We left from the commuter lot in Golden at 9 and had zero traffic. Once we hit Berthoud Pass, the roads got icy and it was snowing hard. Winter Park allowed free parking I guess since it’s early season so we got a close in spot.
My friend was not wearing enough layers. So since I made the last minute call to wear my insulated ski pants I took off my base layers and let her use them. We knew the lines would be long but when we rounded the corner and saw just how long we were both like, “fuck.” They had 3 lifts running. 2 were kind of bullshit lifts that didn’t get you very far, but I do appreciate their effort to spread things out.
The Arrow lift was the main one, a fixed grip triple. I had never taken it before. The snow was surprisingly really really good! A few icy spots but mostly about 2+ inches of fresh snow on whatever they had blown. One dicey spot where the runs come together onto a catwalk. Lots of people falling and for some reason just stopping here. We did 3 runs, the longest lift wait was 43 minutes. Overall I was just very happy to be on snow and the crowd had a happy vibe.
Even spotted a microwave.