Tag Archives: skiing

Dirtbag’s Ski Condo

Between Christmas, Thanksgiving, illness, house projects, lack of snow, and a laundry list of other dumb excuses, we hadn’t managed to get on snow until MLK weekend.  We fired up Xterrible at 5:36 in the AM and made good time on the highway until we got to Golden on I-70 at which time traffic ground to a crawl.  Fast forward three excruciating hours to 8:30 AM, and we found ourselves standing in a humongous line in the A-Basin base lodge hoping to fill up on Huevos Rancheros and bad coffee.  Regarding first chair: all hope was long since abandoned.

It was a weak storm anyway, grapes were sour, etc…  But before we had unloaded at the top of the BMX we had hatched a plot: drive up the night ahead of the storm, follow the snowiest road as far as it would go, unroll the sleeping bags in the back of Xterrible and crash in place.  While all the front-range powder-chasers toil on I-70, we’d be waking up at our leisure, a short drive from the goods.

In short: mission accomplished!

Nap times over! #dirtbag #skihouse

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First good turns of the season! Better late than never! #powderday w/ @kellyahowie

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Some notes on maximizing your chance of success:

  • Line the bed with a heavy wool blanket.  Mobile homes are notoriously difficult to heat because there is cold air beneath the floor.  Xterrible is no different in this regard.
  • On top of the blanket: two-man 20-degree synthetic bag for extra cushiness and insulation from the cold.
  • Inside the 2-man bag: the Therm-A-Rests.  Ideally, use two of the insulated blow-up versions.  Neither the closed-cell foam nor the uninsulated versions will be as warm.
  • On top of it all, 10 or 20-degree down bag, or similar.
  • Crack a window to let all your breath out, otherwise, the inside of the car will turn into a little ice cave and then it will rain on you as you drive away and the car warms up.

The temps were from mid-twenties down to maybe 15 and we were too warm and had to unzip everything in the middle of the night.  We could have been comfortable in much colder weather.  We’ll be doing this again!

Reprise

Ol’ Man Winter looks like he’s coming back for round two in the Rocky Mountains! With snow in the forecast practically every day of this week, we shot up to A-Basin for a quick refresher over the weekend.  Even after enduring a largely dry February and March, a 4″ reload did wonders for the slopes. The whole place was skiing better than we’d imagined.

Soft laps and clear skies at #abasin

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#cornicerun laps at #abasin with @kellyahowie

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As an added bonus, I mustered the fortitude to tag my first East Wall run.  For one reason or another I always found a reason not to bother, but with clear skies and fresh snow, I was all out of excuses.

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The slow plod upward.

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Patrol at A-Basin rips.

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View of Loveland Pass and the Divide.

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Peeking out of my nest toward the top of the resort.

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It seemed like more vert. on the way up…

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S-turns!

#eastwall #abasin #powder

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Powder Chasin’

In contrast to January’s outstanding start to winter, February has been mostly dry, characterized by the fleeting dusting every few days in the northern mountains.  Still, with a well above average snow pack, that’s really all we’ve needed to maintain great conditions.  Coupled with some blood, sweat, tears and some insider info (thanks Alex) we were able to find some of the only remaining un-tracked powder in Vail.  We sure did make the best of it.


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RMNP Blues

A cool respite from the blistering heat of summer…

When the Snow Gods give you lemons, you don’t even get lemon flavored snow.  You just get windburn and bullet proof wind-buff.  Eventually we found some creamy fluff away from the wind.

Honestly the skiing wasn’t great, which you’ll see in the video.  On the other hand, it was a really nice day for a hike, and a good excuse to play with cameras and work on my Adobe Premier skills…

Sounds: