2012/2013 Snowboarding Season in Review

This snowboarding season began with a slow start. Many of us in Colorado were hitting A-Basin in October along with the early season video premiers in Denver. The snow was only coming in spurts, the storms never “dumped” but the constant 2-4″ storms early season were enough to get a base formed at many of the resorts in Summit County.

Early season at Arapahoe Basin

Megan shredding Keystone on opening day.

This season was pretty spectacular, I rode about 85,000 vertical feet more than the 2011/12 season at Vail Resorts alone; and Megan and I managed to get in riding just about every weekend and even some epic weekday trips. This year we also took advantage of going to one of those ski movies called Warren Miller… for BOGO tickets at Monarch. The snow at Monarch is unreal. Actually that’s incorrect….The snow at Monarch Ski Area is ALL REAL!!! The natural base and snow is what makes this resort so incredible! Not only are they having an incredibly low impact on the local water sources, but they can have mediocre conditions one day and unbelievable conditions the next. The two times we  visited Monarch this season, they were epic! The snow of the southwest is unlike anything you have ever ridden. The consistency from the San Juan range to that of the Sawatch changes drastically while still remaining dry and fluffy.

Early season at Monarch after a 12″ dump! I LOVE BIG DUMPS!

This rock was completely covered later in the season!

Once January hit the Vail area, we caught two of the biggest storms they received this season. The bowls were incredible! Megan had the opportunity to ride at Vail when she was young, however this was my first season riding there. The terrain was great and the views were spectacular!

Megan ripping Blue Sky Basin

Megan has really progressed this season, her confidence and ability to stick landings off of natural features, as well as park obstacles, has been really fun to watch! We had the opportunity to make the trip to Durango and visit Megan’s brother, Tim, and meet his girlfriend, Taylor! They have since left Durango for Kauai and are loving their lives. The trip to Durango was fun; we drove into Silverton and took our dog, Astro, into the backcountry for a little half-mile trip as a test run. The snow was deep, and the whole week it just kept coming. When the time came to leave, I almost broke down into tears because it was snowing so hard. We drove all the way back to Colorado Springs with rain and snow until we were about 20 miles home and there were no clouds and no possibility of snow in the future. Sad day.

Silverton

Astro the powder hound

The snowy San Juan Peaks

Tim getting his back 3 down with a broken wrist

 

The painful drive home

Once we got home from Durango, we were serious about this season. All inhibitions were put aside and we were going hard! The conditions were only getting better in Summit County, so on MLK Day we decided to go check out Beaver Creek. They had just gotten a good storm and the night before I was driving Megan crazy because I couldn’t make up my mind where to go riding that weekend. We got an early 4:00AM. departure from Colorado Springs and rolled into the town of Beaver Creek right around 7:00AM. As we are going through the second round-about to park we got a phone call from Megan’s friend reminding us that it was a Blackout weekend. We had to drive an hour back to Keystone and when we got there they had us park in the overflow lot and take the shuttle to the mountain. We laughed about this whole change of plans and made the best of the day. I finally got enough confidence to hit the 25 and 30′ jumps at Keystone that day and also got some powder turns in on the North Bowl. We finished out the day with some beers and headed back to the car satisfied with our day.

Me hitting the last jump in I-70

We headed back to Monarch for another round of powder, this time with our awesome neighbor, Elliot, who is 51 years old and will kick my ass any day at skiing or mountain biking!

Two of my favorite people

The next special destination of the season was Winter Park, CO. The owner of the company I work for in the summer has a condo right at the base of Winter Park Resort. He and his wife invited Megan and me up to check out the mountain and enjoy each others company. We got there late in the evening but Robyn, Steve’s wife, had made us vegan lasagna as well as meat lasagna and we chowed! The next morning we woke up groggy and hit the slopes. The terrain at Winter Park is almost ALL MOGULS… not a snowboarder’s dream. The snow was pretty crappy and the runs were pretty lame. The snow was melting and we were all thinking the season was just about in the books. Unfortunately, the conditions of the snow that day were undesirable but we had great company and still managed to have fun later in the day as the snow softened up and hit the Pano Express.

Steve taking in the views

Looking toward Granby, CO

Just as we Coloradans were about to put up our winter equipment and start thinking about hiking, fishing, and mountain biking, mother nature threw us a twist! The late season storms began hitting hard and consistently. Breckenridge was furiously grooming Imperial Bowl so they could get the Spring Break crowd some extra terrain to brag about. Thankfully the Vail Resorts crews were able to make something out of nothing mid-season and opened up a lot of terrain we were lucky to get later in the season.

At the top of Horseshoe Bowl from the T-Bar looking into Breckenridge

Good late season snow at Breck

Into the heavens on North America’s high est lift

After all this snowboarding far away from Colorado Springs, I decided to take Astro up into the mountains of Colorado Springs… For some, you would have been disappointed. But for Astro and me, an afternoon snowshoe and quick descent on the lower portion of Mt. Almagre was exactly what we needed. The snow was thin and where it was deep, unstable. We didn’t get into any considerable elevation, but we were able to enjoy the day and the scenery of our local area.

I went back the next week and jumped off this rock, finding others in the process of landing! HAHA

Gaper Day. This year we attended because we had been searching Goodwill and other thrift stores all winter for some RAD outfits! This day is one for the books! There were so many laughs and I had a few too many beers and came up way too short on a jump at Breckenridge acting like a fool. I had the opportunity to take this old ’80s board out while wearing snow boots you would see your grandfather wearing to shovel snow. This was a humbling experience and I am forever grateful that I won’t have to wear that kind of gear seriously ever again thanks to modern technology!

Gapers

My knee was severely swollen

Fast forward to mid April; during the previous season the snow was already melting at this point. Not this year! The snow continued to fall and I was lucky enough to head up to Breck on a Sunday that they got 12″! I rode the t-bar and E chair until Independence opened and then was one of the first to hit the North Bowl that day!

Bright and early with my new Kevin Jones board

12″ 4/14/13

Ok, don’t trample me when I drop this rope dude!

The North Bowl madness

It was a good day.

Cinco De Mayo… Skip the BBQ and Corona! We hit up Pikes Peak or (Tavakiev) and did some backcountry! The snow wasn’t amazing this weekend but we went up the following weekend as well, after a 12″ dump, and had a blast! For those of you who have overlooked Pikes Peak for late season shredding, you are missing out! We rode the bowls, little Italy, and the Chimney.

The north bowl of Pikes Peak

Megan ripping the bowl

Amazing views atop

Little Italy

Chimney on lookers left / Little Italy right

Our (so we think) final trip this season was to A-Basin on May 26th. We drove up Highway 9 into Breck, stopped at the skatepark for a little bowl session then went over to the Basin for some t-shirt snowboarding. After we were done riding we got Astro from the truck, got some beers on the beach and then went to Denver for Cheba Hut and the Arvada Skatepark. This was an awesome trip! The skateparks were worth the stops and the whole day was exactly how I wanted it to go. We were thankful that the season was so long! Hopefully this summer will be beautiful but not too hot!

PANO

Breck skatepark

Nothing to lose

Happy kids

Dank sandwich

Arvada skatepark

 

We are looking forward to the next season already! Megan and I want to move to the high country whether it is in Colorado, Washington, or Oregon! If you have the same desire to live the good life, our paths will surely cross somehow! Until next winter, enjoy your summer adventures!

 

Breck-Stone

This past weekend Megan and I decided to go to Breckenridge. We have developed a poor opinion of Breck in past seasons and mostly, that is because we only go early or late season. However you feel about Breck, the crowds suck weekday or weekend so you gotta get there early before the mountain is crowded. We got up to the top of Rocky Mountain Superchair first thing and then took the t-bar up. Megan and I had never ridden a t-bar before so it was pretty awesome! I felt like I was in Europe, and the view of Breckenridge from the top was spectacular!

We had to take a few laps on 6chair before hitting Impreial. I went up alone on the first run because it was pretty windy and Megan wanted to warm up for a minute. The snow was AWESOME! I was one of the first 10 to the top of the peak and the blower powder was fun to slash into. I made a pretty sweet line headed right toward the warming hut by the top of 6chair and took a front flip tomahawk into a manual! Picked up Megan at the warming hut and did one more run, with another front flip! The blower powder makes the snow inconsistent so you may hit a deep pocket of powder that promptly sucks your nose into the snow, resulting in front fliping/ tomahawking down the mountain.

The mountain was incredibly well covered with snow, allowing for some rock drops and good pillow slashing. We rode terrain that wasn’t open at all last year, and our opinion of Breck has changed slightly.

We decided that we should move the car parked in town so we didn’t get a ticket, and headed towards Keystone. Megan was chilled to the bone from the wind and for the first time skipped out on riding Keystone. I went and rode A-51 for a few laps and the park was pretty boring by myself so I decided to go powder searching. Most everyone was determined to get some good turns in on north and south bowl so I decided to switch it up and look for some terrain off Wayback lift. Like at Breck none of these runs were open last season so I took the opportunity to do some exploring since I was by myself. There were some incredible runs off Wayback which I can only share with you in person. I had some really technical trees with pillow lines and some natural log jams. I came out of the trees by the base of Wayback and the lift operator said “I had that same smile on my face this morning”! Needless to say, the snow was fantastic and since nobody wanted to ride the slow lift, I was completely alone in the trees.

The thing I like most about picking fresh lines, is imagining someone else coming by later and examining your line. Whether you ski or snowboard I will be looking at your lines and deciding what creativity I want to add to what you have already laid down. The sport of snowboarding and skiing are so individually unique, however, we all look for similar lines and features. Enjoy your adventures and open your mind to new challenges and opportunities!