It was nothing but blue sky above Vail last Sunday. And although I usually gravitate towards the familiar terrain of the Back Bowls, I decided to cross the valley to Blue Sky Basin for a change.
A parting shot from China Bowl, which had me thinking of summer traverses of the summit cirque of Mount of the Holy Cross (center):
As usual I hit Two Elk lodge for lunch. The original building was burned down by arsonists with radical environmentalist rationalizations. I find that act incredibly ironic, given that most resort employees and probably execs work for ski companies because they love the land where they live. Although it's a business, they put a lot of work into making sure they don't screw things up for the future. But ELF had a different view of that future.
The kitchen there serves chocolaty, nutty heroin-like brownies, just about the only dessert I ever eat.
After lunch I moved over to Blue Sky, and talked with a rider on the way up about the terrain, since I'm not that familiar with it. I decided to head over towards Cloud 9, but dropped in right after Skree Field, a cliff-like drop into steep trees.
It was not as steep as the official start of Skree, but still abrupt. It was basically narrow blue-black mogul lines through trees spaced about 10 feet apart.
I could deal with the top section because there were bumps to stop on, but it soon degenerated into a steep, bat-shit-crazy luge run through tightly-spaced trees, without any way of stopping. I'm not nearly that good of a skier, so I bailed and bushwhacked over towards Cloud 9. I think this is one of the black runs but I'm not sure which:
I ended up lapping Pete's Express and really liked the bumpy glades to skier's left (leading back towards my bailout, but not quite as far).
I stayed around late to avoid traffic, walking the town for a while, along the river, and over to Lionshead. I was asked by well-heeled visitors if I knew of a good place to eat, but I'm too cheap to know any restaurants other than Joe's Deli in the Village.
With the 18-mile run into the foothills and the full ski day, it was a damned good athletic weekend.
Solid weekend - from the looks of it, skiing will be continuing for a while in the high country. Better late than never!
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