qwezxc12

I get lucky, I guess... fresh off my gettin' in the draw for the 7-day heli trip, courtesy of getting my name pulled out of the box at the Wintervention show back in Syracuse, I get to spend a day riding because my customer (the FAA) wanted today as a travel day. So, I left NY (currently getting pounded with lake-effect!) on Sunday and figured I'd spend a day up at WP gettin' some shred before being sentenced to another week of work on the road.

Stayed in west Denver to get a leg-up on traffic... mountains sure looked purty in the morning light:


Sun was shining early on:


So I drove up to Mary Jane and parked in the Utah Junction lot and realized: Weekdays rule! I've never been lucky enough to hit CO during the week. I mean LL and WP aren't bad on the weekends, but... Damn! Is there anyone here? Look at those empty chairs... Shame on you Coloradoans. I'd sell my soul to live here.


The sun was out early so and I hit the east side to catch some rays: mostly rode the Sunnyside and Super Gauge lifts, and put some tracks down blues and a few blacks. Top of Sunnyside looking down Edelweiss, I think:


Top of MaryJane:


As the day clouded over, I moved over through Mary Jane into Winter Park and hit some runs off the Zephyr and Olympia Express lifts. I even tried a few bump runs:


After pausing for some electrolyte and carb therapy (Blue Moon draft and peanut M&Ms - the lunch of champions), I walked back out of the Lunch Rock, and it was puking! I took a ride down Narrow Gauge and MaryJane and the sky was dumping as I rode back up:


It was knocking on 2:30pm and most everybody had already left. There was 2-3" of fresh over on the east side... it was almost like first tracks at 3 in the afternoon:




I made a few more runs and hit the east glades. They were full of untouched pow:


One thing is for sure... glade runs at 9000ft. are a little more strenuous that at lower altitudes... Holy Crap! I looked like a beached whale when I made it out.

Continued below (10 pic max / post)

qwezxc12

Not too bad a day for a 3rd day out:


The GPS says just under 40 mi. total, so I figure ~25ish mi of downhill:


I wasn't trying to set any records, but I did move at a good clip...thinking this was after Cheshire Cat:


It was snowing pretty good on the way out down Rt 40:


I was going to stop into TommyKnockers in Idaho Springs, but I was kinda beat... So I beat it to the Aloft and took advantage of their 2 for 1 Margarita Mondays... Cazadores Reposado, Quantreau, rocks, no salt... lather, rinse, repeat.

Nice Monday... hope yours was (almost) as good!

oneshot

good reporting!!! sunny days in the mountains 25 miles aint shabby.

the peak in the distance here in your pic looks super sick!!! drop me off there please

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killclimbz

That is the backside of James Peak. Yes you can put lines down it. Though I've rarely seen tracks on that side. Probably because the bear claw rips huge from time to time. Unfortunately we don't have the stable snow pack that you PNW guys have.

Kind of funny actually. Around here due to the temperature gradient we have anywhere from six inches to over a foot of depth hoar. Great for avalanches, sucky for stability. When I was out on Hood with Wolfie the day after Thanksgiving we dug a pit to the ground. There was about 1-6 millimeters of depth hoard. I can only wish we had that...

oneshot

yeah, i see alot of footage.. mostly sledding in Co. where they are just riding the flat lands and u see killer peaks right in the background super close.. they are smart enough to not ride them.. and thats a good thing!!

we do it pretty stable here luckily.. i just get tired of all the tight trees all the time.. still fun though

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killclimbz

The tree riding is pretty rad around here, but yeah you start to get tired of it. Fortunately about the time that starts to happen, those big lines stabilize allowing us to get after it. Definitely a seasonal thing around here.