Since I live here, I might as well go skiing

Whether it's to make my friends jealous, or to apease those looking for pictures, or just cause I like the sport, I finally went skiing again out here. I say again, cause Julie & I did get in a few days during our Christmas visit. But we didn't use two of the tickets for Arapahoe Basin (known as just A-basin) so that's where I went. It's up near Silverthorne, so about 2 1/2 hours from Grand Junction. But when I've already paid for the tickets, it's worth the drive. Especially since my in-laws were willing to put me up for the night, and they live 10 minutes from the hill.

So last Saturday, I got up really early, drove up to Summit County, had breakfast with the inlaws, picked up my ski gear, and hit the mountain. The day was overcast, so pretty flat lighting, but conditions were otherwise excellent as they have been getting dumped on on a weekly basis with fresh snow. For those of you that have been to Abasin before, let me tell you, you need to go back. About a month ago they just opened up this new backside called the Montezuma bowl. It added about 80% to their skiable acre-age. And it's sweet. All blue, black , & double black. Here's a shot from the lift of the double black section on day one, just calling my name.

Obviously you can see how grey the sky was on that day. So take the flat lighting, add in that you have to do a 5 minute hike to get over there, and I wimped out on hitting those runs....on day 1. But I did spend the whole day on the back side, as the other runs back there are awesome.

Day 2: after enjoying a wonderful homecooked dinner sat night, and another nice breakfast sun morning, I was back on the slopes again. Staying so close, I got a nice early start. And the weather was amazing. Here's a shot of most of the Montezuma bowl from the top.

You can't really see the sky there, for how nice the day was, so here are some more shots. First up is that ridge that I said you have to hike to. And yes, on day 2 I did it. Hiked up, skiied along the ridge, dropped in where other skiers were (there's gotta be something like safety in numbers, right?), and made my way down it. It was pretty sweet. If I was in better shape I would've done it more than just once (both the hike with ski gear, and the actually skiing down the steeps takes alot out of you...and I ski with a camelback backpack). You can also see two other ski hills off in the distance: Breckenridge, and Keystone.

OK, so here's another cool shot. I wasn't even trying to do this as a panoramic shot, but I just realized here at home that I could combine these two shots to show you the other side of the Montezuma bowl, and how beautiful the scenery is. Yes I skiied this ridge too. Actually about 3 or 4 times (there was no hiking involved), and you could drop into some wide blues, or ride the ridge all the way to the trees, which some get pretty tight and steep too, but it was all fun.

And the other cool thing about Abasin is the altitude. More than half of the mountain is above tree line. And if you've never skied above treeline, you really should. It's so neat, as it feels like you could ski anywhere. And you probably could, cause there's no trees to define the runs. They groom a few paths, as suggestions of where to ski, but they're just suggestions, as the good snow is off the beaten path (so to speak). And here in the states, everything in bounds is still labeled pretty well, warning you where there's little snow cover (aka rocks sticking out) or where the easy way down is. So I'll close this post with a nice shot of the front side of A basin. Where I did ski for the last hour or so of Day 2 before heading back to the Junction.

So who's coming out to visit next ski season?