After meeting friends to ski at Monarch, the road beckoned me to go to Powderhorn for its closing day the following day. Then the next day while a friend skied Aspen Highlands, I uphilled Buttermilk. So at this point it was 3 ski areas in 3 days. I smelt... smelled... detected a pattern and ran with it for what would be:
[dramatic music]
12 Ski Areas in 11 Days
Monarch
Powderhorn
Buttermilk
Loveland
A-Basin
Cooper
Monarch/Kendall <-- LINK
Purgatory
Silverton (Mountain)
Hesperus <-- LINK
Lake City, Breckenridge
Today's Episode: LAKE CITY SKI HILL (and terrain park)
I called ahead and got a gal who didn't know about it, who transferred me to a co-worker who did, who recommended I call the city, who referred me to the man overlooking operations. He said it was melted out. I asked if there was any snow left, even at the top. "Some... maybe..." he said. Like at least 20 feet I inquired. "Yeah, probably." That was all 'I' needed to here!
Raw footage. No editing, rehearsals, nor auto-tune was used.
0:00 Green Circle Run, sign in distance (we all need a warm up run, right?).
0:15 Getting some totally sick air -- gnar, gnar.
0:39 Blue Square Run, sign in distance, see photo of sign message below for what I'm playing with on the snow (re-connected post-run, LNT).
1:55 "TREE."
2:00 Black Diamond Run (aka "Glades" or in the trees), required "booting up" higher from the top of the lift to get to the start of the run -- "Natural Terrain, Obstacles May Be Encountered."
Negotiating the choke point tests the best of skiers.3:19 Avalanche Safety 101, always check snow stability prior to proceeding downhill.
4:07 Giant Slalom, run continues well beyond lip. No support crew nor medical staff on-site. Ski at your own risk... into the void. (Hiking boots slung over shoulders so I don't have to re-ascend for them -- yep, this is a one-way trip.)
5:07 * * * BONUS CUT * * * Wildlife Melee: Cat vs. Moose... Mooses... Meese...
Regarding 0:39, read this sign...
... and yes, I re-connected it afterward so all's good.
LSSH's base lodge and lower lift station (left with green roof).
BONUS CUT: deleted scenes.
My first time out playing with the fishscale Rossi's on the Beaver (bunny) run at Buttermilk. My duckbills are too thick as I REALLY have to press to make them latch. I swapped them for the Karhu Kodiaks to uphill, which due to my lack of kick wax guru-ness meant booting-up most of the 2,000' vertical feet to the top.
What do you do when a moose is on your side of the uphill path?
Switch to the other side? Well guess what is on that side?
In fact, let's zoom out to appraise the situation.
So I detoured to the right to go up the (Terrain) Park. Oh what lovely snow they had there! Better still, when the cat came, it went left which initially herded the meese in my direction!
View from the top of Buttermilk looking at Aspen Highlands. After a summit lunch break, I skied down on the Karhus, detouring back through the Park due to the meese that had re-established themselves.