Poster: A snowHead
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This great, adventurous year began a few years ago when I finally had the gumption to tell my husband that it was not acceptable to work like dogs and never take vacations(holidays). It took some time for me to convince him to leave work behind and go on a long weekend, but he finally did it!!! YAY Me!!!
This year, to my shock and awe, Dear Husband(referred to hereafter as DH) booked a holiday for us to go to Colorado for a week of skiing!
Can I say YAY ME! again?
Just before we were packing to fly out to Colorado, he called me on the phone to meet him at the local car dealership to say, "honey, we're buying a new car to do some traveling. As soon as we get back from Colorado, we're taking off again to drive west and do some more skiing"
His whole demeanor has changed while on holiday and I am almost afraid to ask what happened to him but.......WOW!!!
We hit 3 resorts(Keystone, Abasin and Aspen Snowmass) met up with a few friends from EpicSki who were tremendously helpful at guiding us around to spots we'd have never found. More important, they wore us out!
First day Keystone, we never took the camera out because we were surprised with a great powder day and were having so much fun we didn't stop to take pictures.
At the top of the Outback Chair at Keystone, there is a short Hike To Ski area, in bounds that exposes the skiers to North Bowl and South bowl.
North Bowl was amazing fun with boot top snow and amazing glades.
When we hit Abasin, which is not far from Keystone, we found little to explore except firm groomers, but it was all good, as we met up with some friends with their little girl. Miss O!
When we hit Aspen Snowmass, we found another great Hike to run called Long shot. It was a 10 minute hike with a 4 ish mile long run which consisted of glades, lots of amazing snow conditions, moguls, trees and groomers.
Again, YAY!!!
Here is the one pic that turned out on long shot, of our friend John.
On our road trip to Colorado we took a couple friends with us to share driving and of course, to share in the fun!
The drive took us 19 hrs, which seemed to fly by very quickly in such good company.
When we arrived, we were going to hit up Eldora Ski Area which is a smaller place close to my Sister In Laws house, but the wind was fierce and most of their lifts were shut down.
So.....we rested for an aggressive ski day to follow
Back to Keystone and an eager trip to the Hike to North bowl
What a great surprise when we were greeted with boot top snow again!
The tree skiing was amazing fun with the freshies we found, but I gotta say, my friends need to stop dressing like trees!!!
On to Abasin and Copper, which greeted us with little new snow, but great fun with friends on the groomers.
The gang at the top of the poma, waiting to drop into Spaulding bowl. I can't remember what we were waiting for.
I'm in the purple paisley jacket on the right
One of our friends at Copper was UGA Skidawg and his little MissO. She evidently wanted to challenge DH to a race.
Tip of the day: Always bet on the little ripper!!!
The adventure came to a finale' when we met up with our good friend from our own back yard, at his favourite Colorado Ski spot, MaryJane/Winterpark!
Wow, what a great day we had with Bumpfreaq!
MJ is world renowned for its bumps and trees, and that is exactly what we got.
Of course this is the day I forgot my camera at my Sister In Laws house and only got a few pics with my camera phone.
Me and the gang getting ready to enter the Double Diamond Outhouse Moguls
They were actually friendly for moguls but they went on and on and on and..........(you get the idea)
We rewarded ourselves with a great lunch at the Sunspot!
This was a great way to conclude our Colorado tour. After all, what more could you ask for? Great Friend, Great Mountains, Great Snow, and Huge Grins!
I believe DH has another road trip in the plans, which will enhance my winter adventures before I attend ESA Big Sky at the end of March.
I am a very fortunate SnowHead, indeed!
Thanks for reading!
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Mon 9-02-09 19:29; edited 1 time in total
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brian
brian
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SnowHot, cool.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Cool pix.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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That bump run looks good... if a little tiring
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Scarpa, That bump run was fun, and tiring, then we did DrunkenFrenchman, which is another Double Black Diamond Bump run at MJ. I lost count of how many mogul runs we did that day, but it was a lot, and I slept well that night.
Ray Zorro, You had your freshies while I had mine, eh?
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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SnowHot, There you are it always looks steeper looking down from above.
Hes gonna have a great time and is well capable of skiing most of the mountain.
Just been to buy him a balaclava for under his helmet.
Hes skiied around 2800m in europe but WP starts around that height so I reckon it could be seriously cold higher up.
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hedley, it was fairly warm when we were there. Windy and cold on top but after skiing down just a bit, it was warm, almost too warm. I had to unzip my pit zips and often wish I had not worn my neck gaiter. Then we'd go to the top and face the wind again and I was happy to zip up and tuck into the neck gaiter.
It was a great day!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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we do that trip every year recognise the pictures as you come out of the bowls at keystone, did you go on the cat?
Epic pass is a great deal unlimited skiing at arapahoe keystone breck, beaver creek and vail.
Beaver creek is mad like a cross between disney world and monte carlo, vail so big just cant ski it all.
I leave in just under a week, woohoo
going to dust out the powder skis and the race skiis for the bumbs, here is too a facefull of champagne.
steamboat is well worth a check out even though its abit out of the way, some of the hikes there lead to some great trees and bowls really untouched as no one can be bothered to hike, man im out of breath
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Thanks for the trip report; brought back some good memories from my trip to Winter Park last year. You're right, those bumps do go on and on and on and..... The snow just kept coming last March with a new powder day every 3 days on average. Fab resort!
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mukka, we didn't do the Cat because we figured we'd wait longer for the cat than if we just started hiking. The hike was easy and didn't take long at all.
Its our plan to hit Steamboat some time in the future, but not likely this year. AS for the Epic Pass and the resorts it covers........You can get a lot of skiing in for a good price.
My Sister in Law lives out there. She said they got a huge dump yesterday but thus far its been relatively sparse. East Wall at Abasin wasn't open yet because of rock exposure, but I'm guessing it will be open by the time you're there.
Hunsbury, We'll definitely be putting Winter Park on our list of "must return to" resorts. I really have not met a ski resort that I couldn't fall in love with!!!
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You know it makes sense.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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hedley, How was/is your son's trip to WP?
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Poster: A snowHead
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