Day 106 - Vail

Out 8:30 to 2:30 with a lunch break in the Mid-Vail Lodge; cloudy and a little windy up high with temps in the thirties; 22 runs; 29,552 vertical; skied the Nordica Enforcer 88's; groomers and a little natural snow; empty early, but a few people in the afternoon; China Bowl and Blue Sky Basin were closed; almost every groomer I did was excellent: Lodgepole, Avanti, Overeasy (2), Hunky Dory, Slifer Express, Swingsville, Northstar (2), Sourdough, Boomer, Ramshorn... even skier's right through the Golden Peak Terrain Park (2); 'only' skied a couple of nats: Blue Ox, Riva Ridge (non-stop from the top of the Mountaintop Express to Vail Village) and a section of Prima; rode 11 different front-side lifts today - the only one of note that I missed was Gondola One; anything front-side, low was very soft this afternoon.

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Day 105 - Copper

Out 9:00 to 2:30 with coffee at Solitude Station and lunch in the car; 2" more overnight - cloudy and a little warmer today with temps in the teens - still very windy; 20 runs; 29,951 vertical; skied the K2 Mindbender 108 Ti's and the Nordica Enforcer 88's; plenty of groomers, but plenty of 3 day old snow too; USASA finally left so it was basically empty today; first tracks on the lightly covered grooming on High Point-Lower Carefree this AM was extra nice - the Mindbenders were actually humming on the fresh, baby soft snow; it was neat skiing directly with the 30 mph wind down High Point on both the first run and last runs; loved skiing the Enforcers this afternoon.

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Day 104 - Copper

Out 9:00 to 2:00 with coffee in Solitude Station and lunch in the car; 2" overnight - cold and snowy with a lot of wind - temps in the single digits all day; 17 runs; 27,215 vertical; skied the K2 Mindbender 108 Ti's; groomers mostly; once again nobody else out except the USASA kids; rode the bubble a lot to keep out of the wind; Andy's - Oh No - Rosi's was very good again; thought the leg was better till I tried to ski - despite today's vertical I skied very, very causiously.

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Day 103 - Copper

Out 9:00 to 12:15 with a coffee break in Solitude Station; 2" overnight; full on winter today - cold and snowing hard with the wind just starting to build when I left - temps steady around 15°; 11 runs; 14,436 vertical; skied the Blizzard Bonafides; nobody other than the last of the USASA kids out today and they were all clustered around Woodward, so no big deal; took the time to ride Lumberjact and Kokomo - both for the first time this season; missed yesterday with a mysterious left leg ailment that suddenly developed on Sunday and just as suddenly disappeared yesterday evening - it was a little tender today, so I stuckd almost exclusively to low angle groomers - feels fine as I write this, so my plan is to go a little harder tomorrow.

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Day 102 - Arapahoe Basin

Out 9:00 to 1:00 with lunch in the Black Mountain Lodge; sunny, warm and a little windy - temps rising into the thirties; 15 runs; 16,999 vertical; skied the Nordica Enforcer 88's; groomers mostly and a little bit of old snow; fair number of people out, but never more that a few people in the liftline; did 3 down Beavers and 2 down Pali; Pali Face is steep; skier's right on the bottom half of Loafer was great - steep, groomed, super firm and very rolly; a little tired in the soft snow this afternoon so I just bagged it.

      ↑ The East Wall from the top of Pali

      ↑ Breck and Keystone from the top of Beavers

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Day 101 - Beaver Creek

Out 9:00 to 2:30 with lunch in the Spruce Saddle Lodge; plenty of sunshine and wind with temps in the low thirties; 21 runs; 33,194 vertical; skied the Blizzard Bonafides; all sorts of groomers - frozen firm first thing to mushy at the bottom by the end of the day; very few people; covered lots of ground; liked Larkspur, Cabin Fever and President Ford's: great view of the Gore Range today.

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Day 100 - Copper

Out 9:30 to 3:00 with lunch at JJ's; cold and very windy - temps rising through the teens - with the windy we had a mix of everything: sun, clouds, snow showers,... ; 19 runs; 35,141 vertical; skied the 2019 Head i.Speed GS Cheater 17's; groomers; nobody other that USASA on the hill today; took my second fall of the season - got caught in a pocket of deep snow coming down onto Andy's from West Encore; Andy's-Oh No-Rosi's was very, very good; I like these skis;

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Day 99 - Copper

Out 9:00 to 2:15 with lunch at JJ's; 2" overnight - very windy with snow - maybe another 2" today; 15 runs; 27,189 vertical; skied the Blizzard Bonafides; groomers and various other things covered by a little new snow; nobody else out other than the USANA National Championship competitors; top and back of the mountain closed all day due to wind; American Flyer and Super Bee closed too after lunch - American Eagle, Alpine and Resolution the only chairs open when I left; American Flyer first thing and the very top of Coppertone were very sweet; sunk my poles in all the way to the grips on Far East.

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Day 98 - Vail

Out 8:30 to 1:30 with coffee at Two Elks; clear and sunny with temps in the thirties and a little wind that kicked up around noon; groomers mostly and a little day old; 19 runs; 27,939 vertical; skied the Blizzard Bonafides; plenty of people by noon - almost empty at opening bell; took the blue groomer tour of the Back Bowls - made it all the way back to Blue Sky Basin - it's just over 10 miles as the bird flies from the bottom of 19-Eagle Bahn to the top of 39-Pete's; Red Zinger was spectacular - perfect, sun backed softness - I did 2; beautiful view of the Gore Range today from the frontside, but's that not the picture.

      ↑ Looking towards Beaver Creek

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Day 97 - Copper

Out 9:00 to 1:45 with a coffee break at Solitude Station; 2" overnight - light snow with temps in the twenties and no wind to start then afer coffee the wind kicked up giving way to plenty of afternoon sunshine and temps around freezing; 16 runs; 23,165 vertical; skied the Blizzard Bonafides; baby soft groomers with a couple inches of fluff on top (Copperfield) to frozen coral lurking just below the surface of the new snow (Cornice Chute); virtually nobody else on the hill - skied untracked all day; passed 2,000,000 vertical today; Copperfield first thing was heaven; did several things for the first time: Boardwalk, Park Place, Spaulding Glades, Enchanted Forest from the first gate on Lilly G and Cache Glades; after reviewing Google Maps and today's Ski Tracks I actually did the trees just beyond Looking Glass not Cache Glades.

      ↑ Crystal Peak from somewhere in Spaulding Glade

      ↑ Lunch Rock

                          ↑ 14 turns on the top pitch of The Moz



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