EMSC
Well-known member
Jr had his final race of the season at Vail.
I'm not the biggest fan of Vail. The parking stinks and is pricey, the hill is not particularly steep, the prices are outrageous, etc... So there may be a few things I'm biased about in a TR like this, though the snow was in great shape and quite deep.
We parked at the village garage and walked the 1/3 of a mile to Gold Peak/Larkspur lodge since the valet only parking garage at gold peak had no valet's on duty until long after all the racer family's had shown up. Turned out to be a good decision since Ski and Snowboard Club Vail forced everyone to change at the Gold Peak/Larkspur lodge (not the SSCV building that we used to be able to use).... then forced everyone to take all bags outside and pile them at the finish line fencing. Not a lot of folks happy about that...
Then it took 3 tries to find the racer only lift tickets... Then there was the 3,000! people at the Gold peak base for a "pink" cancer fundraiser event where the lifties literally sat around staring at the lift all morning instead of trying to match up quads in the sizable line... They also still use hand scanners at that lift instead of RFID gates which is weird given that Rob Katz (Vail, Inc CEO) is big into technology spend. There are reasons I don't go to Vail more often...
That said, the snow was in excellent shape due to all the huge Colo snowfalls in the first half of March, while also being a blue-bird day where portions of the back bowls softened up in the afternoon for probably the first time (it's been rather cold and snowy for 6-8 weeks in Colo). Given Jr was with a coach much of the day, I was able to ride the lift up to Northwoods and ski a few laps in the back bowls early; more laps again right after lunch; and then Jr and I went after his 2nd race run making it just in time for one lap in Blue Sky Basin before it shut for the day.
The truly unusual thing was this was on a Saturday and going home in the afternoon there was hardly any traffic at all. No slow or stop & go's anywhere along the route. I haven't seen anything like it during prime ski season in YEARS. I don't even have a theory for how/why traffic was so low.
I'm not the biggest fan of Vail. The parking stinks and is pricey, the hill is not particularly steep, the prices are outrageous, etc... So there may be a few things I'm biased about in a TR like this, though the snow was in great shape and quite deep.
We parked at the village garage and walked the 1/3 of a mile to Gold Peak/Larkspur lodge since the valet only parking garage at gold peak had no valet's on duty until long after all the racer family's had shown up. Turned out to be a good decision since Ski and Snowboard Club Vail forced everyone to change at the Gold Peak/Larkspur lodge (not the SSCV building that we used to be able to use).... then forced everyone to take all bags outside and pile them at the finish line fencing. Not a lot of folks happy about that...
Then it took 3 tries to find the racer only lift tickets... Then there was the 3,000! people at the Gold peak base for a "pink" cancer fundraiser event where the lifties literally sat around staring at the lift all morning instead of trying to match up quads in the sizable line... They also still use hand scanners at that lift instead of RFID gates which is weird given that Rob Katz (Vail, Inc CEO) is big into technology spend. There are reasons I don't go to Vail more often...
That said, the snow was in excellent shape due to all the huge Colo snowfalls in the first half of March, while also being a blue-bird day where portions of the back bowls softened up in the afternoon for probably the first time (it's been rather cold and snowy for 6-8 weeks in Colo). Given Jr was with a coach much of the day, I was able to ride the lift up to Northwoods and ski a few laps in the back bowls early; more laps again right after lunch; and then Jr and I went after his 2nd race run making it just in time for one lap in Blue Sky Basin before it shut for the day.
The truly unusual thing was this was on a Saturday and going home in the afternoon there was hardly any traffic at all. No slow or stop & go's anywhere along the route. I haven't seen anything like it during prime ski season in YEARS. I don't even have a theory for how/why traffic was so low.