First Ski Day Winter 2013-2014.

[CATEGORIES: Skiing, Travel.] Wed. 5 Nov. 2013 was my first day skiing this season.  Ski area of choice, and season pass: Copper Mountain, Colorado.  It is very early in the ski season but the snow was decent.  Copper is very good at making and grooming man-made snow but that kind of snow can be very …

FRESH POW, Powder Skiing, Copper Mountain Colorado, 05Mar2013

[POW: Ski culture vernacular for powder snow.  This isn't about gun control.] It SHOULD have been a powder day.  Snowfalls have been better recently: There was a brief but fierce  blizzard in Summit County yesterday (Mon. 4Mar2013) with 2 major pile-ups on I-70 just a couple of miles from here, one with 25 cars and …

Copper Mountain & Winter Park Skiing Update, Ski Apps and Run Tracking, 29 Jan-7 Feb 2013

I'm on a roll.  I posted to the blog twice in one day 6 Feb, skied a few hours that afternoon, and I'm catching up on Season 1 of Walking Dead that I've DVR'd. (Today, 7 Feb, was the BEST day of this ski season.  5-6 inches of powder.  It shows how starved for soft …

Copper Mountain, Winter Park Colorado Skiing Update, StarDate 01:18:2013

[Click on photos to enlarge if you like, then use your browser's Back function to return to the post.  All photos taken with an iPhone5.] Winter is in full swing.  Who needs snow?! As you can see there IS snow.  Christmas storms were moderately generous.  'More' ski runs are open and skiing is 'better' though …

Early Season Skiing, Arapahoe Basin and Copper Mountain, Summit County Colorado

If it wasn't for snowmaking there wouldn't be any skiing at all yet this 2012-2013 ski season.  But there is snowmaking.  A friend gave me a free pass to Arapahoe Basin Ski Area and I used it on 31 October, Halloween Day.  It was my earliest start in a very very long time.  (Click on …

The End of Ski Season

You won't believe this. Last Thursday morning my 72 year-old ski bud who I ski with at Copper Mountain a lot called me at the condo. He and his wife had gone to Steamboat for a couple of days early in the week, he to ski, she to relax. On his first run he got …

Skiing as it should be

Dateline: Copper Mountain Ski Area, 29 March 2011. 12" of snow in the last 24 hours, 24" in the last 48.  12F in Silverthorne this morning, meaning the snow should be reasonably light.  (Warmer spring temperatures generally mean spring snows will have a higher water content and thus be heavier in weight and require more …

Skiing, just another grrrrr8 day!

(Hmmm.  Was that today, Fri. 11 Feb., or yesterday?  Maybe it was TWO great days.  The snow has been soooo good this winter the days just all run together like a blur.) Regardless, I was awesome today.  King of the hill.  A veritable LEGEND in my own mind.  Walter Mitty had nothing on me, and …

Awwwwesome Skiing, Duuudes!

(A layman's primer on great ski snow, for my coastal friends.) This winter in Colorado has been drop-dead gorgeous for skiing.  What makes for good ski snow, my flatlander California friends might ask?  LOTS of snow, concurrently with cold temperatures.  The quantity of snow covers all the rocks and trees on ski slopes.  If you've …

Rocker Tip Skis, an observation

I saw a ski patrol guy (i.e. reallllly good skier) skiing them moderately fast on a snow-packed traverse road yesterday.  Rockers are the latest rage, a very wide ski with very little curve at the waist.  The tips and tails both curve upwards very pronounced and prominent.  This wideness and curve is intended to give …