4/6/09

Day 42

Conditions: A true blue-bird day
Location: Breckenridge, CO

We got up early, put on our powder hunting pants and hopped on the Blue Bus for the Breckenridge gondola. We took some groomers, which were surprisingly fun because of the great snow conditions. When the T-Bar opened, we headed there for some runs through the trees. The great thing about Breck is that there is always fresh snow on the top half because of the high winds. Yesterday’s tracks are always covered up and soft by the next morning.

Once our legs were aching from riding the T-Bar, we hiked Lakechutes for the second day in a row. The Lakechutes hike is like purgatory: it doesn’t last forever, but it really sucks while you’re there. The hike is straight up; for a girl like me with shorter legs, the boot pack is always too far apart. The top half of Lakechutes was pretty crusty, but the second half was awesome: very deep, very dreamy. The only problem is that I was having so much fun I started powering into my turns instead of leaning back. You know what happens next: end-over-end white-washer with a nice in-air somersault. It was a true “oh shit” moment. I was thinking: well, here it is…the season ending injury; I guess I’ve dodged a lot of these, so I have it coming. Good thing the snow was soft. There didn’t seem to be any damage, just a few chucks of snow in the helmet and goggles.


Post Lakechutes, with our tracks in the background.


We spent the afternoon on E Chair in the trees. Then, we decided to hike to the outer chutes of Windows. Dirk described the hike as “just an easy, ½ mile walk. Thirty minutes and five pounds of sweat later, we were done with the uphill hike. We did reach some true, fresh tracks; the only bummer was that it was pretty flat. After that our legs were beat and so were we.


Hiking Windows.



I guess we are lucky we didn't hit any abandoned mine shafts.


Highlights:

- Doing two hikes in one day.
- Fluffy snow in the trees off of E Chair.
- We had a $25 coupon for lunch, so it only cost us forty cents.

Lowlights:

- During the glory of getting first chair, Dirk dished it – I mean really dished it – in the lift line in front of everyone.

Après Ski:

We went to the Breckenridge Brewery to eat and watch the first half of the game. The good news was that everyone in the bar was rooting for State; the bad news was that we were down by twenty points at half. We watched the rest of the loss in the solace of our condo. I cried through One Shining Moment...

Days to go: 8