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