phillycore Posted January 17, 2007 Report Posted January 17, 2007 We're staying in Breck and can literally ski in/out our condo.... kick ass!! I'm super stoked!!! Skiing Breck the first day then Vail the second.... then either A-Basin or more Breck on day 3 I only wish I didn't leave my new digicam outside in the rain and get it all fubared..... yeah wifey wasn't too happy bout that one.. Quote
Zonked Posted January 17, 2007 Report Posted January 17, 2007 have an awesome trip!!!! Can't wait to hear your report when you get back! I'll be making my way out west next month!! Quote
phillycore Posted January 17, 2007 Author Report Posted January 17, 2007 Haven't been to any of those three yet.... = ) Leavin the wife and kids at home... going with 3 friends. I actually have another digicam, an really old p.o.s. $100 walmart job that I'm going to attempt to bring with me as the batteries seem to die like mega quick on it... like every 4-5 pics...lmao Either way I know someone there will have a cam. Anyone been out there before that has some good eat suggestions, or good pow stash areas they are willing to give out?? Quote
kragan Posted January 17, 2007 Report Posted January 17, 2007 This may sound really weird, but in the parking garage at Vail there is a little mexican restaurant that is actually really good and really cheap. Its a nice lil place to grab some grub and a beer to relax a bit before making the dirve back to Breck. When I went out there last March I stayed real close to Keystone, but skied Vail for 3 of the days we were out there. Each day we would walk back to the car, take our boots off and then head to that mexican place. Its in an open area that is good for people-watching and relaxing for a bit. You should check it out! Quote
phillycore Posted January 17, 2007 Author Report Posted January 17, 2007 Mexican sounds good..... rrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeal gggggggooood Quote
phillycore Posted January 28, 2007 Author Report Posted January 28, 2007 I'm BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK Skied Breck on day 1, Cold as all heck... -8 degrees windy and snowing.... pretty much hit the whole mountain with the exception of the park and green runs... Skied out of our condo down the 4 o clock run to the snowflake lift.. then worked our way across the mountain peak by peak, trail by trail to peak 10 and down mustang... the traverse at the bottom totally sucks bawlz... looooooooooooong and flat... worst traverse we had all week by far. LOT of rocks on the top of the mountain off the imperial lift. bunch of glade runs which were fun... didn't stop for a break until around 3 o clock then rushed it so we could work our way back to the 4 o clock run and skied back to out condo on ski side. snow was packed hard, and runs were quick. not too much powder at all honestly.... especially for Colorado. Vail on day 2, Drove out to Vail from Breckenridge....parked in the garage, then headed out through the village and then caught one of the first 5 chairs. We headed straight for the back bowls and spent pretty much all day messing around in the trees. Vail is absolutely HUGE... I mean MASSIVE... There is really something there for everyone of any skill. Lots of pow stashes in the woods and they groom almost everything which could be good or bad depending on your likes.. Lots of LOOOOOONG traverses in the back bowl areas but you can get enough speed not to require pushing if you play it smart and keep your speed up. Blue sky basin is a cool area and the champagne glade is enough to kick almost anyones butt. HUGE bumps that wrapped in and out of dense trees and even a few hidden cliffs mixed in. Temps in the 10's to 20's in the sun with great fluffy snow really made all of us like Vail sooooo much better than Breck. We took a 30 minute break at 2 Elks lodge around 12:30 then closed the mountain from there. They Really have a good system of getting everyone towards the front of the mountain by closing the lifts in time sequence from back to front. I think we pretty much caught the last lift each time and maximized our time there very good. Ended the day going down pepi's face which is really steep and at the end of the day completely scraped of any loose snow whatsoever.. Vail kicks major ass... and I'd ski there again in a heartbeat.. then headed for Keystone for day 3... We originally planned on going to A Basin on the third day, but changed our mind after realizing how small it was. Switched it up and headed out to Keystone... After a great day at Vail we were worried about how it would stack up. Well we got there really early and caught the first gondola with a regular. He pointed out exactly where to go for what we were looking for. The Army Special Forces were there doing some training as well. We headed straight down mohawk then back to the outback express.... skied down wolverine which is a bumped up black glade run.... then moved on to the Grizz. You can get seriously disoriented in the Grizz as it's a really dense tree area with DEEP pow stashes, tight turns and plenty of root jumps. Keystone was quickly becoming kickass.... After messing around in the tree runs and mogul runs for most of the early morning we decided to hike up to the south bowl and drop in for even more deep pow stashes, tree runs, and a natural revine half pipe which turned into a traverse with tons of whoop ti doos and what not.... totally sick.... we then worked our way back to the outback express lift and paid the snow cat powder to the people express even farther into the back country. This time we took the north bowl and rode the ridge line out pretty far. I saw a sick untouched line on the third ridge over from the top of the bowl and wanted to hit that, but the three others I was with had other intentions. They were sick of working there way across the ridge line and wanted to drop in on the 1st ridge line. It looked like a nice line, but it was one of the closest ones to where the cat drops you off and also one of the most taken. This is where my day got really hairy... Instead of doing the smart thing and just dropping in where they wanted to, I figured I could traverse the other two ridgelines and meet them where the two connected together just below the initial line. I wasn't high enough on the ridge at this point to ski over top the line and drop into it. I did see one other set of tracks heading into the trees and out through. I headed towards those tracks and into the trees... The PoW was seriously deep and well over the top of my boots. I was moving pretty good and kept following the tracks into the tree line. The tracks then headed to the right or to the upside of the ridge and I cut around the same tree to the left side into the untracked area.. BIG MISTAKE!!! I found myself plugged into a waist deep powder stash in the back country by myself. Exactly the reason why you aren't supposed to be by yourself in the back country. JUst for a visual here... I'm 6'1" tall and damn near 300lbs plugged up to my waist in pow in a remote tree line. I'm pretty much screwed at this point. I pushed my poles down deep to try to get some leverage to lift my skis up so I could get moving again.... Not happening... my poles aren't even hitting the hardpack. I then start working my skis up and down the best I could to try to pack the snow below them..... not happening..... I end up flipping myself head first into the stash. Everything goes black and I'm now under the snow pretty much. My right ski stayed plugged when I flipped forward and then rolled over onto my back. At this point I pretty much atrained every muscle, ligament, etc.. in my right knee and ankle. This is the point where I for the first time in my skiing life become scared for my life. I prayed to the Lord to help me get out of there safely as I was in some seriously deep trouble. I know I'm with three other guys who will come looking for me if I don't show up at the bottom, but they don't know exactly where I'm at. I've been stuck for approximately 15 mins at this point and I've torn my right leg to shit. I haven't seen nor heard a single person the whole time, so I'm getting ready to panic. I laid there for a second to get my self together and then grabbed onto the trees around me. I then basically pulled myself up branch by branch until I could sorta crawl forward a little bit. I managed to hang onto this tree enough to get my skis above to the top of the snow. I then worked slowly towards the open area the best I could. I fell another 2-3 more times and managed to keep working out of it towards the open area. I then spotted another set of tracks and desperately worked myself towards those as fast as my body would let me. The pow got less and less deep and my speed increased and increased until I managed to meet with the tracks and follow them to the revine area below. I was in some serious pain, but I was out of trouble. The only thing I wanted to do at this point was get the F out of there as quickly as I could and towards the traverse where I knew there would be other people around. The traverse meets up with a trail and then heads down to the outback express lift. My friends were at the lift base waiting for me, and have had been there for 20 minutes waiting. I learned a serious lesson at that point, one that I should've been smart enough to know already. I let a good line get in my head and I wanted to ski it bad... in the end, I F'd up my knee and ankle but I know that no line in the back country is good unless you have another person taking it with you. I skipped the next run and waited at the lift base until my friends got back down... I did end up skiing the rest of the day in some pain and Keystone was sick. I really didn't realize how bad I screwed myself up until I took my boot off at the end of the day and my ankle pretty much buckled and swelled up without the boot supporting it. All in all it was a killer trip and a ton of fun..... I learned a valuable lesson, and got a lot of great skiing in at three great and very different mountains. Going to take it easy for the next week and hope to be back skiing the poconos on super bowl weekend... The day after I returned from Colorado (Thursday) my father in law passed away. I had to carry him down a flight of steps with the funeral home people and assist them in getting him into the hearse/suburban on a stretcher. So pretty much things have sucked since I got back home.... So please excuse the weak ass TR for me... Quote
Tyler Posted January 28, 2007 Report Posted January 28, 2007 Nice TR phillycore. Glad to hear you got out of that jam. Any pics? Quote
phillycore Posted January 28, 2007 Author Report Posted January 28, 2007 Yeah, pics, video, etc... but we all put it on the one guys laptop and we're waiting for him to send us all out a disk... When I get the disk, I'll post some shizzle up... lot of funny shit on there too.. Quote
phillycore Posted January 28, 2007 Author Report Posted January 28, 2007 Found a couple on my sd card that I didn't erase... http://www.paskiandride.com/forums/uploads...2_143_23730.jpg Quote
phillycore Posted January 28, 2007 Author Report Posted January 28, 2007 powder to the people outback express http://www.paskiandride.com/forums/uploads...2_143_26351.jpg Quote
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