Colorado Spring Trip Report

[INDY GS]

Well here is a first stab a a trip report.


Wednesday March 17th ST. Patricks Day - Leave Indiana

Load up the outback with skis and all of my gear to spend a week in colorado. Swing by the Rents house and pick up my dad who will be tagging along because he hasn't been west to ski in better than four years. Snowing like hell, something that shouldn't be happening in Indiana this time of year. Heading west past chicago, iowa and nebraska sucks, although eastern colorado has a lot to be desired. Made the trip to Golden better than 1100 miles in just over 16 hours.

Arrive at friends house in golden crash in the guest room, than up bright and early for the fabulous conditions at A-basin.

well 50 degrees and sunny aint for pow pow, so it was a spring ski day. Nice up-top with what I would call midwinter conditions, decent packed pow with some wind buffed left from the previous storm. Lower mountain had nice corn, due to the fact that there was barely anyone at the basin it didn't get made into bad push piles. All in all a decent day.

Friday: Seeing that my day wasn't quite up to the skiing at abasin for a full day, I thought we would try something different. We headed up to Cooper in Leadville. Say wahat you will Cooper is flat and doesn't offer much of a challenge, but for wide open groomers, maching high speed GS turns, this sometimes racer absolutly loved it. They are right they have no crowds, there were maybe 150 people there. I think Cooper represents the soul of skiing, slow chairs, no snowmaking, beautiful views and a no frill attitude. I reccomend Ski Cooper to anyone with a family that likes to ski together, or if you really just want to mach some wide open terrain.

Note to self: SPF 30 don't do jack for a flatlander that has been protected by midwestern gray skys and clouds all winter.

Saturday: The friends that we stayed with in Golden were going to be having a race t A-basin today, so they invited me to join their team to round out the B-Team. Had a lot of fun racing with some semi-serious racers actually held my own on the first run, but crash and burned on the second run on a really tight cranker that took more than a handfull of skiers out. The race was over before noon, leaving the rest of the day to free ski. We spent a lot of time lapping the Lenawee chair throwing ourselves off King Cornice which isn't as big as I've seen it in the past, but still a good 8'-10' drop in most places, and if you had enough speed could get a little more. This is the only place we stopped to take pics, I will post them below.

Sunday: Another day at abasin based on reports from copper and breck, lift lines were bad and the snow was worse. Spent a lot of time skiing the pali chair, getting a lot of sun, and then as the snow started to turn, it was back to the cornice a little higher up to enjoy the firmer snow. The wind was pretty strong and pulled a lot of the moisture out of the snow, leaving a somewhat creamy substance that resembled mid winter snow.

Monday: Today we decided that due to the incoming rain, and the existing conditions, the planned departure would be moved from tuesday up to today, but not before skiing breckenridge for the morning. I had one day remaining on my Abay bonus season pass, and waned to use it before the end of the season. Well the rumors were true, breck has been busy and the snow is something that resembles creamed corn about 6-8 inches deep. I see why Breck has earned the name gapenridge. I have never seen so any gapers as I did at the base of peak 9. The slush was taking people out left and right. There wasn't enough patrol for the carnage. So I headed up to the T-bar and the area around Peak 7, The snow wasn't bad, except for the coverage. I have seen better snow coverage in november. Anyway, found some nice little hits, and finally a nice rock to launch off of, well I overestimated the quality of snow, at the landing zone, as I hit, my impact crushed the snow beneath me and I released out of my left ski, which sent me tumbling about 50 -100 feet downhill. Although I was fine, I decided this was something that wasn't good to happen alone in an area where there wasn't much traffic. So back to the groomers and park for me. I hit the smaller park Gold hill or whatever they call it. It wasn't too bad, but was turning pretty bad as the day wore on. A couple more runs and I felt is was time to call it quits to prevent injury, seeing I have a GS and a downhill I am racing in this next weekend.

Monday afternoon we hopped back in the car, and 17 hours later we were back home this morning. After a good nap, it was time to get some work done. Now it's time to catch up with what has been happening here.

Well sorry this was so long. I hope you enjoy the pics.

me hopping king cornice
http://www.bolderdesignstudio.com/1.jpg

My buddy andy making a nice turn, wish this was better in frame.
http://www.bolderdesignstudio.com/2.jpg

My buddy andy going stylee
http://www.bolderdesignstudio.com/3.jpg

Just a pic of me making turn on a flat slope
http://www.bolderdesignstudio.com/4.jpg

Me going off the cornice
http://www.bolderdesignstudio.com/5.jpg

[rip]

Cool Pics

Sounds like a pretty sweet trip, even if the conditions weren't that great.

[Pinner]

I was expecting a Colorado Springs TR.

[INDY GS]

the colorado springs trip report would go something like this...we rolled into town, stopped by a 7-11 for a big gulp and some twinkies, swung over to the trailer park, then hung out with some kids from the acadamy, a small side trip to pueblo proved to be just as fun as the springs.