Breck is an area I do not know well, 2 days lifetime, the last in 1997. So I looked forward to a new snow day (13 inches) with local guidance. That's not the way it turned out though. Our group started at the Peak 7 base, and upon exiting the Independence chair were informed that the Horseshoe T-bar had just opened. So we got first tracks in Horseshoe Bowl and continued to lap the T-bar until the bowl was well tracked.
As most of you know I'm used to wind from Mammoth, but Breck's wind Monday was unrelenting. This resulted in some of the powder being a bit slabby, but I'm used to that from Mammoth and was on the Jimis which handle that stuff pretty well. The T-Bar had a vicious crosswind much of the way, and on my 3rd ride up I locked boots halfway up, lost my balance and fell off.
This put me exactly out of phase with the rest of our group, and no surprise I never saw them until the end of the day. I skied down, did one more lap, then headed south from top of the T-bar as someone had mentioned skiing Chair 6 next. It turns out the group passed still closed Imperial, found the slow double Chair 6 had a huge line and thus continued on to chair E on Peak 9.
I was perhaps 10 minutes behind, and by the time I got up the T-bar the 5th time the Imperial chair had just opened. On a powder day it was an easy call to take the bird in the hand here. The wind riding Imperial was direct in my face, but unlike the T-bar I could at least bury my face in my jacket. I had 3 quick untracked laps as Imperial's lift line built up very gradually. 4th time up I traversed north into the upper Peak 7 area. The wind was blasting in my face here too, so I dropped in soon on George's Thumb. This was impressive alpine terrain for 1,500 vertical, especially in the fresh snow. By this time it was after noon and I needed a break from the cold as much as from the skiing effort, though the air at the top of Imperial (12,840) is noticeably thinner than the 11,000 at my usual haunts at Mammoth and Snowbird.
At lunch I called Richard, who was in an intermediate group but had seen others eating lunch at the base of Peak 9. I made my way over to Peak 10, but it turns out the advanced groups had been there just before lunch. I took just a couple of runs there as I wanted one more shot at the top and had noted Imperial closes at 2:45PM. I had never considered taking any pictures with the morning wind, but snapped a couple before I went up top this time. View across the lower Peak 8 and 7 areas into the valley.
View of Imperial, where it's evident the wind is still howling.
I had time for 1 wind drifted run on Too Much off Chair 6 before getting on Imperial for the last time at 2:30. I snuck past the gate for another run on George's Thumb.
The wind had covered up nearly all powder tracks from earlier in the day.
View up George's Thumb halfway down.
View across to Whale's Tail.
Hopefully the traverse to get over there will not be so windy when we return to Breck Thursday.
I skied down to Peak 8 shortly after 3PM, and most people were just arriving there and deciding to call it a day. I skied 22,900 vertical, 8K of powder. The temperatures without wind were probably in the teens up high and 20's at the base. But with the wind there was no spring transition of the new snow even down low despite it being April and Breck's main exposure being east.
As most of you know I'm used to wind from Mammoth, but Breck's wind Monday was unrelenting. This resulted in some of the powder being a bit slabby, but I'm used to that from Mammoth and was on the Jimis which handle that stuff pretty well. The T-Bar had a vicious crosswind much of the way, and on my 3rd ride up I locked boots halfway up, lost my balance and fell off.
This put me exactly out of phase with the rest of our group, and no surprise I never saw them until the end of the day. I skied down, did one more lap, then headed south from top of the T-bar as someone had mentioned skiing Chair 6 next. It turns out the group passed still closed Imperial, found the slow double Chair 6 had a huge line and thus continued on to chair E on Peak 9. I was perhaps 10 minutes behind, and by the time I got up the T-bar the 5th time the Imperial chair had just opened. On a powder day it was an easy call to take the bird in the hand here. The wind riding Imperial was direct in my face, but unlike the T-bar I could at least bury my face in my jacket. I had 3 quick untracked laps as Imperial's lift line built up very gradually. 4th time up I traversed north into the upper Peak 7 area. The wind was blasting in my face here too, so I dropped in soon on George's Thumb. This was impressive alpine terrain for 1,500 vertical, especially in the fresh snow. By this time it was after noon and I needed a break from the cold as much as from the skiing effort, though the air at the top of Imperial (12,840) is noticeably thinner than the 11,000 at my usual haunts at Mammoth and Snowbird.
At lunch I called Richard, who was in an intermediate group but had seen others eating lunch at the base of Peak 9. I made my way over to Peak 10, but it turns out the advanced groups had been there just before lunch. I took just a couple of runs there as I wanted one more shot at the top and had noted Imperial closes at 2:45PM. I had never considered taking any pictures with the morning wind, but snapped a couple before I went up top this time. View across the lower Peak 8 and 7 areas into the valley.
View of Imperial, where it's evident the wind is still howling.
I had time for 1 wind drifted run on Too Much off Chair 6 before getting on Imperial for the last time at 2:30. I snuck past the gate for another run on George's Thumb.
The wind had covered up nearly all powder tracks from earlier in the day.
View up George's Thumb halfway down.
View across to Whale's Tail.
Hopefully the traverse to get over there will not be so windy when we return to Breck Thursday.
I skied down to Peak 8 shortly after 3PM, and most people were just arriving there and deciding to call it a day. I skied 22,900 vertical, 8K of powder. The temperatures without wind were probably in the teens up high and 20's at the base. But with the wind there was no spring transition of the new snow even down low despite it being April and Breck's main exposure being east.
