Day 21 - Copper

Out 9:00 to 2:00 with a coffee break at Solitude Station; sunny and warm with no wind, 20° in the parking lot this AM and 43° when I left; 25 runs; 43,602 vertical; skied the Atomic D2 3.0 Race GS's; groomers; not much of a crowd; Men's NorAm SG today on the Speed Center track; great views from the chair of World Cuppers training GS on West Encore included Petra Vhlova and Lucas Braathen.

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Day 20 - Copper

Well that was alot better. Out 9:00 to 12:15 with no break; sunny with temps in the thirties and no wind; 14 runs; 26,921 vertical; skied the 2019 Head i.Speed GS Cheater 17's; groomers; busy, but no lift lines; skied a little better today; Super Bee stopped for >15 minutes, so I rode the bus back to Center Village and left; this place is still one of the most sceanic resorts around; so glad the holiday crowd is gone - last week was way worse than I was expecting; passed 400,000.

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Day 19 - Copper

Happy Thanksgiving! Only out 9:00 to 10:45; clear and cold with no wind, -1° this morning in the parking lot 14° when I left; 7 runs; 12,815 vertical; skied the Nordica Enforcer 88's; firm groomers; huge crowd again; skied horribly today; 10.

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Day 18 - Breckenridge

Only out 8:30 to 10:00; 4" overnight - relatively calm and snowing hard this morning with temps in the twenties - maybe another 1" fell while I was out; 5 runs; 6,514 vertical; skied the 2019 Head i.Speed GS Cheater 17's; a tiny bit of untracked powder, but mainly lots of loose snow over the grooming - very few slick spots; pretty big crowd right from the get go at 8:30 and it only increased from there - I left as soon as the main chutes for both lifts were full (maybe a 4 or 5 minute wait); the Rocky Mountain Quad was open with 2 new runs: Duke's and Northstar; I overdressed causing me to sweat into my goggles making me effectively blind all morning except first run.

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Day 17 - Keystone

Out 8:45 to 11:00; clear and cool with little to no wind and temps rising toward freezing; 7 runs; 14,217 vertical; skied the Nordica Enforcer 88's; super firm groomers; big crowd - I left when the line at the Summit Quad grew to more than a minute or two; when I left at 11:00 the line for lift tickets at River Run went out the maze, up the sidewalk and all the way across the foot bridge; didn't ski particularly well today.

Peak 1 from the end of my driveway

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Day 16 - Copper

Well that was a bust. Huge crowd for Copper's Opening Day, so I did 1 run and left. Out 9:00 to 9:30; clear and cool; 1 run; 1,482 vertical; typical first day, uneven grooming; huge crowd; snowmaking in progress for the Dew Tour.

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Day 15 - Breckenridge

Out 8:30 to 2:00 with a quick coffee break in the Vista Haus; sunny with a little wind to start, then around noon the wind picked up and the clouds blew in; 26 runs; 33,836 vertical; real nice groom job overnight; skied the brand spanking new Blizzard Bonafides; not too many people, only a lift line when the lift stopped; a couple of impressive switch skiers out this morning, one was a young girl carving with pop switch at 35+ mph - impressive; an even bigger group of Ski Patrol today practicing lift evac and rescue; the new skis worked great - rock solid hold - plenty of pop - predictable and well behaved - at 183cm a little short for pure carving, but should be plenty manuverable off piste.

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Day 14 - Breckenridge

Out 8:30 to 2:15 with a ½ hour coffee break in the Vista Haus; brilliant sunshine with temps in the teens to start then rising into the thirties - some wind later in the day; 24 runs; 29,958 vertical; skied the Nordica Enforcer 88's; much firmer today; fairly large crowd; 20+ Ski Patrol out today - toboggen training slowed the lift all day; passed 300,000; 15.

   Peak 6 and the top of the Kensho lift

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Day 13 - Breckenridge

Out 8:15 to 2:15 with a ½ hour coffee break; 4" overnight - a cloudy and windy start cleared nicely with plenty of afternoon sunshine and temps rising through the twenties; 23 runs; 30,475 vertical; skied the Nordica Enforcer 88's; they left 4 O'clock ungroomed, but a groomed Springmeier was the choice today; some people, but only a liftline when the chair stopped; first avalanche bombs of the season - first slide too; these skis are fantastic; the old man would have loved today.

Peak 8 and the tops of the T-bar and Imperial

Bald Mountain shrouded in clouds

Keystone and the Contentiental Divide beyond

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Day 12 - Keystone

out 9:00 to a little after 1:00 with no break; warm with temps in the forties and lots of hazy sunshine and wind; 16 runs; 31,764 vertical; skied the Nordica Enforcer 88's; groomed that quickly softened with a few icey patches thrown-in for good luck; pretty light crowd; 5th persn up Montezuma this morning; massive headwind across the top flat made things a little slower today; left my mask in the car, so I couldn't go in for lunch as I was planning or I might have got my first 40,000+ day of the year.

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Day 11 - Keystone

Out 9:00 to 2:15 with a ½ hour lunch at the Summit Haus; sunny and warm with a little bit of wind later in the day and temps rising toward 50°; 19 runs; 34,853 vertical; skied the Blizzard Brahma #2's; groomers; some people, but no lift lines; getting the routine down - walked up and loaded the Summit 4 at the very end of the 9:00 Rush this morning; 10th person up Montezuma this morning; first time I've been in the lodge this season; skiing okay; feeling okay; passed 200,000 today.

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Day 10 - Keystone

Out 7:30 to 10:30 with no break; 2" overnight - cloudy and very windy today with temps in the twenties; 11 runs; 20,249 vertical; skied the Line SuperNatural 108's; groomers; light crowd at the early start for Fresh Tracks at Keystone, but a real big crowd at 10:30 at the Summit Quad when the Gondi shut down for wind, so I left; Vail and Breck opened today, but it didn't seem to help with the crowd here much; looking forward to Breck next week.

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Day 9 - Keystone

Out 9:00 to 11:15; 4" overnight, cold and blustery today with a little bit of snow and temps in the twenties; 7 runs; 14,229 vertical; skied the Line SuperNatural 108's; soft to start, but scraped to shit after only about an hour; Veteran's Day crowd - tons of people and I mean a lot, a whole lot; these are really nice skis; 20.

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Day 8 - Keystone

Out 9:00 to 1:00 with no breaks; maybe an inch of snow overnight - mostly cloudy and windy with a stray flurry or two today with temps in the twenties; 16 runs, 30,504 vertical; skied the Nordica Enforcer 88's; groomed, but much softer than yesterday - not sure but they may have made a little snow on the open trail overnigh; fairly light crowd - never a real lift line; those skis needed waxed badly.

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Day 7 - Keystone

Out 9:00 to 1:00 with no breaks again today; warm and sunny with a high overcast building all day - they were turning off the last of the snowmaking on my first ride up the chair; 18 runs, 31,176 vertical; skied the Nordica Enforcer 88's; 3f again; not near as many people as yesterday - other than opening bell never a lift line of more that 10 people; skiing okay; feeling okay; rode the Montezuma 6 with new friend Mike again today; got bored and rode the magic carpet and chair on the Bunny Slope; passed 100,000 today.

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Day 6 - Keystone

Out 9:00 to 1:00 no breaks; warm and sunny with increasing wind and overcast - temps through the thirties; 14 runs; 31,606 vertical; skied the Fischer RC4 GS Cheater 18's; 3f; lots of people - small line a couple of times; top to bottom today - 2.8 miles in about 6 ½ minutes; skiing okay.

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Day 5 - Keystone

Out 9:00 to 11:30; clear, calm and sunny with temps in the mid-thirties; 9 runs; 15,003 vertical; skied the Fischer RC4 GS Cheater 18's; conditions starting to firm to East Coast standards - totally 3f; big crowd; didn't like the Fischers near as well as the Brahmas on virtually identical conditions; found out today that they open at 8:30 on Friday's; I packed the suncreen in my boot bag back at home, when I opened the lid in the parking lot this AM it very quickly oozed out about 10% of the bottle.

Breck from Keystone

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Day 4 - Keystone

Out 9:00 to 11:15; clear and sunny with temps rising past freezing and little to no wind; 9 runs; 15,003 vertical; skied the Blizzard Brahma #2's; mid-winter, 3F; lots of people out, but never much of a lift line; lapped the Montezuma 6 with new friend Mike; the countdown is on - 25.

Peaks 1 thru 4 - I'm somewhere below that narrow avalache chute on the far right

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Day 3 - Keystone

Out 9:15 to 10:30; a dusting of snow overnight, cloudy today with temps just below freezing and virtually no wind; 5 runs; 8,254 vertical; skied the Blizzard Brahma #2's; the one open trail was groomed flat and it was a bit firmer than yesterday, but not icy at all; big crowd today right from the get go - that's why I left so early.

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Day 2 - Keystone

Well, I finally made it out for day 2. I was supposed to go back to Big Snow in September, but they had a fire and are closed till at least the new year. Then after a looooong drive out here over the weekend, I overslept and didn't have enough time to go out yesterday. So anyway, on to today's report:

On the hill 9:15 to 11:00; 3" of snow overnight with flurries today and temps around freezing with the tinyest bit of wind; 6 runs; 10,002 vertical; skied the Blizzard Brahma #2's; last night's snow was groomed in just before opening, so conditions were nice and soft and smooth; good cover on the one slope that was open - even after things got skied in, I never saw a rock; a pretty good crowd by the time I left, but never a lift line; started out a little slowly - most everybody passing me - and built up to a respectable pace by the time I left; left my phone in the car, so no Ski Tracks;

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