Kurze Filme von der Digicamera wenn es denn Knie tiefen Pulverschnee hatte. Oder anders gesagt, der Teil der Ferien der süchtig macht.
Nur noch 10 Monate bis zum nächsten Mal:
Hier geht es weiter:Day 24 Travel from SLC to Crested Butte Almost 8h of easy driving and we are in Crested Butte. The mountain locks promising.
Nice two bedroom apartment. If you want to save some money go for 10 min walking to the ski hill instead of ski-in ski-out. This will save you about 20-30%
Snow in the forecast but nothing to be excited about.
Day 25 Skiing Crested Butte 1st Day Steeeeeep!
Once again a great mountain for everyone. Great grooming (big beginner area) and endless amount of off piste. They have single blacks, double blacks and EX- double blacks which means Expert-double black. The Ex doubles are really some of the best I have seen for a while. (Just like Kicking Horse). The “Extreme Limits” 448 acres are going to keep you busy for days.
I like almost everything about this mountain but:
Several EX-doubles involve hiking and this on over 3000m above sees level!! The base is at 2774m and the peak at 3,707m. A day or two after new snow I wouldn’t mind to hike a lot but one week after it’s not worth it.
The second thing: Don’t bring your new skis!! They have rocks and a lot of it. Only off piste but that’s why we are here for. It’s not too bad right now due to the great base but don’t go off piste to the serious double blacks after only 10cm of new snow. This will probably be the end of your skis.
We had to call it a day after Steve had a very special experience. On a run 40 to 45 degrees he had a free fall all the way down. Luckily no rocks on the way down but a lot of pain in the right knee. Hopefully he will be ok by tomorrow.
Powder: not really only a few turns from time to time.
Day 26 Skiing Crested Butte 2nd Day -9 Celsius at 8am and partly cloudy. By 9am blue sky. Mostly sunny during the day with a few snow showers at times.
Still very good snow conditions all over the mountain. In urgent need of powder it was the target of the day to find powder without hiking too much and we did – or let’s better say at least a few turns from time to time.
We even found a triple black marked run but it was more like a single black traverse.
Yesterday I forgot to mention the non existing lines. No waiting yesterday and no waiting today. A great resort but I have no idea how it will be on a weekend or on a real powder day.
Tomorrow travel to Taos.
Day 27 Travel from Crested Butte to Taos Just under 5h and very easy driving.
The mountain looks promising. Very steep and the trail map shows many double blacks.
Day 28 Skiing Taos 1st Day This mountain offers something for everybody although 51% are designed for experts.
I definitely like the sign at the base:
http://community.webshots.com/photo/287353611/287359345hbFXzpA great mountain with no lines all day. Nice partly cloudy weather in the morning changed to light snow by 2pm and by 3pm it snowed hard. By 5pm 5-7cm of light snow on our car – looks good for tomorrow.
If you like hiking this is the place to be. Without hiking you still get a lot of steep runs and some great tree skiing (rather tight trees). The real good stuff can be accessed by hiking 5 to 90min but don’t worry usually you are fine with up to 25min. The only problem is the altitude. On almost 4000m above see level the thin air makes every move much harder.
Target of the day once again: Powder. And yes we found some not a lot but still enough for some turns from time to time.
It’s now 6pm and it stopped snowing.
Day 29 Skiing Taos 2nd Day 7.5 outta 10, powder turns and a lot of hiking
What a nice day although we had only 10cm of new snow. It was not really enough snow to call it a powder day but nevertheless it made the skiing very soft and even more fun then yesterday.
After a few runs in the trees where we found 10cm (occasionally boot deep) light stuff we decided to go for the real challenge. Form chair #2 all the way along the ridge to the top of Kachina Peak about 4000m above see level. For fast hikers it will take just under one hour and for us 75 minutes. It’s moderate hiking with a few very short steep sections but really not too bad overall. Just the altitude makes it special. The view for the top is breathtaking and worth to stay there for a while. It was already after 1pm and most of the different ways down already tracked. As always Steve and I activated our powder radar and sure enough we found untracked powder almost all the way down.
It was so good that we almost did it again but first of all it’s a lot of hiking for what you get and second this part of the mountain closes already at lunch time.
A few more runs in the trees (tracked and untracked) and it was already time for a drink at the base. From there you have a nice few to the black und double black runs where people try to ski runs they should even think of. Every few minute a spectacular scene almost better then a movie.
I should definitely mention once again the endless lines at the chairs. It was so bad that once we had to wait for more then a minute!! For the rest of the day right to the chair.
It was the last day for Steve and that’s why we have to drive to Denver tomorrow. Not sure where Markus and I are going to ski on Sunday.
Day 30 Travel from Taos to Denver After some sightseeing in Taos we drove to Denver and decided to stay there for a night. Steve needs to go home tomorrow and Markus and I have to give our knees a rest.
After about 5.5h of easy driving we arrive in Denver. Spring like conditions invited for some sight seeing.
Tomorrow we intend to ski only half a day at A-Basin and take it easy in the morning
Day 31 Travel from Denver to Frisco (closed to Dillon) Well our plans changed a little bit. When I called Alamo to extend my rental contract they couldn’t do it because of the stupid Colorado law which allows only max. 30 days of rental. At the airport they couldn’t give us the same great internet rate and especially not the triple upgrade we got in SFO. Thanks to the very nice agent at the counter we go a great deal. We had to book a car over the internet (no easy to find internet access at Denver Airport), come back to Alamo and for only 8$ a day we got again a triple upgrade and could keep the car we had for the last 29days.
By the time we arranged all this it was too late for skiing at any nearby resorts. That didn’t matter at all and it’s even better for our legs. Now we are ready for tomorrow. We are going to ski at least 3 days in this area. A-Basin, Bever Creek and Copper Mountain. If there is no change in the forecast we could even stay longer and add Vail or any other resort.
Day 32 Skiing A-Basin What a boring day - been there done that
Almost no people all day and sunshine as well. That’s the good news. Now to the bad news: Too windy (heavy at times) and therefore a real bad wind-chill, no new snow and no secrets to be found, only fair to sometimes good coverage off piste (very good on groomed), several double black runs overrated, only slow chairs, the most challenging stuff only by hiking but closed due to not enough snow.
I don’t really know if today’s impression gives me a fair base to rate this resort but I think the vertical is not good enough compared with other resorts and the flat part at mid mountain as well as all the runs on the left side are rather boring. All the black and double black runs along the Pallavicini Chair are ok but most off them are very rocky and/or very short or even closed.
Maybe this sounds a bit harsh and this could be related to the base of only 50” (sorry but I would rather go for a realistic 10-30” at least for the off piste part of the mountain) or we are just spoiled from the last 4 weeks.
Anyway we had some good moments on mainly packed and hard packed snow (icy spots but not too many)
Day 33 Skiing Copper Mountain Day 1What a great “powder” day
It started to snow around 7am and by 10am we had 5 to 10cm of light snow. By noon it was more like 10 to 15cm and thanks to the heavy wind we even got boot deep powder at times.
How nice it was to sit on a high speed 6 passenger chair which brings you within 8 min almost to the top and 2400’ vertical. This was only the beginning. All major chairs are high speed and this gives you the chance to ski vertical like crazy.
At first we found our fresh tracks along the runs followed by hours of excellent tree skiing. We had fresh tracks all day long and a smile on our face even now as we are already back at our condo. By about 3pm it stopped snowing and we got a few minutes of sunshine.
I’m sure if we had skied the resort yesterday it would probably be a similar report to A-Basin. The old icy crust in the bowls gave us a good idea of how bad it has been. The front side was probably not as bad but still worse then A-Basin.
However we got another “powder” day and some pics are going to show the details.
It’s now 6pm well below freezing and blue sky.
Day 34 Skiing Copper Mountain Day 2 Another amazing day at Copper.
But before we skied Copper again we had different plans.
We were driving towards Beaver Creek but when we arrived there we had to make a U-Turn. There was just no new snow at all. After yesterdays “powder day” at Copper this was not good enough and we decided to drive back.
At 10am we started our day in the back bowls. Not the best skiing with the old crust underneath the wind blown powder but still good enough to keep us there for 2h.
After this Markus decided to go for the groomed runs (he is not into tree skiing yet) and I spend the rest of the day in the trees with light tracked and untracked powder. Isn’t it amazing to find untracked powder on the second day? According to a local it was a busy weekday but I have no idea how he can call it busy. No lines all day. There’s still some powder for tomorrow and new snow in the forecast. We don’t know yet what we are going to do tomorrow.
Day 35 Skiing Vail Huge, very huuuuuuuge
It’s huge and it’s expensive. Everything is expensive except of Starbucks.
First you have to park your car for 16$ a day followed by a day ticket of 77$. As always it was the goal to get a good impression of the whole resort to make sure we know where to go next time or during a powder day. For once this was not as easy as it used to be.
Everything at this resort remained me on our own resorts back home. After a few minutes in line for the first chair we didn’t really like the whole thing. 77$ and waiting is not what we are used to. How ever this was about the only time we had to wait for more then 3 minutes. Usually right to the chair. If you want to avoid the crews you should spend a lot of time in the so called “Legendary back bowls” and “Blue Sky Basin”. Another deserted area are the runs along Highline chair. Probably because it’s one of the few slow chair. In fact this mountain is a high speed paradise.
Right during our short lunch break it snowed hard and we got 1-2cm of new snow. Before and after this we had a lot of sunshine.
This resort is definitely the biggest I have seen in Canada and the US. We skied hard all day almost never used the same chair twice and never the same run more then once but no way to see all of it. To ski all of it I would recommend a week but only with mid winter snow conditions. Today we could not ski any trees and most of the not groomed runs had variable conditions. Everything between soft packed and icy in one run.
What I would like to know: How long does it take to track this mountain after a big storm? Where’s the real steep stuff?
Overall it is a great mountain but rather too busy and too expensive. I don’t know if there’s any challenging stuff in the trees. The rating of the runs is ok although a little bit overrated at times. Some of the double backs are not more then single blacks.
This report is based on one day at Vail and I’m sure some locals would not really agree. I’ll come back one day and make sure to know more about the mountain and the endless amount of local secrets.
Day 36 Skiing Beaver Creek and Travel to Grand Junction During the morning hours we had hard packed and icy conditions. Especially the man made areas are more like a glacier. Nevertheless it was not too bad at all just the not groomed stuff had to wait until about lunch time.
Some south facing runs became already slushy by 11am others by around 1pm. Right after lunch I had to discover the tree skiing and it was really good. I definitely liked “Stickline” and had to do it 2 more times. After the first time I met some locals on the chair and they asked how I liked the resort. They did not believe in my report of Stickline and joined me for the next run. It was definitely great fun to ski with some locals and to show them the good stuff after just 4 hours at the resort.
It’s not easy to give an overall rating after just one day. For sure Beaver is much smaller then Vail but for sure it is much better. I don’t think I’ll go back to Vail but Beaver is an option. Only the 77$ for a day ticket are a real pain. Just like Vail it’s a high speed chair paradise and kinda busy even on a weekday.
The very right side of the resort can be good if you like rather flat cursing or tree skiing. For the once who are into double blacks “Grouse Mountain” is a must.
After skiing Markus had to drive to Denver to get his flight to Germany. For the first time in 5 weeks I’m on my own. I drove I-70 West to Grand Junction. What a nice drive during sun set.
Tomorrow I’ll drive to SLC with some sight seeing on the way.
Day 37 Travel from Grand Junction to Salt Lake City If you ever drive on I-70 towards SLC you should make sure to have enough time to spend some time at Arches National Park. You have to see this before you die. I intended to spend about an hour but at the end I spent 3h there and that’s not enough. If you have time you should spend a whole day.
In SLC I met Chris “Kidporsche”. He is traveling for many weeks. First Japan followed by Europe and now the US. Looks like he got all my powder days in Japan with several meters of snow within 6 weeks. Right now we are both in desperate need of a powder fix.
Day 38 Skiing The Canyons A sad story!
No new snow for weeks and the warm temperatures affected the area much harder then excepted. Till about lunch time it was rock hard and icy all over the mountain. Just a few spots had some nice grooming with almost good conditions. Off Piste was not at all in our mind after the warm up on the groomed. Unfortunately it was much colder then the day before and the softening took very long. In fact it was just about ok by 1pm but then it became even colder and by 2pm the soft stuff froze again.
The coverage is another issue. All the runs on the left side of Super Condor Express are closed. Not due to the icy conditions but due to the not existing snow. A big part of the mountain is brown and only the man made snow is remaining in acceptable shape. Almost all day it felt like it was the last day of the season. Almost empty place, many runs closed, no hikers, brown areas, man made snow at the base and several other areas etc.
Lots of snow for Taos – what I’m doing here? To bad that Chris is a boarder otherwise we could drive 13h and have 20” by tomorrow.
Day 39 Skiing Park City Much better, much colder and much more fun
Official report 4” within the last 24h but it was more like 1” at the base and about 3” on top. Occasionally we could find the 4” in the trees.
Based on the snow report we had to ski Park City. All other resorts reported none or less then that. Both of us didn’t know the resort at all and therefore we switched on our powder radar. It worked! First we spend almost 2h in the area of Thaynes lift followed by over 2h on the left side of Jupiter lift. Untracked almost all day long. Especially the runs like Silver Cliff, 6 Bells, Indicator and Fortune Teller where good fun. Nice powder with a not too bad old crust underneath. Probably due to the slow chairs almost nobody skied this area. The runs are double black, easy to access and no hiking at all. Too bad that they are rather short but who cares after the sad story of yesterday.
After 2pm we quickly tried to get an overview over the whole resort. Some quite good but very short tree skiing to the left of McConkey’s chair. Other areas hard packed, icy or spring like sugar.
I don’t think this resort could keep me busy and it’s not challenging enough but a little bit of powder change this. Still waiting for the big dump. Less then a week to go.
Day 40 Skiing Snowbird Good and very good
Although they got no new snow for a long time the snow is in much better shape then expected. The north facing runs are packed and hard packed the south facing runs are hard packed and icy at times.
During the morning we had Ron as our private guide and after lunch Scott joined us and this made it even more interesting. The two guys where arguing about what run could be best for us and which run is more north or north west or what ever – good fun for all of us. Scott kept complaining how bad the traverse was to get about 100m vertical and insisted on trying another run. We had to try it and had about 50m vertical with good snow followed by icy parts for the rest of the run. Who was right and who was wrong we don’t know but the fun factor was good.
Just before lunch I did remember that Scott mentioned that it is possible to ski powder 3 weeks after the last new snow. I had to ask Ron about it and sure enough he showed me (too much traversing for our snowboarder Chris) the local secret. He will check this report to make sure that I’m not going to mention the location. Only just over 10min hiking and no tracks except the one from Ron from last Saturday. Unfortunately no pictures from this nice surprise.
The forecast is changing by the hour and I have no idea what we can expect till the end of the week.
Day 41 Travel to Jackson Hole After checking the snow reports this morning there was no other way then driving back to Jackson. 9” on top 7” mid mountain and Grand Targhee got 8”.
There’s not a lot of snow in the forecast for SLC and still more to come for Jackson. I just hope it will be like that.
Traveling was easy as always with very good weather all the way from SLC to Jackson.
Tomorrow depending on the snow report Targhee or Jackson.
Day 42 Skiing Jackson Hole 3rd dayA powder day!! Finally after waiting for a long time.
It wasn’t a perfect start but then it became a real powder day.
At 9am they had the Tram on wind hold and at 10am still closed due to avalanche control. We had two warm up runs at the gondola. Not too bad at all but the old crust or let’s say the old glacier made it rather difficult to call it a powder day. By about 11am the finally opened the Tram. As always we had to wait for two trams but it was worth it. I just couldn’t wait to ski Cody again. Even better we where almost first to go there.
This was the start of a wonderful day. Boot and sometimes knee deep powder from top to about mid mountain and from there still good powder. Only the last 200 vertical with the long traverse back to the base are not what you can call powder but who cares on a day like this and after such a long time without good snow. 2nd only one tram to wait and 3rd time right into the tram. The locals probably had to go back to work. At the end of the day we got the last tram and Chris had to check the conditions for Corbet and the did it. Crazy way into the run but easy after this.
Just before lunch we had some sunshine and before and after light snow heavy at times.
No new snow expected for tomorrow morning but there’s enough work left a Cody for one more day. Probably some more hiking but that’s ok.
The weekend looks good for SLC. Forecast is calling for snow for most of the next week and I have to go home.
Day 43 Skiing Jackson Hole 4th dayAnother powder day! But earn your turns!
Once again we had to wait till we got on the 3rd tram. Yesterday Cody’s bowl was so good we had to do it again. First time only with a few minutes hiking. We could still find nice untracked but even more tracked powder. The 2nd time we decided to hike for about 30min. Not very steep but promising. It was absolutely fantastic. Boot to knee deep powder in the trees with some nice jumps and steep sections. It was almost like heliskiing. The second part of the run was again in tracked and untracked powder. It was so good we had to do it again the same way. Some more tracks in the meantime but still like a dream.
Now the only bad part of the story. By the time we came back to the tram after the 3rd run it was almost 4pm and too late to do it again. $55 instead of $67 (watch out in SLC for $12 discount voucher – not available at the resort) but only 3 rides in the tram.
Day 44 Skiing Solitude Powderday! 8 out 10, great, fantastic, wicked, grouse and excellent.
A few inches over night, about 8” between 6am and 9am and another 7-9” during the day.
When we arrived at the base at 8:30 only 5 cars in the parking lot and by opening at 9am just a few more. Although we didn’t wait at the chair we got the 4th chair. All day long no lines and the resort virtually empty.
At first some of the steep stuff remained closed but step by step the opened more areas and around lunch time we could finally ski Honeycomb Canyon. What a blast. Knee deep powder top to bottom and face shots, I had to stop counting them. We skied the Canyon till they closed it again just before 3pm.
Now the best part of the story. In need of more powder and face shots we went to the Queen Bess trees and found again untracked powder for another hour. Sure enough we got the last chair of the day and skied in boot to knee deep powder back right to the car.
Solitude is for sure not the best resort I ever skied but on a day like this I would highly recommend it especially due to the non-existing lines even on a Sunday.
Tomorrow will be a busy day. Skiing 9am to 1pm at the bird with Chris and Endlessseason, back to the hotel, final packing, drive to the airport, flight from SLC to LA and two hours later from LA to Zurich.
Day 45 Skiing Snowbird and travel to Zurich The best day in 6 weeks!
With more snow over night it had to be a great day. We waited at the tram already at 8:30 and just made it for the first tram.
Boot to knee deep powder all the way down to Gad Zoom Chair followed by another 4h of great powder. Endless showed us all the local stuff and made sure that I had my best day in 6 week. I really like the bird. It’s just too bad that it tracks so fast unlike Solitude but it is for sure the much better resort.
It was a good idea to stay in SLC and even a better one to ski even today. By 1pm I had to say goodbye to Endless and Chris and had to drive towards the airport to get the flight to LA and from there to Zurich.
Day 46 Back home With 40 min delay we arrived in Zurich. After an 11.5h flight from LA. Thanks to the late departure and the busy day I was so tired that I could sleep for almost 8h. That’s how it should be.
Day 47 Last day Back in reality.
Unpack, review report, check snow reports (for Switzerland and for sure for the US as well), starting to think about going back to work, review pictures…
Once again it has been a great time. The whole trip was kinda similar to the Canada trips although there are a few things I would change for next year or do it again like I did:
- During spring break and weekends I would make reservations the day before traveling. It’s more difficult to find accommodation during this time compared with Canada. Motels are almost never a problem but condos for 2 or more can be a problem.
- Travel again with normal and fat skis
- Not sure about travel time but probably about the same time.
Special thanks to:- Mark102 for weather and snow forecasts – great job!!
- Dani, Steve, Markus and Chris (kidporsche). It has be a lot of fun to travel and ski with you. Hopefully we can do that again.
- Endlessseason for sharing all the local secrets at Snowbird and for being our local guide for several days.
- My boss who makes it possible to get all my vacations at once.
Fact and figuresAll resorts: Heavenly, Kirkwood, Alpine Meadows, Squaw Valley USA, Sugar Bowl, Mt. Rose, Northstar, Snowbasin, Jackson Hole, Grand Targhee, Snowbird, Alta, Crested Butte, Taos, A-Basin, Copper Mountain, Vail, Beaver Creek, The Canyons, Park City, Solitude
Days of traveling incl. flight 46
Days of sight seeing 1.5
Days of skiing 32
# of different resorts 21
# of resorts with 2 days skiing 3 Crested Butte, Taos, Copper Mountain
# of resorts with 3 days skiing 1 Heavenly
# of resorts with 4 days skiing 2 Jackson Hole, Snowbird
# of resorts “been there done that” 4 Northstar, A-Basin, Vail, The Canyons
# of resorts “eventually to do again” 3 Sugar Bowl, Beaver Creek, Park City
# of resorts “to do again – for sure” 13 all others
Days of rather poor skiing 2
Days of good skiing 4
Days of very good to excellent skiing 7
Days of kinda “powder” skiing 11 part of the day/resort and/or not deep enough
Days of real powder skiing 8
Days with rental car 44
Km with rental car 8’710
Vertical meters (guessing) 175’000
Total pictures a lot
Total after 1st review 2161
Total after 2nd review not ready yet
Total for webshots.com don’t know yet
Total U$ spent ~ 8’500 (free flight with frequent traveler points)
Total U$ for rental car my part / total 1’308 / 2’330
Total U$ for lift tickets ~ 2’000
Total U$ for accommodation ~ 3’500
Total U$ spend for alcohol no way that I’m gonna tell you that
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Tips:· Hotel in SLC: Studio 6 Standard or King Size Room with full kitchen for about $250/week!
· Car Rental USA: Alamo over the web. No one way charge and depending on rental location no additional driver fee. Best value as far as I know.
· Jackson Hole: Watch our for $12 vouchers in sport shops in SLC (not available in Jackson)
· Tickets for SLC resorts: Sport shops, motels and hotels but never at the resort
· Tickets for Sugar Bowl: Safeway or McDonalds especially for weekends you get $10+ off
· For I-70 resorts: Stay in Frisco or Dillon but make sure to call Copper Mountain resort. They usually have excellent last minute deals and you can ski any other resort from there.
· Crested Butte needs a lot of snow to be good.
· Discounted tickets for I-70 resorts: Stop on the way from Denver e.g. at Idaho Springs Safeway
· Mt. Rose: Specials almost every weekday – check website
· Looking for beginner / intermediate and cheap skiing at North Lake Tahoe: Homewood $20-25/day!
Pics:http://community.webshots.com/album/265445674LRYYSq http://community.webshots.com/album/287353611opPaIoMore to follow soon and some movies as well.
Thema: Reisebericht Snow Safari USA Februar - März 2005 (Gelesen 7015 mal)