Vail. How sweet it is.

Matt | February 18, 2007 | Misc, Trip Report | 1363 words and 2,016 views | 1 comment

So Shannon and John wanted to go skiing for Presidents Day weekend, and the conditions were coming into place to create a unforgettable weekend. The mountains got dumped with new snow and I-70 at Eisenhower Tunnel shut down and on Friday evening, nobody could get into (or out of) the mountains. We originally were planning on going to Breckenridge, but after seeing that Vail had 21″ of snow in the last 3 days we decided we should go for it. On top of that, the temperature was supposed to be in the 40′s all day long with little wind.

Who could resist these statistics?

John and Shannon left at 5:30am to come pick me up so we could roll out and get up the mountain before the hordes of people on Presidents Day weekend. It turns out that, even though leaving at 6am is early, one still gets caught in traffic. In fact, usually traffic dies down after Idaho Springs, but something weird was going on. We pulled over in Idaho Springs so John and I could get our morning caffeine and the old lady running the gas station told us of an avalanche. We didn’t initially believe her, so I jumped on my Blackberry to look up the road conditions. Sure enough, CDOT set off an avalanche blast and it ended up burying I-70 up by Eisenhower Tunnel in 12 feet of snow. Apparently we would find out they set it off at 3am, and it was still not cleared by 9am. They should fire the person who decided on a holiday weekend when people are trying to get home from the roads being closed the previous day, and people are trying to fish, ski, hike, snowmobile, snowshoe and every other Colorado sport you can think of are trying to get *into* the mountains. This not very surprisingly created a massive traffic jam.

In fact, as we approached Georgetown we discovered the police were diverting everybody off I-70 and telling them to go back to Denver. Pathetic! We pulled over to the side of the road to wait it out. It was entertaining to watch everybody getting out of their cars to let their dogs play in the snow.

Starting out at 6am to try and get to Vail as early as possible. Photo by M. EsserAll traffic was being diverted off I-70 in Georgetown, so we smartly pulled over to the shoulder to wait it out. Photo by M. EsserThe guy behind us was sleeping, and only one car on I-70, the rest are in a line on the shoulder. Photo by M. Esser

Luckily, by 10am they gave the all clear signal and we were in the front of the line to head up the mountain and it’s on to Vail. After we passed by the Copper Mountain exit we soon realized that with I-70 being closed most the morning and it being closed the previous day as well, there was nobody on the road.

We finally arrived at 11:15am, nearly 6 hours after John and Shannon left this morning and the decision was made to wait until noon so we could buy a half-day pass. When we walked directly up to the ticket counter with barely any line we started to catch on to the idea that maybe CDOT setting off an avalanche was a good thing. As we walked up to the Gondola we didn’t even wait in a line. It was hard to believe we were at Vail.

Shannon getting ready for her first day at Vail. Photo by M. EsserShannon had quite the audience as we went down the first green, which was really a road. At least the background was awesome! Photo by M. EsserShannon getting ready to make a turn in the wide open green at Vail on a bluebird day. Photo by M. Esser

Yes, it was a good day. Shannon was tearing up the greens.

The main run back to Vail Village and nobody on it. This should give you goosebumps. John is down below waiting. Photo by M. EsserShannon wants to point out that to get to Vail Village you must make sure you miss the blacks. Photo by M. Esser

Eventually we made it all the way up to the top of Vail and were able to take some shots. The blue sky is great.

John and Shannon on top of Vail. Photo by M. EsserYours truly on top of Vail. The wind was starting to pick up. But look at the sky. Photo by J. Dulin

At the end of the day we wanted to find a hotel to stay the night to get another day of great skiing. However, it turned out that while nobody was in Vail today they still had the hotels all booked up for Presidents Day weekend. That was okay as we didn’t have staying the night planned anyhow and so we headed to Backcountry Brewery in Breckenridge and had some great food and beer and finished off a near perfect day in of skiing in Vail.

1 comment

  • Shannon says:
    March 8, 2007 at 4:24 pm

    Look at all the pow-pow!!! We wound up at copper on Sunday. I exhausted myself trying to make parallel turns. But I got better at it, so that was good. They just have such slow lifts for the green side of the mountain, but we got a full day in. Snow was good on the steeper green runs, really bad on the others becuase it was crowded! Not the fab 10″ of pow-pow like at Vail. We have to go at least one more time before the season is over. My new skis are 153′s (I rented 146′s) and they are noticeably faster–well, to me they were. Yikes!

    We’re going to Tulsa next weekend (the 17th) for my friend Ivy’s wedding, but let me know when you want to go ski next…or when you guys want to go out sometime! We’re here all weekend this weekend not doing anything. There’s a pet expo at the convention center :)

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