*NEW* TR!!! SKY Chutes!! Bringing more stoke!!!
Okay kids, back to the stoke.First of all, I don't fancy myself as a writer, but here we go. I'm not sure about the date of this trip, but I'm pretty sure it was the 2nd half of March this year.
I woke up and gave SummitCo1776 a call in the morning. I didn't really have a plan, but I knew we were going skiing. We had just finished up several sick days in East Vail, and nothing really sounded exciting in comparison. It was a bluebird day, and a storm the day before had left 12" of fresh in places. The only lift-served access to the goods close-by, was the Lake chutes at Breckenridge. I grabbed my beacon, pack, and shovel, I assume Summit did the same, and about an hour later we were at Breckenridge. We waded through the masses of gapers and Griswalds to the chair. We decided to ask patrol about the status/conditions of Lake Chutes, and at the top of the chair we skied over to PHQ. When we skied up to the front door, some old geriatric patroller slid up next to us. The guy looked like he'd just finished summiting Everest, complete with glacier glasses and biners hanging all over him. He looked rather "core", so I took the opportunity to ask him for the Lake Chutes beta.
Me: Hey sir? About the Lake Chutes...
Old grumpy patroller dude:"THOSE ARE CLOSED DUE TO WIND"
Me: Is that how you access the Sky chutes??
OGPD: "IF YOU GO THERE I'LL HAVE YOU ARRESTED"
Me:"that's not what i asked, but thanks anyways."
SummitCo and I pondered our next move for, oh, about 5 minutes. We than both agreed to disobey Grandpa hardcore patrol dude and head for the SKY Chutes.
SKY chutes-yes,they do spell SKY. We skied the right side of the Y
http://biglines.com/photos/blpic22464.jpg
I've wanted to ski them for quite some time, not for the sick factor, but to see what it's like up there. I knew now was the time. Fresh snow, and a consolidated snowpack.
We rode up the T-bar in a snowy tornado...It really was windy as hell-50, 60, 70 mph winds. We climbed peak 8 or 9 to the top from the T-bar.
We summited the peak, snapped a few picks, and planned our route to the chutes.
SummitCo1776 acting like a big-hair band rockstar. Peak 10 is on the left, Crystal (yes, Crystal kicked our ass the first time) on the right, and Lake Chutes are in that bowl in the foreground.
http://biglines.com/photos/blpic22456.jpg
I was kinda of sketched out about this next part. If a patroller was anywhere around, he'd see us ducking a rope. I'd already been given the "safety Bob" speech by Breck patrollers this year for ducking a rope from inbounds to inbounds.:rolleyes: Being banned from Copper, I don't need my 5 mtn. pass being pulled too. We hauled ass down the ridge and cut the rope to the West, slipping down the ridge about 30 yards out of sight of any Breck people. We than found ourselves scurrying and stumbling over a rather sketchy scree field in a hurry to get back on the snow. I thought about Frank Gumbali drowning in the river at Yosimite, only because of the bureaucratic forest rangers chasing him after his "illegal" BASE jump off of El Capitan. We weren't doing anything sick like Frank, but it pissed me off to think that our level of safety was LESS, only due to the people there for our "safety". I crawled, slid and gaped down the rock field in ski boots. SC1776 had AT boots on, and was fairing a little better than me. After about 15 minutes, we finally made it to where we could click-in and slide to a safer spot. We traversed for quite a way along the 10 mile ridge to the North. We stopped to take in some Ptarmigan we came across, and took in the view.
View on top of the Y chute looking west at Copper, and towards Vail Pass.
http://biglines.com/photos/blpic22461.jpg
Soon we found ourselves above the Y chute.
To my surprise, the snow was light and deep. It was bluebird, it was untracked, we were stoked! I couldn't wait to make some turns, and I started floating down the mountain.
http://biglines.com/photos/blpic22460.jpg
I got the chance to take some pics of SummitCo1776, something I rarely get to do....he killed the chute with high-speed GS turns......
http://biglines.com/photos/blpic22457.jpg
http://biglines.com/photos/blpic22455.jpg
Than it was my turn.. Even lower in the chute, the snow was still good.
Check SC1776's tracks in the pic, it was good stuff.
http://biglines.com/photos/blpic22459.jpg
http://biglines.com/photos/blpic22458.jpg
The day was deep, and beautiful. To be graced with these conditions so late in the year, was nothing short of awesome. It was definitely spring skiing at the bottom, but I bet we were at the parking lot at Copper, from our out in less than 15 minutes. When we arrived, Bus drivers and the such were looking up at the tracks in the chute with awe and curiosity. They asked, "was that you guys up there"??? We both replied "no", got on the bus and returned back to our cars at Breck.;)
