Trip to Breckenridge, Arapahoe Basin, Vail 04/19-04/23/2007

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Originally uploaded by msihl.

This past Thursday evening, I was flying into Denver (as usual with Frontier), picked up a rental car at Thrifty and drove up to Silverthorne, which is located in the middle of Summit County with access to all of the famous ski areas. I checked into my motel (Luxury Inn & Suites, cheap but very clean and nice with pool and hot tub) and drove to Breckenridge to check out the place. The next day, I went boarding at Breckenridge, but the snow was not very good and only a few lifts were open, so I decided to drive to Arapahoe Basin. A-Basin is only 15 miles or so from Breck and shares the same lift ticket, so I didn't have to pay again. Again, the snow quality wasn't that brilliant, but I can see how the famous East Wall is a lot of fun in powdery conditions. Keystone and Copper Mountain were already closed, so I couldn't go there. When I got on the lift for the second time in Breck, I dislocated my knee (first time experience), because I was talking to the lift guy, facing him, and the chair came crushing into my leg. Fortunately, it popped back in, so I was able to continue riding, although it hurt a lot for about an hour. On Saturday, I drove to Vail and boarded there for the whole day. Vail is a huge ski areas (one of the biggest in the US) and has many backcountry bowls with relatively easy access. However, the snow quality was far from optimal. But then it started to snow heavily in the afternoon and continued to snow through the night. I left Vail around 3pm to make it to Breckenridge in time for the Ky-Mani Marley show (Spring Massive Festival). I really enjoyed the show, there were a couple of hundred people at the Riverwalk Stage, it was snowing like crazy and freezing cold, but Ky-Mani rocked the crowd. His repertoire includes Reggae and Hip-Hop. The best day in terms of snowboarding was Sunday, because of the fresh snow and because the opened the Lake Chutes. They are lots of fun and the snow conditions were a lot better than the previous days. Plus, one has to hike up 160 vertical feet from the highest chair lift in North America (see pictures) to the top of Peak 8, so it wasn't too crowded. The hike is exhausting, because of the altitude of almost 4000 meters. It was totally worth it though. I did the hike 5 times and was completely beat up afterwards but happy! I ended the last day of the season in Colorado (with the exception of A-Basin) at 3pm watching some kids hitting a kicker into watery snow at the bottom of Peak 8, splashing everybody standing in line for the lift.