Spring Break 2015

Top of Winter Park

 Last week was spring break, so once again the crew assembled for our last trip of the ski season. Kyle, Tyler and I made the drive out to Kansas City to pick up Chris.  Our rendezvous point was Cooper’s house, and being tradition, we all peeing on the side of his house. From there, we continued west throughout the night, seeing our first glimpse of sunlight over Berthood Pass.

Chris about drop into Eagle Wind

He looks so tough

We skied Winter Park Friday, mainly sticking to the trees on the Eagle Wind side. Tyler, Chris and I were dropping pillows left and right. That evening we drove over to Pam’s house to watch some basketball and catch up. Saturday we made the drove down the 70 corridor towards Copper, only to turn around because Chris had lost his wallet. Turns out it was in the truck the whole time. Cooper, as always, was good, fast, long runs.

Copper's Back Side

Copper Mtn.

Kyle and I

From Copper, we drove North West to Steamboat, where we would spend the remaining days of our trip. Christian also joined the group in steamboat, but had to fly back on Tuesday.

The Town of Steamboat

Steamboat from the Top

Chris and I

Steamboat had true spring conditions; grass and mud were starting to show through the snow. The days would start out icy and hard pack and by lunch it was warm and slushy. Most days, I skied in only a base layer.

Strawberry Hot Springs

Fish Pot Creek falls

Some acorn home-run derby

We walked around town after skiing every day and made it up to strawberry Hot Springs one evening. One morning I went for a drive and ended up on some windy mountain road. I saw a sign for a waterfall, so I parked the truck and started hiking. I end up at Fish Pot Creek Falls, mainly iced over but there was some water coming out. About half way through the trip, we finally saw a break in the weather and copper got 4 inches of fresh snow.

Driving to Copper for the freshies

Chris got up close and personal with the fresh snow

Kyle loves him some Copper

We all woke up at 6am to make the trek down for the fresh snow. We even skied one night at steamboat, but didn’t last long as we also skied during the day and our legs were dead.  Overall, the trip was great, nothing like skiing 8 days with your buddies in warm weather.

Night Skiing

The crew

Here are some picture from the trip and nice video of Tyler styling a pillow. Enjoy, until the next adventure.

Tyler hitting a pillow from CEA Productions on Vimeo.

First Day on the Saint for 2015

Cat's Paw

As winter quickly leaves the Midwest, and the warm sun melts all of the remaining snow. Only one thing comes to my mind, saint season. 

Larry Shredding Cat's Paw

This last Saturday, I meet rick, Larry and Dan for the first real run of the 2015 season. The saint was a healthy 15 inches when we put-on and with the warm sun defrosting the ground, 25 inches was our ending level. 

Eye on the prize!

Getting some surf on!

Rick surfing Double Drop

We all enjoyed a nice long run and as we approached mud creek, it was rocking. Rick and I shouldered our boats and made the hike up. With a solid safety crew watching our backs, Rick and I ran mud creek. This was my personal first decent of the creek, I wish I would have been in my creek boat instead of my play boat, but overall it was a great run. 

Mud Creek Safety Crew

Here is a little video to enjoy; I didn't put any music to it as I feel the commentary is great. Enjoy, until the next adventure. 

Mud Creek 3/7/2015 from CEA Productions on Vimeo.

President's Day 2015

Colorado!

It’s hard to believe but after this last ski trip, I now have 21 days skiing Colorado for this season. For President’s Day weekend; Mike, Tyler and I flew out for 4 days of skiing.

Sunny and Warm

When we arrived in Denver, the temperature was 30 degrees warmer then St. Louis. The first two days of skiing were warm and sunny days on the mountain, but the snow was nice and soft. Saturday we headed over to Copper and mainly stayed on the back side of the resort. We even hiked up Copper bowl and traversed over to Tucker Mountain, where we found some nice powder stashes.

Tyler on top of Copper Bowl

Mike on top of Copper Bowl

Mike skiing the bowl, can you see him?

There he is!

This was also Tyler’s first attempt at side country skiing. Sunday a cold front moved in and dropped 6 inches overnight. Another 2 inches fell during the day on Monday, making Monday a sweet powder day. Tyler and I headed over to the Eagle Wind territory for the goods, tree and pillow skiing!

Tyler hitting a pillow!

Typical Tyler take off, guess what happens next?

The flight home was a bit crazy with an hour and a half delay, putting me home around 1:30 am Tuesday morning. Overall it was a great trip with better than expected snow conditions. Enjoy the pictures, until the next adventure.

MLK 2015

Sun starting to come up in STL

Once again, I was headed out to Colorado for MLK weekend. I flew out Friday morning, with the sun chasing me; I made it to Denver before it came up. I woke up in St. Louis at 4am and was skiing Colorado by 11am, not too bad. This time the snow was much different than the Christmas trip. 

Blue Bird day!

Colorado hadn't received any real big storms and with warm weather, most of the snow had become hard pack. One morning I was lucky enough to get 2 inches of fresh snow, so excited for the snow I was up extra early and got the 6^th chair up the mountain.

Fresh Tracks

After 3 days of skiing Winter Park I was over the hard pack. Sunday night my buddy Nate came up and crashed at Pam’s with me. In the morning we headed up to Butler’s Gulch to see what the back country snow looked like.

Skinning up

We skinned for about 2 hours, climbing about 2500 vertical feet. The snow was much better as the surrounding mountains protected it from the sun and wind.  It was my first day in the Back County and this flat lander was sucking some air on the climbs.

Up top

 Overall, it was a great trip with OK snow. I stayed at Pam’s house the whole time, she is truly awesome! For Christmas I got a GoPro pole, so enjoy the short video I made. Enjoy, until the next adventure.

Nate taking off his skins

Butler Gulch

Bear Claw

MLK Weekend 2015 (Enhanced) from CEA Productions on Vimeo.

Winter Break 2014-2015

Powder!

From Thanksgiving to Christmas, Colorado saw a high pressure system that prevented any snow for duration of two weeks.   I emailed the group, preparing them for the worst, hard groomed runs. Then during Christmas week, a Low pressure system from the West Coast came across and hammered Colorado.

Heading to Colorado in the Snow

While we weren't able to be out there for the really deep days, we were able to catch 5 of 8 days of skiing with fresh snow. This year group included Chris, Cal Mike, the Roth brothers and I. Kyle, Chris and I headed out from St. Louis the day after Christmas and headed to Denver Airport where we picked up Mike and Dave form Cali.

Chris looking good

All loaded in the truck, we headed up to Pam’s house to spend two days skiing winter Park. Pam recently bought a very nice condo in the Fraser Valley, about 10 minutes from Winter Park.  While the Eagle Wind area was still closed, but the rest of the mountain was open. The trees were deep and powdery! We saw fresh snow both days we skied winter park. After our last day of skiing be headed to Pam’s to packed the truck and began the long trek south to Crested Butte

All the Skiers

Dave looking good

Driving to Crested Butte

Crested Butte's Village

The drive from winter park to Crested Butte was about 4 hours and we had two passes to go up and over. On a normal day the drive isn't bad but we encountered snow that made us drive only 35 mph and unable to make out the road lanes.  We stopped off in Salida Colorado for some famous Amicas pizza. 

Chris forgot his goggles or so he says 

This was everyone’s first time to CB. Southern Colorado was still a little behind in the snow and high winds had blown the snow off on the peaks, because of this, about half of the runs were still closed. We arrived with 6 inches of fresh snow, and headed to the tress. Chris and I were able to find some cool pillows to drop and a local worker told us to hike along a small ridge to drop down into some POW stashes.

Just another day of driving

No Caption needed

Skiing a Chute in CB

View from the parking lot

CB village

By looking at the mountain, it was clear that Crested butte was steep, now if only the backside would have been opened. After great 3 days of skiing CB we headed back north to good ol’ Georgetown, for some home sweet home living.

Heading for the Trees

selfie

Lunch break

Backside view

Hiking for the goods

2015!!

Ski Boss!

As we settled into the Super 8, we quickly find out how tight it was in a two bedroom hotel with 5 guys. Gear and packs were everywhere, but the smell of man was not to strong thanks to our lonely air freshener we brought. The day after driving from Crested Butte, we went back to winter park of another day and to take Pam out for some food as a thank you for welcoming us into her house. 

Leaving CB

Winter Park tress!

The next day, we all headed up to Copper for some long fast runs. Chris and I split from the group to head to the back bowls and I led us down a nice completely moguled out run. It was nice a way to warm up the legs on the first run. From there we headed up to Union Bowl, and the conditions were actually pretty nice for not having any new snow in the last couple of days. 

First full moon of 2015!

The next day, we all headed up to Copper for some long fast runs. Chris and I split from the group to head to the back bowls and I led us down a nice completely moguled out run. It was a nice way to warm up the legs on the first run. From there we headed up to Union Bowl, and the conditions were pretty nice for not having any new snow in the last couple of days. 

Coming back from Copper, 70 traffic

Winter Park

The last day we skied Winter Park because of logistics. In the morning we had to drop off Mike’s gear with his buddy Paul, and then we were only able to ski till 2pm because Dave had to get to the Airport to make his flight. Our last day it snowed all day on us, and by the time we left Winter Park, 3 inches lay on the truck. The drive to Denver Airport was not bad but with the continuing snow the roads were starting to get worse

Copper's Backside

70 Closed

As we left Denver, we heard on the radio that 70 was closed about an hour east of us, as we drove, Chris, Kyle and I all were wishing it wasn't true. We entered Limon Colorado and 70’s gates were closed and we had to leave the highway. After talking to a cop, we started the drive down highway 40 to bypass the closed 70 section. In the end, we made it home the next morning, but because of the detour and snow/ice covered highway the drive took an additional 4.5 hours to complete. Overall the trip was great, with the best December snow conditions I’ve experienced in the 4 years of trips. Here are some pictures of the trip. Enjoy, until the next adventure.

This guy