Breckenridge Colorado Ski Trip

March 2007

There isn't anything more invigorating that the thought of a new adventure.

Well, it started off innocent enough. A reply from Beau from a Christmas card I sent him in December. He said if you ever get over in this area you are welcome to stay at my place. Hmm, well, I replied, I do have some frequent flyer miles I need to burn and I've been skiing all winter. How does March sound?

So with that I set off planning my escape to Colorado where they have real snow and real winters. None of that hard packed northwest ice or slushy snow. Real, dry powder in the high elevation ski town of Breckenridge (Breck) Colorado. I was excited. Finally I'd get to test my new tele skills out in real snow. We decided to do a 3 day backcountry hut trip. Something I'd always wanted to do. Now I would get the chance. The best part is I'd be flying off to this epic ski vacation, then coming back for a day before heading south to the warm sunny beaches of Mexico.

The day before leaving I packed my telemark skis, boots, and assorted winter gear for the ski vacation in one bag and my Mexico warm weather beach vacation gear in two other bags. That way if I missed the flight back to Seattle due to some unforeseen storm my Mexico trip partner could bring my Mexico bags down with her and I could catch a flight from Denver. Just in case. Because I was using frequent flyer miles with Delta I had a limited choice of flights so my flight out put me in Denver at 11pm and in Breckenridge around 1am. Not optimal since I wanted to start skiing the next day.

I arrived in Denver and caught the Colorado Mountain Express to Breck. I was tired but the three spring break guys in the back seat who arrived late and held up our departure were chatter boxes. They never had a quiet moment between the 3 of them as they talked on and on about babes, investments, and other boring topics. The guy sitting next to me and I just rolled our eyes and tried to snooze through the background noise.

Beau was the perfect host. Hi, how is it going? Here is your bed. See you in the morning. Great because all I wanted to do was sleep. I had gotten off work that morning and been traveling all day and we had a big ski day tomorrow. Perfect.

I awoke early to the sound of main street waking up. Beau literally lives across the street from the ski area. Beau was still asleep so I decided to head off in search of a latte and breakfast. I slipped out and headed down main street. Seeing a woman with a steaming To go cup in her hand I quickly asked here where to get coffee. She pointed me down the side street and off I went. I had been out of the condo no more than 5 minutes walking on icy sidewalks when my feet went skidding out from underneath me and for the first time in my life I was totally helpless as I fell flat on my butt on the hard ice. My tail bone took the brunt and I laid there momentarily shocked by the fall. A man and his family watched me fall and he immediately ran over to see if I was OK and help me up. I wasn't sure if I was OK. I laid there for a moment and then let him help me off the ground. Great, here I was 5 minutes in to the morning of my arrival and I was injured. I envisioned the next 4 days sitting on Beau's couch nursing a back injury. Well, my lower back ached but I managed to shuffle to the expresso cafe and then carefully made my way back to the condo avoiding any ice along the way.

Well, the back continued to ache but being a veteran of chronic back pain I decided that I'd go skiing anyway. Beau and Bear, his dog, were up when I got back. I filled him in on my misadventure. Bear introduced himself to me, wagging stub of a tail. I immediately thought of the Ewoks from Star Wars. Bear looked like an Ewok. We got ready and headed for the slopes, which by the way was right across the street. How cool is that? No driving on icy roads. No early wake ups to get to the lifts when they opened. Just a leisurely morning and on the slopes by lift time.

Beautiful sunshine on beautiful snow covered slopes. Such a treat to escape the northwest winter. The only culture shock was the huge line to get on the main lift. I'm not used to waiting in line because I only ski on weekdays. Here the weekdays are busy because its a "destination" resort. So after waiting in line we finally got on the lift and headed up to blissful skiing on wide open groomed runs. After a few runs we met up Beau's girlfriend around 11 am at the base. She was complaining that it was icy and the conditions were good. I chuckled and joked with her about coming to visit and go skiing at Crystal with me. A few days in the northwest and she'd get some perspective on just how good it is here. Apparently she learned to snowboard here in this area and has never experienced northwest snow. Then we all went up to the top of a lift where we took off our skis and hiked for a mile or so up to the top of a non-lift run. It was in a wide open valley with a ridgeline that lined the bowl down to a gentler slope. We skied across the bowl and then dropped down to a run through the trees and down a narrow valley. Even though there hadn't been any new snow the run was still pretty nice. Only one short icy spot. Then we popped out onto the lower runs. We skied until around 3pm. My lower back was done for the day and I was tired. We also had to get ready for our backcountry trip which we started the next day. Afterward we went to Rasta Pasta to load up on carbs for our long climb up to the Vesper hut the next day.

The next morning we were up at 530 am, packed, and dropped Bear off at the dog sitters. Then we drove to the trailhead. We were taking a different route in then the standard two mile route (easier route) into the hut. The route we were taking would be around 7 miles and about 3000ft of climbing. A pretty good day with a pack on. We arrived to clear sunshine on a wide open snow covered pastureland. Already it was warming up to be a spring snow day. We headed out around 0830. Crossing the open field I realized that backcountry touring with heavier telemark skis and boots was going to be a bit harder than touring with light weight cross-country skis and boots. Also carrying a 40 pd pack was going to make it more difficult. The first 2 miles was on flat road and was still work. Then we climbed up for awhile on the road before realizing we had somehow missed our turn-off. Bummer, extra climbing. We finally turned around and headed back. About a mile down the road we came to the most likely area for the turn off. The problem was the snow mobiles had been romping around the area so it was hard to tell where the trail was. We finally found a blue diamond on the first tree and then carefully scouted for the next one. One after another we were able to locate the next diamond with a few backtracks. The problem was no one had broken trail since the big snowstorm last week and with the warm weather we were slogging through 2 feet of wet powder. Slow going. Plus we'd break through the first 2 foot layer into a lower layer. Next thing the front of my skis would be stuck under a heavy blanket of snow and I'd have to extricate myself while sliding forward. It was working lifting 2 feet of snow off of the tops of my skis. Here I was at 9600 ft elevation working just to go a few feet.

Well needless to say we made it one half mile in an hour. Beau broke trail and I scouted out ahead for the next blue diamond. We wove through deep snow in the forest along a ridge side that would eventually drop us off into another valley where we would descend and then climb again before traversing to the Vesper Hut. It was already 130pm. Lets see one half mile per hour would put us at the hut around 130 in the morning. Of course, Beau, being a guy would have kept going. So as a women who is a veteran of many near misadventures I put my ski down and asked that we give up on this epic journey, call it a day, and head for burgers on the way home. So around 230 we stopped. I had my stove so we made coffee and ate to kick the energy up a notch to get us back out of the forest and across the fields to the truck. That was probably the highlight of the day. Hanging out on a snow bench drinking coffee and enjoying the snow covered view.

Then the adventure really began... We decided that the quickest way down would be to ski straight down the ridge through the trees. Good idea in theory. Soon however we realized that the ridge became more of a cliff and the trees became thicker. So about 500ft down we had to stop and traverse to try and find a good way down. Beau went first and I followed. We came to a small open area Beau crossed first and set off a 3ft deep chunk of snow which slid downhill. Hmm, if I remember right avalanche danger is at high and we just unhinged a slab of snow. So with Beau on the other side I decided to try going up and around the open area. Problem was getting turned around and up the slope proved to be difficult and pretty soon my skis were all twisted around and I was waste deep in snow completely stuck. Beau was trying to hike down the slope in snow up to his waist. I finally took my skis off and put my skins on and had a horrid ascent 500 ft back up to the trail. I'd climb, sink, get stuck, extricate myself, and on it went. Beau was now climbing back up the slope using vegetable belay. We finally met up again and finally made it up to the trail we had broke earlier. I was tired.

Funny how the mind tells you one thing and reality tells you another. I could have swore that we only climbed on the way up but on our way down there were a number of short climbs before we finally descended to the bottom and back to the road. Selective memory.

Back at the road. Nothing like making it back to the mainline home. Only problem is the mainline is still a slog back to the truck. So with slow telemark skis and a packs we made a good effort at getting back to the car as quick as possible which seemed far too long. On the way we passed the other trail to the other hut we were going to the following day. No one had broken trail on that route either. Good thing we bailed. Tomorrow would have been as much of a slog as today.

Finally just as the sun was dropping behind the hills we made it to the truck. A quick change and we were off in search of food. In a small town of Leadville we stopped at a greasy burger joint for two large burgers, fries, and icecream. Well deserved after a day like this. I generally keep a pretty positive attitude during tough adventures but I definitely wasn't having fun on this one. On the positive side the scenery was nice and we saw a snow bunny and lots of animal tracks. So with that thought I was completely happy to spend the rest of the week skiing at the resort and letting the lifts take me up the hills. Although I had some doubts about whether or not I would be able to walk the next day. I guess I would see in the morning.

We headed back to Breck and headed to bed early. Next day I awoke around 8 am. I decided to take a leisurely morning and stretch. I needed to gage how I was going to feel after a day like the day before. Beau was up and ready to ski so he left an hour earlier and we met up at 10am. We hit the slopes and I actually felt great. We decided to head up to the Whales Tail, the highest point at the ski area. At the top of the lift there is about a 10 minute climb carrying our skis. The climb was well worth the effort. From the vantage point of 12998 ft we could had a 360 degree view of the surrounding snow covered peaks and the Breck village. You can see all the way to the Continental Divide. It was stunning. Also it was so warm that we stayed up and enjoyed the view for quite awhile.

Then it was down an icy snow scraped Whales tail and then back to the groomed runs. Off-piste wasn't that great. We did hit some great runs through the trees and around moguls. For the most part even when the snow is bad here its not as bad as the northwest. The sun was out again and we skied for quite awhile. Another great day.

The next day we decided to go to Keystone. I got to ride my first large Gondola up the mountain. Conditions were actually similar to the northwest. Icy. Oh well, can have a great day everyday. We skied for a few hours and then called it a day. I can imagine it must be great skiing when conditions are good.

So that was my ski trip. I was slower then Beau but then he lives at 9600 ft and has 70 days of skiing in this season. After hearing that I felt pretty good. I skied some double black diamond runs and pushed my skill level up a notch.

Thanks Beau for a great ski adventure. Thanks Carol and Bear for the additional good company!

From Beau's Deck	Enchanting Ski Town	Night and Street Light
Bear, the Ewok	Beau	Hike up to Back Ridge
Hike up to Back Ridge - 1	Hike up to Back Ridge - 2	Hike up to Back Ridge - 3
Avalanche	Surrounding Views - 1	Surrounding Views - 2
Surrounding Views - 3	Elev. 12,998 ft	Trail to the Downhill - 1
Trail to the Downhill - 2	Trail to the Downhill - 3	Spring skiing
Skiing Through the Woods	Carol on Her Snowboard	Carol on Her Snowboard
Carol and Beau	Beginning of Hut Trip...	Coming From the Parking Area
Beau with his "light pack"	Road to Hut Trail - 1	Road to Hut Trail - 2
Road to Hut Trail - 3	Road to Hut Trail - 4	Road to Hut Trail - 5