Schif and Skinncy make a Colorado skication

[skiincy]

For the past couple days, I was in Vegas for work so … I decided to add a quick Colorado trip to visit family and use my epic pass a bit.

On Friday, I flew from Vegas to Denver. @Schif met me in Denver, which was super convenient since our flights landed within 20 minutes apart.

Strolled to baggage claim with the 100 others waiting for the bags…

My brother met us at the airport, loaded the car and headed to summit county.

A quick vom break along I-70 while we adjusted to altitude and continued on. 

We’re staying at a hotel in summit county. The plan is to ski Breck on Saturday, Loveland on Sunday, and Keystone on Monday. 

more to come …

 

[toast21602]

Sounds epic, minus the vom! Have a great time! 

Edited February 6, 2022 by toast21602

[skiincy]

We woke up this morning to ski Breck.

Breakfast was Santiago breakfast burritos .. my brother picked them up while in Denver. Huge fan if you haven’t ever tried them.

Water. Advil. Water. More Advil.

and left the hotel at 7:30am for the gondola lot. It was kinda crowded but the line queue was efficient. We waited about 5-10 min. 

we were chatting on the ride up and the random guys with us were penn state alums and Elk / Camelback skiers who grew up in the poconos. Small world.

it’s been about since 2016 since I skied breck. The expansion has been wild. 

——

we started at peak 7 with my family. Lots of western groomer with a bluebird sky. The temps read 2 with 0 wind but it wasn’t that bad. We did a few laps on Independence Super & Freedom together.

Schif dipped into wanderlust and ore bucket. But after enough groomers, we played in the horseshoe bowl area. we took the t-bar and Imperial Express area quite a bit. Super fun. 

we eventually meandered down ro peak 9 with goals to hit up peak 10. But by the time we got there, the chair was stalled for a bit so we switched plans & got a snack.

the lines were long at the base but as long as you stayed away from the bottom lifts, the lines were no longer than 5-10 minutes. I was really expecting much worse. 

On the way back, we took a motley mix of lifts and ended up skiing down 4 o’clock into town.. mellow and scenic. It was mostly a trail of homes with old men in hot tubs.

overall, great day and super fun. 

Will add pics and write more on some of the lifts. A few seemed different and new…

tomorrow is likely Loveland.

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Nice start to the report and you know PASRs always appreciate food pictures...enjoy!!!

[Schif]

A few more pics from Breck yesterday. Also, it was me who needed a little break on the side of 70. 

Really nice so far and Silverthorne is pretty nice. Dinner last night was at the Dillon Dam brewery 

[PSUFrankenstein]

Nice.  Check out Outer Range Brewing in Frisco if you get a chance, really good beers. Bakers Brewery in Silverthorne had great food but beer wasn't anything special.   Also Pho Bay in Silverthorne is good.  

[skiincy]

Dinner on Saturday night was at Dillion Brewery. I love a bar that plays the Winter Olympics and ski movies on repeat. We didn’t make a reserv so we snacked on nachos while waiting

I got the soup & salad

schif got the bison sausage

the news keeps talking about Red Gerard and the watch party that’s happening in Silverthorne nearby..

[skiincy]

Today, we originally planned to ski Keystone. But after learning that my brother had a 4-pack of passes, we hit up Loveland on Sunday (so we can avoid keystone weekend crowds). And it was an amazing decision.

We started with a quick Santiago burrito and jumped into the car. We got 2” of fresh snow over night

The lines were super short, parked in the 4th row, and the chill & casual vibe was everything and more than what I remembered. ❤️

Our first run was down Richards Run. Made some fresh lines and repeated it.

We had so many tittie sparkles as the sun started to hit Loveland. 

We headed over to Lift 4, skied down and then Lift 9. In the morning, we signed the waiver for the snowcat so we traversed a bit and caught the snowcat. For being Loveland, it surprisingly wasn’t windy at all. I was really expecting worse.

Here’s the view from Lift 9. You can see the snowcat in the distance. Since Schif was on a snowboard, he had to unstrap because it was quite the slog.

quick pee break. Got hyped looking at the lines. And the snowcat came down to pick us up 

the snowcat was cozy…

after a photo shoot af the top with my family, we headed down. I think we took Marmot - The Pluge - In The Mood. We skiied down this section, which I believe is the Pluge. It was fun and as expected the snow was variable and a bit snow crusty especially towards the top where it was windy

After the cat, we skied off the different chairs from Chair 8 and 9 for a bit.  

Around 1 we took the Face to the tunnel (that goes under I-70) and headed to the car for some sandwiches & beer. (note: the face was miserable)

After lunch, we took Chet’s Dream up and decided to duck into the catwalk trees. I accidentally stayed too high for too long. 

it seemed fun… but it dumped me out to a crazy flat area, which i think was Forest Meadows. The map didn’t put it to scale. It was like cross country skiing kind of flat. Although the trees were fun, the slow flat slog was not. 

we skied more and noodled around .. the Parmesan cheese lift, 9 lift, 4 lift and few others then called it a day around 3pm.

Schif might have some photos to add tomorrow. 

we took @PSUFly’s recommendation and checked out Outer Range Brewing in Frisco. Thanks! Will add info about it in another post 

 

Edited February 7, 2022 by skiincy
Removed extra photo

[PSUFrankenstein]

Awesome.   Glad you caught a run on the snow cat.  That and the stuff off of lift 9 was my favorite area at Loveland.  

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Nice report Nancy..I’ve skied the face to the tunnel before and while it was ok for me a lot of people were struggling as you have to take every turn carefully. The main thing I don’t like about Loveland are no safety bars on lifts except for chair 1

[RidgeRacer]

This thread is awesome.

BTW...Not to be weird or anything but i swear in my head every time i see the title i read "Schif and Skinncy make a baby". Lol

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

5 minutes ago, RidgeRacer said:

This thread is awesome.

BTW...Not to be weird or anything but i swear in my head every time i see the title i read "Schif and Skinncy make a baby". Lol

That’s later this year wahahahah 

[PSUFrankenstein]

52 minutes ago, GrilledSteezeSandwich said:

Nice report Nancy..I’ve skied the face to the tunnel before and while it was ok for me a lot of people were struggling as you have to take every turn carefully. The main thing I don’t like about Loveland are no safety bars on lifts except for chair 1

Yeah the face was sketchy when I was there.  Cool trail though 

[toast21602]

29 minutes ago, RidgeRacer said:

This thread is awesome.

BTW...Not to be weird or anything but i swear in my head every time i see the title i read "Schif and Skinncy make a baby". Lol

Trip report is a must, but I'll leave the decision of including photos to those on the trip. 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

55 minutes ago, toast21602 said:

Trip report is a must, but I'll leave the decision of including photos to those on the trip. 

They should sell tickets to the event...can go towards the kids college fund. 

[Johnny Law]

Sick bird !!!!!! Thats grade a prime stoke !

Snowcats are the coolest just to ride around and get all amped up in. 

[skiincy]

11 hours ago, RidgeRacer said:

BTW...Not to be weird or anything but i swear in my head every time i see the title i read "Schif and Skinncy make a baby". Lol

lol. We’re good

I was trying to think of a post title and it found inspiration in the 2008 banger, Zack & Miri make a … 

[Schif]

Sitting on the plane. 10 minutes late to push back already. Here's Sunset in Denver. See you back in PA. More detailed trip reports to come. 

[skiincy]

11 hours ago, GrilledSteezeSandwich said:

Nice report Nancy..I’ve skied the face to the tunnel before and while it was ok for me a lot of people were struggling as you have to take every turn carefully. The main thing I don’t like about Loveland are no safety bars on lifts except for chair 1

Lift 1 is now Chet’s Dream. It’s an update Lietner Poma. It’s so smooth and fast. The old lift 1 is decor on the patio.

 

lift 6 - The double lift - is still rouge with no safety bar

 

the other lifts have all seemed to be upgraded with safety bars.

[AirheadD8]

20 hours ago, skiincy said:

Dinner on Saturday night was at Dillion Brewery. I love a bar that plays the Winter Olympics and ski movies on repeat. We didn’t make a reserv so we snacked on nachos while waiting

I got the soup & salad

 

Dillon Dam Brewery, Great food and Beer. 
Was there two summers ago . My son and daughter-in-law rented a pontoon boat as a late Father’s Day present. We spent 4 hours fishing and didn’t catch a thing but I didn’t care as the scenery was spectacular.  The houses along one reservoir branch were built on a crazy cliff. 

We stopped there afterwards, our server was busy and a Brewmaster helped out , he noticed my sons Emmaus T shirt. He was from Philly area. Small world lol. 

[skiincy]

After skiing Loveland, I came back to the hotel and literally crashed. 

My brother went to Bakers Brew in Silverthorne and he was a fan. He said it looked like an old Perkins but the food was great and priced well.

After a groggy, super dehydrated nap, I got out of the bed and my calves were sore. The altitude and out of shape’ness was wrecking us. 

We finally mustered up energy and went into Frisco to Outer Range Brewery. Decor was rad. Chairs were cool. Music was lit. 

After waiting in line for 10-15 minute and chatting with interesting people, it was finally time to order. Then, the cook came out and taped off the menu items that they ran out of ….

But he was able to mix up the chicken pieces and make it work. @Schif got the 1/2 chicken with the sweet chili sauce. I got the 1/4 chicken with the honey roasted peanut sauce. 

It came with jasmine rice and what looked like a salad but was just straight cilantro so that was odd. Oh and they had cucumbers with a lemon vinaigrette. They call it “house pickles”. I would still 100% order again but might ask an alternative to the “house pickles” and cilantro. 

All the beers looked amazing. They even had a “Steezy” beer (first beer on the left). Was it named after the @GrilledSteezeSandwich himself? Or another steezy person? We will never know …

It was refreshing to have a place in summit county that wasn’t the typical burgers, chicken fingers, and nachos. 

Great vibe. Unique food. Good beers. 10/10. 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

I’d want soy sauce for that rice rice baby!!!  In Jackson hole there was a drink called Steeze as well.  I know about epic naps..I just took one...errr it was half a night of sleep...hehehehe. 

[skiincy]

3rd day of skiing in the C-O,

Sore but wanting some mo’.

 

7am - We got out of bed,

Lots of advil cause we’re on the mend.

 

Grabbed bfast & packed the car, 

Hyped the playlist since we weren’t going very far.

 

(An original poem, deliriously written on the plane home)

———

February 7, 2022 — keystone

Since I have an epic pass, Schif used my "buddy pass". He paid like $120 instead of the $180 window price.

We took the Gondola - Summit Chair - Santiago - Outback Express .. all a couple times. No lines for a Monday and scooted right on up. 

Once we got to Outback Express, my brother & @Schif decided to hike a bit. They can explain it in better detail. 

I lapped Outback Express until I caught them at the bottom. again the line were short.

Went to the Santiago - Ruby - Summit Chair lifts. Skiied a bunch of laps. Favorite run of Keystone is Starfire which reminds me of Razors but a bit longer. It was just a bluebird western groomer kind of day.

Our flight was at 7pm, so we knew we needed to leave the mountain by 2/2:30pm. After skiing about 14 lifts, 25k vert, we got Pizza on the Run and made a little tailgate with our leftover food.

We drove up and over Loveland Pass, ogling at the lines in the snow. 

Some people were hiking up and skiing down. Some guys were grilling at top of the pass. Classic Colorado kind of day.

Got back to Denver. Showered. Packed. And made it to the airport in time. While walking through the airport, Schif pointed out the the floors were tittie sparkling too

Quick Colorado weekend ski trip -- totally worth it.

Landed into Philly around 12:30am. But do you know PHL puts skis on the circular luggage carousel? And the big skis get stuck on the merry go round? 🤯🤦🏼‍♀️ Eventually home by 1:30am. And crashed hard. 

 

Edited February 8, 2022 by skiincy

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

From recent trips, Philly and Jackson hole put skis on the circular luggage carousel and Newark and Denver have special areas for oversized baggage. Also nice that you had a place to shower before the flight home.  Nice report!!!

[Schif]

Solid little trip out to the Rockies. Here some update from my perspective. Saturday at Breck was fun. Lines were long ish but I just kept thinking to myself that I was on vacation so it was OK. The higher up you went the less the lines were a problem with the exception of the T bar which had a long line and sucked as a lift. Long and steep is not particularly fun to get dragged on.

 

Breck is huge and I really enjoyed exploring it. Would like to get two days there next time. The stuff above the tree line was really cool and I would have liked to spend more time up there but it really hasn't snowed much and the stuff high up was really windswept and not so great. 

 

It was day 1 on the snow and the altitude was definitely getting me a little so it was a nice casual day of exploring and western groomers. The first groomers off of Independence Super Chair were a great way to just tear up some long and fresh cord before we started exploring more. Lots of great Blue cruisers. Most of the black trails were just sun baked bumps so they were  not particularly desirable. 

I didn't do a ton of research on the lift layout so a second day would have been good. At the end of the day getting on chairs became a guessing game as to where it would end up. First time experiencing chairs that crossed each other was pretty cool and the last chair of the day was a slow double that made a hard right hand turn at one point.  That actually worked out for a nice cruise down to a bus stop where Skiincys brother picked us up to head back to the hotel.