Breckenridge, CO 1/26/02

A

Anonymous

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Breckenridge. A little (well, more than a little) too McSkiing for my taste. For openers you must pay for parking in Colo on top of your lift ticket price. Colo is the only place in the world where this kind of gouging takes place. We (me + 2 old friends who now live there) arrived at 8:45 by which time the pay lots were all full so we parked for free in town and got to wait 25 min. for a shuttle bus to the mtn. It is organized by "Peaks". We went to the base of Peak 8 to put on thoroughly cold boots. Should have put them on while waiting for the bus but didn't due to constant, "It's never more than 5 min.", from the other customers. Advantage - VT. <BR> <BR>Skied a quick run on uncut corduroy down to the base of Beaver Run Chair for a 9:30 meeting with another friend and his roomate. There was a big crowd; it had a much stronger resemblance to Grand Central Station than to MRG. It is easy to imagine never finding someone at a planned meeting, even if you knew them well, let alone someone you'd never met. Surprisingly I did not feel the altitude (yet). <BR> <BR>The plan was to do one or two cruisers that would zig zag us over to Horseshoe Bowl, which Joe thought would open. It was sunny and downright hot at the base of each lift, windy and a bit chilly near the tops. On the first run I got lost. Thought they were all in front of me and put the hammer down. It turns out they had stopped at the side of the trail. Betsy later said that I went by at warp 9 with a zoned look on my face. They had said Horseshoe bowl was the goal so I headed there. The "T-bar is open" sign had just gone up so there were big crowds again. I did 3 or 4 runs in the bowl which was in places very nice, in other places quite rocky; the kind of rocks that can stop you dead in your tracks and throw you over the handlebars. The best spot was a convex 20 turn shot below the first and trickiest drop in point. They could use a couple feet of snow and/or a couple feet less wind (they got it on Wed. while I flew home). Nevertheless - Advantage Colo. There are no steep alpine bowls in VT, not in a normal year and not without serious hiking. <BR> <BR>Breck has many many cruisers and many many merging problems much like Killington. The average skier ability level is the worst I've seen outside MASH, which is OK. Constantly passing you out of control at excessive speed with whisker close tolerance is not OK. Lots of them wear Cowboys jackets and jeans. Advantage - VT. Found Joe and Betsy at lunch, never found Nick and Aaron. Had to mellow out in the PM, altitude was getting to me. We quit at 3, went to Joe and Betsy's place, showered & changed and had an early dinner in Frisco. Left Frisco at 6:20 for an easy 2 hr. drive to Boulder.
 
As a western skier, I feel compelled to critique the above as someone who didn't do his/her homework on finding the appropriate mountain for his/her skiing tastes. It is generally known that Summit County does a very high volume of business with low end vacationing skiers. This makes sense because all 3 areas have massive amounts of easy cruising terrain. It is somewhat less known (see my website <A HREF="http://members.aol.com/crockeraf" TARGET="_top">http://members.aol.com/crockeraf</A>) that Summit County gets about 25% less snow (40% less this year so far) than surrounding mountains like Steamboat and Vail. So expert Vermont skiers visiting the Front Range should be going to Steamboat if they want trees and Vail if they want wide open spaces. Both are a longer drive but definitely worth it. For regional progress reports during the season, see <A HREF="http://members.aol.com/crockeraf/seas02.htm" TARGET="_top">http://members.aol.com/crockeraf/seas02.htm</A>.
 
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