lookn4powder
New member
Last week I in Denver at a conference that ended on Wednesday night, giving me the opportunity to ski 3 days through the weekend. However, all week I kept evaluating my right knee, which had suffered a ?mild? lateral collateral sprain (more than a tweak, less than a fully debilitating sprain) while skiing bumps at Blackcomb 10 days earlier. The ACL (or PCL) was also stressed. The decision was whether the knee felt solid enough to risk three days of skiing spring snow. To prepare, I rehabbed the knee daily on stationary bike and soon added medium weights. Later at the conference, the knee?s good stability during swimming sessions cinched my decision to head for the mountains after the conference.
Thursday, I drove up to Loveland, which you will remember surrounds the eastern entrance to the Eisenhower Tunnel. When I arrived at 10:30 AM, the day was already warm and I doubt that the snow had frozen overnight. I immediately took the center lift to 12,082?, which feeds onto blue/green terrain. As I skied down I found myself on thick sun cupped snow, which is hard to manage and really places lateral stress on knees. I survived but felt vulnerable as the sprain was now 14 days in the past. I tried Lift 4 on the north side of the tunnel. Its south facing slopes also proved to have mostly sun cupped surfaces and I had a hard time negotiating the slopes. My Dynastar 8000 skis were a bit narrow for this surface and they sank in deeply. Since the slopes had not seen enough traffic to form the usual lanes of good bumps, jump turns were usually required.
After that experience, I moved to the southern slopes, which had been well skied and were mostly groomed. The snow was thick but consistent and fast. It proved a good test of knee stability. After a lift stoppage due to lightning, I quit at 3 PM to rest the knee. I figured that the knee?s condition the next morning would tell me if I had returned to skiing too soon.
I stayed in Frisco (9200?) Thursday and Friday nights. During ?mud season? many vendors are closed as the owners take vacations and several restaurants were closed for renovation. Finding good food was a bit of a challenge, but I settled for a good but expensive wine bar.
Friday morning my knee felt stronger and solid, so I drove up to A-basin. Overnight, the air temperature had dropped 20 degrees to 30F at 10,780?. A-basin was foggy and was receiving wet snow. Of course, the spring surface was now translucent ice covered with a thin layer of snow. Pallivachini lift and its headwall were closed (for the season) due to unstable snow. (The management does not want any chance of avalanches, as which killed a skier last year.) I started to ski at 11 AM and by noon I was ready to quit, call my travel office, and fly home ASAP. My resolve was solidified by the nasty ice ruts at the top of the upper bowl (12,450?). Actually, I could hardy see, but what I saw scared me as it was a collection of perfect knee killer ruts. Everyone was carefully executing their best survival skills and few, if any, returned for another run.
The mountain conspired to keep me from wimping out!! Back in the base lodge, my cell phone had no signal, so I couldn't make arrangements to curtail my trip. I decided to ski the lower lifts and then leave at 1 PM, so that I could arrange my retreat. But this plan failed as the falling snow improved the surface and the lower slopes softened. Soon, I began to find good lines and decent bump lines. I skied until the lifts closed. My last run was on ?Bear Trap?, a difficult-to-access lower section near the closed Pallivachini lift. In that short section the snow felt like thick untracked powder. I was stoked to return the next day!
Even though it rained in town (9200') most of Friday night, on Saturday morning I found 1/4? snow on my car. Good sign! I pulled into A-basin?s main lot at 9:15 AM, which was filled by 9:30 AM (The upper lots were nearly filled around noon.) Party tents were pitched all along the parking lot?s slope-side border. By 10 AM some serious parties were already underway. Now I understand the term ?Rock?n at the Basin!?
I took the lift to 12,456?, where the hateful ice had been on Friday. What a difference a day makes! Even though A-basin claimed only 2? new snow, it more likely received 4? on most trails and wind action had piled up 8-12? in the gullies and the eastern faces. Of course, the continuing snow reduced visibility and the accumulation was insufficient to completely hide the hardpack bumps beneath the powder, but to me it was somewhere close to Heaven.
I skied the morning with a local. We skied deep heavy powder lines off the East Wall. After a quick lunch I continued my East Wall laps. I eventually hooked up with a couple other locals. One was a kid, high school junior, who looked and acted older. His dad had fallen on his pole and resulting bruise had forced him to sit in the lodge. Eventually, the other fellow broke off leaving only young?un and me. I found the young?un pretty interesting and a very good skier.
Skiing with a youngster can be unnerving. In the fog while skiing through a slot off the East Wall, I heard a crunch and looked up to see young?un hung up in rocks about 10? over the surface with one ski off. I didn?t ask if he planned to jump the cliff or simply didn?t see the jump until he was at the edge (which seemed likely), but I didn?t relish the idea of being with someone who had an accident. As he extricated himself, three snowboarders took an adjacent 8? jump. The young seem fearless. (I worry about everything.)
At 3:30 the upper lifts closed, young?un left to collect his Dad, and I took a couple more runs on the lower Exhibition lift. I met interesting people, like a guy who was finishing his 132nd ski day for this season and another fellow, who owned a catering company for film companies that make commercials (e.g., Marlboro) in remote locations. On my last ride I accompanied a plump grandmotherly woman who wore granny bifocals and a very long coat. I figured her to be an intermediate skier. When I exclaimed about the day?s perfection, she quietly agreed that it was a ?sweet day? and then gushed enthusiastically about the powder-filled chutes in a bowl near Pallivachini. She accessed that out-of-bounds bowl by ducking a boundary rope. After each run, she would hitchhike back to A-basin and take another lap. I realized that I would likely have a hard time keeping up with her--so much for appearances! A little later I saw her skiing bumps; she was a study in efficiency and grace.
I had a great weekend on snow. Again, the mountains taught me that conditions change daily; so if you don?t like the weather, just wait a little while. In total, I logged in 32 days this year--shorter than normal--but all were of higher quality than usual.
I hope all readers here have had satisfying seasons too.
Cheers,
Jeff
Thursday, I drove up to Loveland, which you will remember surrounds the eastern entrance to the Eisenhower Tunnel. When I arrived at 10:30 AM, the day was already warm and I doubt that the snow had frozen overnight. I immediately took the center lift to 12,082?, which feeds onto blue/green terrain. As I skied down I found myself on thick sun cupped snow, which is hard to manage and really places lateral stress on knees. I survived but felt vulnerable as the sprain was now 14 days in the past. I tried Lift 4 on the north side of the tunnel. Its south facing slopes also proved to have mostly sun cupped surfaces and I had a hard time negotiating the slopes. My Dynastar 8000 skis were a bit narrow for this surface and they sank in deeply. Since the slopes had not seen enough traffic to form the usual lanes of good bumps, jump turns were usually required.
After that experience, I moved to the southern slopes, which had been well skied and were mostly groomed. The snow was thick but consistent and fast. It proved a good test of knee stability. After a lift stoppage due to lightning, I quit at 3 PM to rest the knee. I figured that the knee?s condition the next morning would tell me if I had returned to skiing too soon.
I stayed in Frisco (9200?) Thursday and Friday nights. During ?mud season? many vendors are closed as the owners take vacations and several restaurants were closed for renovation. Finding good food was a bit of a challenge, but I settled for a good but expensive wine bar.
Friday morning my knee felt stronger and solid, so I drove up to A-basin. Overnight, the air temperature had dropped 20 degrees to 30F at 10,780?. A-basin was foggy and was receiving wet snow. Of course, the spring surface was now translucent ice covered with a thin layer of snow. Pallivachini lift and its headwall were closed (for the season) due to unstable snow. (The management does not want any chance of avalanches, as which killed a skier last year.) I started to ski at 11 AM and by noon I was ready to quit, call my travel office, and fly home ASAP. My resolve was solidified by the nasty ice ruts at the top of the upper bowl (12,450?). Actually, I could hardy see, but what I saw scared me as it was a collection of perfect knee killer ruts. Everyone was carefully executing their best survival skills and few, if any, returned for another run.
The mountain conspired to keep me from wimping out!! Back in the base lodge, my cell phone had no signal, so I couldn't make arrangements to curtail my trip. I decided to ski the lower lifts and then leave at 1 PM, so that I could arrange my retreat. But this plan failed as the falling snow improved the surface and the lower slopes softened. Soon, I began to find good lines and decent bump lines. I skied until the lifts closed. My last run was on ?Bear Trap?, a difficult-to-access lower section near the closed Pallivachini lift. In that short section the snow felt like thick untracked powder. I was stoked to return the next day!
Even though it rained in town (9200') most of Friday night, on Saturday morning I found 1/4? snow on my car. Good sign! I pulled into A-basin?s main lot at 9:15 AM, which was filled by 9:30 AM (The upper lots were nearly filled around noon.) Party tents were pitched all along the parking lot?s slope-side border. By 10 AM some serious parties were already underway. Now I understand the term ?Rock?n at the Basin!?
I took the lift to 12,456?, where the hateful ice had been on Friday. What a difference a day makes! Even though A-basin claimed only 2? new snow, it more likely received 4? on most trails and wind action had piled up 8-12? in the gullies and the eastern faces. Of course, the continuing snow reduced visibility and the accumulation was insufficient to completely hide the hardpack bumps beneath the powder, but to me it was somewhere close to Heaven.
I skied the morning with a local. We skied deep heavy powder lines off the East Wall. After a quick lunch I continued my East Wall laps. I eventually hooked up with a couple other locals. One was a kid, high school junior, who looked and acted older. His dad had fallen on his pole and resulting bruise had forced him to sit in the lodge. Eventually, the other fellow broke off leaving only young?un and me. I found the young?un pretty interesting and a very good skier.
Skiing with a youngster can be unnerving. In the fog while skiing through a slot off the East Wall, I heard a crunch and looked up to see young?un hung up in rocks about 10? over the surface with one ski off. I didn?t ask if he planned to jump the cliff or simply didn?t see the jump until he was at the edge (which seemed likely), but I didn?t relish the idea of being with someone who had an accident. As he extricated himself, three snowboarders took an adjacent 8? jump. The young seem fearless. (I worry about everything.)
At 3:30 the upper lifts closed, young?un left to collect his Dad, and I took a couple more runs on the lower Exhibition lift. I met interesting people, like a guy who was finishing his 132nd ski day for this season and another fellow, who owned a catering company for film companies that make commercials (e.g., Marlboro) in remote locations. On my last ride I accompanied a plump grandmotherly woman who wore granny bifocals and a very long coat. I figured her to be an intermediate skier. When I exclaimed about the day?s perfection, she quietly agreed that it was a ?sweet day? and then gushed enthusiastically about the powder-filled chutes in a bowl near Pallivachini. She accessed that out-of-bounds bowl by ducking a boundary rope. After each run, she would hitchhike back to A-basin and take another lap. I realized that I would likely have a hard time keeping up with her--so much for appearances! A little later I saw her skiing bumps; she was a study in efficiency and grace.
I had a great weekend on snow. Again, the mountains taught me that conditions change daily; so if you don?t like the weather, just wait a little while. In total, I logged in 32 days this year--shorter than normal--but all were of higher quality than usual.
I hope all readers here have had satisfying seasons too.
Cheers,
Jeff