SICK: Crested Butte/Wolf Creek photo TR (12/1-2/07)

[Deep Days]

An appropriate photo of the Wolf Creek ticket from this weekend...

LOCATIONS: Keystone, Crested Butte, and Wolf Creek, CO
DATES: November 30, 2007 departure; December 1 and 2, 2007 skiing.
CREW:

Clay, friend from CUFST (also infrequent TGR poster)


John, friend from CUFST


Below Zero


Skibum193


BZ's friend Jay



Summit, adimmen, Summit's friend Marty, Lurch, cmsummit, Raps, and more also made appearances and probably would have been pictured if my camera weren't so cold all day. I also saw goldenboy at lunch in CB but was too intimidated to say what's up...

PLAN: Ski pow. As deep as possible. Somewhere in SW CO.
SYNOPSIS: Friday night beater laps at Keystone from 11:30 to 1:30 AM; mad dash to Crested Butte in time for about 10th chair; some pow, lots of wind, and many bumps on Paradise; nap in Grand Lodge; easy drive to Wolf Creek; fantastic pow and a big achievement for Young Maxwell.

THE REPORT:
I got up at 6 am Friday and checked the board. As I was walking to volunteering at 7 am in the freezing ass cold, the wheels started to turn in my head. My emotions went from jealousy of those who'd get to indulge in the mega whopper that was about to blast SW CO, to deliberative over how to get down there, to giddy about what was about to happen. I spent about an hour total on the phone trying to figure out plans, and as of 7 pm, nick > jesus (to my dismay) dropped out, and my friends Clay and John were signed up to leave Boulder at 9 pm. We got out of town a little bit early and decided "ah, what the fuck, let's stop at keystone and see what that shitshow is all about."

That we did, and it turns out that having sharp edges on hardpack is really fun. At 2 am, after about 6 laps and much poring over the map, John, Clay, and I set out down CO highway 9, through absolute nuclear winter over Hoosier Pass, towards Salida. We called the desk at the Grand Lodge to confirm that snow was pounding them and decided that we'd have to pass the point of decision (Salida) well before snow totals were updated in the morning. We pulled into the Grand Lodge (very friendly folk. Definitely recommend staying with them) at about 6 am and acted like bums for an hour and a half before scoring free parking 200 yards from the lift. 14" was the magical number for the day.

DAY 1: Crested Butte
8:10 we're in line behind 30 "CB mountain folk" who are allowed their rite of passage 30 minutes before the lifts open to the public. Skibum193 takes his place in line with us. As more people arrive, a mob mentality develops, and much "cutsies" occurs. The big hand becomes perpendicular to the little hand, and silly excitement is the overwhelming emotion. The Red Lady chair opens finally at about 9:10, and we cry with glee. Skating our hearts out off the chair to Paradise, we pass all the poor snowboarders who must take their time to buckle up and strap in.

The wind is absolutely howling atop Paradise chair, affording plenty windskin to the snow surface and minimal visibility pretty much all day. We skate off the chair and are confused by the ill-defined groomer/non-groomer transition. The snow is knee deep and rather creamy. It doesn't suck.

We lap the shit out of Paradise Bowl and whatever shit is below that, trying hard to avoid the many rocks and giant chunks of ice that lurk beneath the surface (I "found" two). Then, at about 11:30, as our chair is one tower from the top, we see a crowd lined up skier's left of the chair. Patrol drops the rope, and we skate off the chair and into position ahead of 2/3 of the pack. Fuck yes. As Dannon Yogurt says, C'est si bon! FINALLY a consistently moderately steep pitch conducive to fantastic turns! It's douched by the time we reach the bottom, and the day is set up for lots of fun soft bumps.

Due to said soft bumps, no pictures were taken at CB. We skied about 10 variations of about 4 total open runs on Paradise Chair all day, as Red Lady was closed most of the day due to high wind. It wasn't exactly what we had in mind for a "cracked out storm chasing mission" but it was an overwhelmingly fun day of skiing. I've never looked forward to skiing bumps so much in my whole life...

Then... the magic begins. After 34 hours without sleep, 7 of which were spent skiing, and 6 of which were spent driving, it was time for a nap. We endured many a weird look taking turns napping in the lobby of the Grand Lodge and awoke ready to rally to where 23-29" were forecasted for the night: Wolf Creek, Colorado. The cries of "WAX YOUR DAMN BASES!" had been heeded, and we were hungry for some deepness.

We pulled up to the Wolf Creek Ranch (fantastic place to stay for $20/person/night, complete with stove, microwave, hot tub, and big beds) at about 10 pm without incident. Sleep came easily, and awaking didn't. After 3 accidental snooze cycles on my phone alarm, we were racing to get back onto hwy 160 for an estimated 7:30 arrival at this mystical place:


Wolf Creek

[Deep Days]

DAY 2: Wolf Creek
We were the second car in the parking lot, but with my gaperistic poor navigation of the parking lot, got stuck and had to get pulled out. Nevertheless, we were parked third closest to the lift and geared up frantically. Moments later, my friends lined up for first chair at Bonanza while I hung at the ticket office. Another mad dash later, it was decided that Treasure Chair was the way to go. We lined up behind Below Zero and co. and one other threesome. All of a sudden, Bonanza chair was running, and we skated for dear life to the deep. It was still pounding, too.


Bonanza Chair

As we near the top of the chair, salivating at some trees that "just can't be open" on skier's right, I call out to the liftie, "Dude! Can we ski this?!" "Yulp". Insane but joyful cackling ensues, and 10 seconds later I am at maximum heart rate poking up the traverse into the trees. I drop into about 35 degrees of waist deep cotton candy fluff and utter a cry of pure delight. "Winter is FUCKING HERE!" I think to myself, linking up fabulous turns that bring face shots every other time. I haul ass on the groomed section, taking the advice of those before me, and we do it again. Seeing a big line at Treasure, we figure there's time for a quick shot and video. Unfortunately, I'm retarded and can't figure out how to rotate the video, so those of you with a laptop will have to watch it sideways...


John


Skinny skis make for awkward skiing in pow...


Lookit! A bonafide trail of cold smoke!!!



Video of my buddy Clay. Sorry for the shitty camera work, but you get the idea. (And yes, you Office fans are correct in noting the exuberant "Yeppers!" at the end of that...)

We finished this lap and headed into line at Treasure chair's base. We scored about 15th chair soon after we arrived and were absolutely drooling at the top of the chair. I would have taken video, but I adamantly refused to risk missing my chance at 400 or 500 feet of delectable umbilicus-deep pow on a wiiiide-open 30 degree slope. I saw Summit gittin' sum as we neared the top, and I was jittery. I picked a line skier's left through the trees, and it was absolutely asinine. I was a happy freakin' camper.

This nonsense continued for about 4 laps, at which point John and I noticed a small drop through the trees. Having jumped off almost nothing this season, we were hungry for a little air.


John having fun

That "little air" entertained some wacky thoughts later in the day. We skated out skier's left of the top of Treasure to a zone that reminded me a lot of the top 1/3 of Northwoods chair at Vail. There were 10-20 ft. drops aplenty, but most landings were shit. We were really just trying to pick an exciting line through, when I got stuck on top of a drop that could have been rather sizeable for me. "This early in the season? On my pretty skis? No... But holy shit, I DO have my monsters!" The wheels in my head turned for a couple hours, and I decided after lunchtime (and after several fantastic laps with a great crew that will hopefully be pictured here with their help) to scope out the landing on said drop. I switched my skis, dialed in my bindings, poked around for a little while and decided, "let's go hucking." Bringing a whole slew of documenteurs with me (in the true spirit of TGR and Goseying), I was reminded by Summit to "air it for YOURSELF, not for us." I would have done it without the cameras, but I figured you guys should bear witness...

Unfortunately, I don't have the pictures, but I'm hoping adimmen and Summit will post them when they get back from their own harebrained adventure. Clay also has video, but doesn't currently have any way to upload it, so look for that in the future. I did air the thing, twice, and I'll let you see for yourself what happened.

After a very full day of skiing pow and jumping off of things, it was time to head home. We pulled back into Boulder at 10:30 last night, and I went to bed at about midnight. I was so beat that I didn't get up until 4 o'clock today. What a great weekend. Beats the shit out of sliding rails at Breck, eh, Clay?

Cheers to everyone there. What a fantastic crew. I look forward to more turns with the lot of you in the future.

HUZZAH FOR POW!

[Dhelihiker]

I watched your video

my neck hurts

[TitanneeNC]

yuppers!

[Fritz]

Looks awesome, gracias. What's BZ digging for here?

[golden powder]

Must have been windy. From the video, it looks like the snow was blowing at a completely 90 degree angle.

[springsproject]

Nice write up, makes me want to ski some pow. Way to get some

[skiHOG]

where's the 50"+ they are reporting. i don't see it. doesn't look any deeper than 1st day opening of northwoods at vail.

[Z]

Nice job Max. git some!

[pappag]

where's the 50"+ they are reporting. i don't see it. doesn't look any deeper than 1st day opening of northwoods at vail.

Plus, there's no chairlift steeze.

[Cyber Cop]

where's the 50"+ they are reporting. i don't see it. doesn't look any deeper than 1st day opening of northwoods at vail.

30 or so inches of sierra cement on friday night followed by a foot of champagne saturday night. perfect surf.

[Deep Days]

30 or so inches of sierra cement on friday night followed by a foot of champagne saturday night. perfect surf.

Agreed. It was perfect watching the thermometer in my car hover around 33 degrees Friday night, driving through dry zones to rain to wet snow to fluff and all the way back down again within about 1000 vert.; then the good stuff followed as it got colder. I doubt we would have been jumping off anything if it had been 40" of fluff. I did forget to mention that this storm was rather distinctive (for me) in the lack of wind at WC Saturday night into Sunday morning. It was almost absurd to see that much snow essentially undisturbed by wind. It made me about as aroused as looking at the terrain at CB...

Admittedly, it wasn't as deep as I had hoped, but it was still one of my top 5 days ever.

[wb.miller]

hope there's something left, headed down in the morning...

[nikster140]

Nice max, nice.

[jibco]

Nice, fellas.

[300hp]

awesome TR max! good on ya to go on a mission like that.
Hunter

[Huckwheat]

Wow, very solid....way to take full advantage. Looking forward to the huck pics DD.

[Poop~Ghost]

max, you got some serious motivation. I am impressed.

[pdiddy]

Nicely done, you have proved to all that Wolf Creek sucks.

[birdboatboy]

Nice write up with plenty of useful details. Thanks man.

[Phill]

I watched your video

my quads hurt

fixed it........

[BushwackerinPA]

sick stuff dude. Lucky I have a labtop now.

[couloirman]

nice work gosey, cant wait to see the huck. Ill join you guys in a few weeks...

[freshie247]

Every dog has his deep day, way to get after it Max.

[Crinkle]

well played max, i feel the stoke oozing out of your post.