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. Also, it had been several days since they got any decent snow at lower elevations and there lots of icy spots on the groomers. With Ted in tow now we headed up the T-Bar and found some good ankle deep powder stashes in the trees on the outskirts of Cumber Bowl and snapped a few pics. Ted managed to straddle a small tree and I took a biff in the powder for good measure. (Sorry, no pics of either of those.)
We played on the T-Bar runs a few more times, then decided to look for more adventure and traversed as far as we could across the top of the ridge and into Peak 7 Bowl about half way down from the peak. This proved more challenging with rock outcroppings, large bumps, and fairly steep terrain. After getting out pic snapped at the bottom we decided to check out the claims of knee deep powder at the top of Peak 7 bowl which could be accessed from the top of Imperial Bowl.
After grabbing a quick lunch in the Hotel room we headed up towards Imperial Express, the highest lift in North America. The wind had picked up dramatically by this point and we couldn’t see anyone braving the gusts at the top off of Imperial Express. Determined, we took the series of lifts to get to the base of the lift anyways. As we got there we saw an employee roping off the entrance to the lift, quickly pulling him aside I asked why it was being closed and he responded that 55mph gusts were being recorded at this elevation and the chairlift weren’t safe to ride as a result.
Disappointed we headed over to Peak 10 and found some fun blue-black (by CO standards) runs, but the windblown ice and strong gusts reduced the fun factor. Wrapping the day, we headed back to the lodge for the night and I wondered pessimistically if this years trip would be a bust for powder days.
Photo Credits
- Ben Larson
- David Larson
- Blake Kellar
