Breckenridge

I skied Breckenridge for the first time this season on Friday. The mountain was packed with skiers and boarders on a beautiful sunny day during winter break. It was one of those days with Colorado-blue skies touched now and again with snow white clouds. The snow report said 3" in the past 24 and 7" in the past 48.

I'm pretty sure the snow report lied. I would give them 1" in 24 and maybe 4" in the last 48. The groomers looked nice and fast, but they were pretty crowded with tourist skiers.

Tourist skiers are dangerous. Someone died at Breckenridge Friday. I heard he hit a tree. I don't know if he was a tourist or if he was thrown off course by a tourist, but I do know that I saw way more people than normal skiing on runs beyond their level and way more people than normal skiing and stopping erratically.

Anyway, since Friday also marked the passing of another completed year for me, I had decided that I had better ski like a man. I hunted powder off the T-bar and through the trees along the northernmost border of the mountain with much success. I skied some big soft bumps. Twice, I followed the sunshine around a corner at a very high rate of speed only to have the slope drop off in front of me to a steep set of hard moguls. I skied 'em like a pro: straight through with knees bouncing (uhh, and arms flailing). I went to the south side and burned down the icy paths below Falcon. On the rollers heading down to the Independence Super Chair, I successfully landed the longest launch of my career. It was a fine day of fine skiing, so I rewarded myself with a big lunch and a half-bottle of wine at Ten Mile Station at the top.

After relaxing and planning out the rest of my day of skiing, I went out to find that one of my poles had been stolen. I have know way of knowing whether it was an intentional or an inadvertent act, but my pole was nowhere to be found. I skied down the mountain and went home.

Jonathan 1/02/2005 01:47:00 PM