Ben’s Travel Blog

After the 3.5 hour trek through the passes to get to Vail everyone was eager to get out on the slopes. After gearing and up and getting the radios set the whole crew hopped in a gondola and rode to the top. At the top we parted ways and a contingent of us headed for the back bowls. By the time we got to the top of the ridge, “we” consisted of David L and I as others dropped off due to cold feet (both literally and figuratively depending on the person.) We shot for Blue Sky but ended up taking a Black Diamond run that headed back towards the front side. This turned out to be the best mistake of the day.

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After the tales the trio from the previous day at Vail brought home everyone was excited to get to Vail and see the snow conditions for themselves, official snow reports of 11 fresh inches overnight at the base of Vail added to the energy! Everyone gathered their gear with surprising speed for the relatively early hour, and hurried to the parking garage. While this was happening, I asked Socha to check road conditions. The news soon broke, I-70 was shutdown in both directions either side of Vail due to impassable conditions. A quick check of Google Maps revealed there was a back way in through Leadville, twice as long and through a series of high passes, that would drop us onto I-70 a few miles from Vail between the roadblocks. The crew debated the dangers, versus the amazing skiing if we could get there.

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The second day dawned with reports of 7 inches of fresh powder at Vail. After rousing much of the crew excitedly early in the morning (6:30a Mountain Time) excitedly babbling about powder at Vail there was a round robin of discussions of who wanted to go and when they could be ready. Eventually Ted, David L, and myself emerged as the adventurous trio and hurriedly gathered gear and head out from the Hotel at Breckenridge for Vail. Breckenridge had only gotten a couple inches in town, but it was more then enough to turn Hwy 9 (connecting link between Breckenridge and I-70) to a skating rink from compressed blowing snow. We passed two rollovers shortly after leaving and I kept the pace pretty slow, where traffic even allowed me to set my own pace.

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Monday morning started out good as Socha cooked us a nice breakfast and coffee was on tap. After eating I began suiting up and things got a bit chaotic as eight people tried to cram into the living room with gear to get ready to hit the slopes.

The day quickly became enjoyable again once David and I escaped to the slopes and started hitting runs. It quickly became apparent that last years skills were coming back quickly and the blues were not going to hold our interest after some requisite runs down 1-2 mile long blue groomers at speed.

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After grabbing brunch at Denny’s in Denver we hopped back in the Suburban and headed up I-70 towards Eisenhower tunnel. We pulled off right before the tunnel though and made a brief stop at the Loveland Ski Area base, incidentally the destination of the first Colorado Ski Trip several years ago. Then we headed up US 6, switchbacking our way to the top of Loveland Pass at 12,000 feet. If you haven’t been there, it is a narrow 2 lane highway that cuts back and forth across the face of the ridge defining the continental divide, the ridge that the Eisenhower tunnel takes you under. This is still the way that hazardous material trucks are required to take, which makes for an interesting situation when you meet a tanker semi truck in a switchback.

At the top we pulled off and piled out to run around in the snow and snap some pictures.

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The first big adventure of the new year was gathering a bunch of people and heading west for a ski trip to Colorado! The participants were my roommates, their girlfriends, my brother, and a college buddy recently back from Iraq who joined us at the last minute on a spur of the moment decision (the best kind when it comes to road trips!) We fit all eight of us and gear in my parents suburban with a rather tight fit and headed out into a snowstorm in Minneapolis that quickly morphed into a treacherous ice storm in southern MN and most of IA.

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Travel blog soft launched! Got the site up, WordPress installed, and all the plugins I wanted setup. Ready to catalog my 2009 Adventures!

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Made a planned run up to Spirit Mountain with my brother David, what wasn’t planned (but was much appreciated!) was the generous helping of fresh powder. They got 8.5 inches the previous day and 4-6 inches came down while we were there. Most of that came in a sudden burst of heavy snowfall mid-afternoon and allowed us to get nearly fresh tracks in the middle of the day, a real treat!

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