulch the next day. This backcountry area is pretty easy to access, has got lots of options and tends to hold snow pretty early in the season. We had some friends who had been up there that morning and had mixed reports, however just the promise of something other than the same three runs at Loveland sounded as though it would be more than worth it. And a first skin for Mel would be a great thing to get in, as we were starting to run up fast on the hut trip that we were taking in December. However, halfway through the car ride back, Tom got a phone call from some other friends who had skinned up Vail that morning and the reports were that the snow was goooooood. That's a direct quote.
Quick change of plans, and the next thing we know, we're leaving Denver at 7 am in order to make it to Vail at 9 am to meet up with Matt and Katie. It's amazing to me how early and late season, different areas in the mountains, even though they're so close to each other can have such grossly different snow coverage. For example, driving through the Front Range and up to the Eisenhower tunnel, very thin coverage could be seen, but the second we started heading up Vail Pass, it suddenly looked like mid winter! This proved excellent for our trip and excitement was mounting as we pulled into the parking lot.
A quick gear up and we were heading up to the base of the gondola to meet Matt and Katie. The snow as we moved up went from thin and grass flecked to consistently deeper the higher we got. I was a little worried about Mel knowing that this was going to be a long first skin. Vail, while not being very tall is EXTREMELY gradual, and one tends to be a really long haul. As we started out, the air was filled with the occasional curse word and questions for tips as we cut through the snow heading up the empty slope, but even with the swearing, she would not give up and made it to the top in two hours. It was a weird experience to skin up an empty resort. It was a mixture of the solitude of the backcountry and sounds of humanity like bustling snow cats moving across the hill and the top gondola dock blasting Iron Maiden. It was a gorgeous bluebird day, that heated up rapidly. As we climbed higher and higher we were greeted by shots of the Gore range in full snowy majesty. The peaks of the Gore look like the spires and castles that one typically finds in the Alps, and lining Vail pass, were lined up like snowy temptresses. I must ski there a bunch this season.
When we got to the top; we were greeted by Matt and Katie congratulating us and Mel looking exhausted by happy. We then took our skins off and skied down the face of mountain where we greeted by a very welcome sight: untouched powder all the way down to the bottom of the mountain! Whooping and cheering down the slopes and alternating skiing fast and taking photos of powder lines being cut up and leaning way over in the hopes of getting a face shot was how the rest of the run went. I only double ejected once (straight head over heels into a snow bank) and except for the last few hundred feet the snow was excellently deep and fluffy. When we got to the bottom; we went and had a beer, which was hilarious because everyone in the bar gave us the strangest looks you'll ever see when we walked in with full ski gear. A great day out on the hill with great company, especially because the forecast from now until after thanksgiving is DRY AND HOT. Oh, well I'll be out of town anyways, for now I'm praying for snow though. Even though I did just poach from "the greatest resort on earth"....




On the stereo: Damian Marley- Welcome to Jamrock

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Gettin' there....

November 11. Being as I had veteran's day off (much, much, much needed) I decided to head up to Loveland for some early morning turns. Being that I had already spent 7 days on the WROD (white ribbon of death typically found early season) I decided to throw my AT setup in the back of the car as well as I had heard rumors that an area near Jones Pass might be about ready to ski. Either way I wanted to check it out myself as well as hopefully get some exercise and get skinnin'. Met up early morning in the parking lot of Loveland with Doug and Emilie (two telemarkers that I ski with-they seem to accept the fact that I like to have my heels fixed). We were greeted by a delightful sight, the entire valley was socked in by the remains of last nights storm, and the flakes were a flyin'. Spent the AM skiing with them, on surprisingly soft snow, which was a delightful surprise compared to what Sunday's snow had been. Around 1 or so, they decided to take off (Doug petty cabs so he needed a nap before he could start haulin' people around on his tri-cycle) and I decided that I was tired of the same two runs, and that I should head off on my exploratory mission up Jones Pass. A short drive later, I was greeted by another socked in by snow valley (yay!) and an empty parking lot except for one snowmobiler dealing with an overheated sled. Brief conversation later confirmed we had some friends in common and I started my skin up Jones. It was pretty thin coverage for the beginning on the road (enough snow to move on though!), but the snowpack started to deepen dramatically as the road started to switchback up a south facing aspect. The climb felt good, really really good. A little guy that greeted me by running across my skin track
There's a solace and soulfulness that I really believe can only be found through moving under your own power through a wilderness area far, far away from human contact. Usually, I prefer to have a friend or two with, but for this first trip inaugurating the season, it felt good to find myself moving up a windswept ridge past treeline by myself. Once I gained treeline I poked around for a while in the snowpack finding variable depth (thinner on south facing aspects-deeper on others) and lots of windloading that had occured. I found a couple of deeper pockets along with a couple of suspiciously forming slabs, good information to have gathered. Being as I was by myself I picked a mellow meadow to practice my meadow skippin' in and then skied back down the road all the way to my car and only managed to hit a few rocks. Awesome first trip! Unfortunatly, the light was super bizarre and I need to remember to bring my hood with me next time, or lower my shutter size, so only a few pics came out. Headed back down the hill to be greeted by a mid fall day in Denver and an old friend on his way out to California. Now all I need is about 2' more of powder to get to the serious tree skiing...
On the stereo: "Caribbean Wind"-Bob Dylan

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Decisions, Decisions....



Why start a blog? I haven't the foggiest of ideas as to why I decided to do this a few days ago. I've got some partial queries and thoughts as to why. Mainly, I feel like I'm going to be doing a lot of skiing this year and hopefully in some big gnarly looking places. So I guess I'm hoping (as I am about the couple of flakes that are right now beginning to float down upon the mountains west of me-part of the storm that I've been almost obsessively following for the last week) that these adventures will turn out big enough to write about. And why not keep a spot somewhere for those thoughts to be? I also anticipate this year as probably being full of decisions about what I want to do next, where to go and what is truly important to me, so I guess secondly (huh, I guess that say something about import as it is doesn't it?) I'd like somewhere to journal those thoughts. So I guess I'll start now: Hi, I'm Hans, I'm 23 years old, I work for Greenpeace, have a bachelors degree and LOVE skiing. I also have a girlfriend of a little less than a year now, and a desire to explore quite a bit of the world. Hopefully, on skis.
Ok, that doesn't sound too much like an AA meeting...
Oh, I also love taking pictures, and just recently bought a new expensive camera, so all the photos on here will be my own. This one is a photo of fall Aspens up in Summit County.