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Greetings from Vail, Colorado

11/15/12
US elsewhere
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Posted by joseph.szasz on 11/16/12 6:52am
Hey all you PNW skier's and splitboarders. I recently moved to Vail to work and its a dry but beautiful place. Kind of the anti-PNW in many ways. Today was opening day and I got out for some beautiful spring like turns. 14 inches on average of natural snow! Be carefull what you wish for when it comes to sunshine!!!
Maybe anti PNW in terms of clouds vs. sunshine, but anti PNW in terms of beautiful?  Don't think so!   Beautiful if you like a narrow canyon, a busy and very noisy interstate. 

Come to Crested Butte if you want beautiful!  And the highest percentage of DB's in the US (Alpental may be right there with Mt Cb). 

Ps. Was in the i70 ski corridor the past two days on biz and like here in CB, the only runs that are open are on man made snow.  The rest are sparse and otherwise unskiable. Pray for snow.

Hey Joe! Way to get after it, elsewhere! I do believe you will be missing the St. Joe's, Bitterroot's, and Selkirk's much, though ;p Let us know how the BC goodies are down there.

And when it finally does snow - it will avalanche on you!

And all the best skiing has an interstate running through it.

And where it's not mountains, it's a high and dry desert with no redeeming value.

But at least pot is legal.

author=MW88888888 link=topic=26111.msg110299#msg110299 date=1353125362]


But at least pot is legal.


Like Washington State...

http://vimeo.com/34057423

From a dry year, but in the resort.  You can access this 4th class climb by walking or skinning (before the lifts open...  Then they frown), or by taking a lift to within 300 yards or so from the base of the climb.  From a distance it looks very steep and I suppose sections are, but a very cool climb for sure. 

It snowed here last night, but things are still thin.  Wednesday is our official opening, but if interested in this area of CO, save your money until the entire mountain is open.  To say there are ample BC opportunities in the West Elk's is an understatement.  What a beautiful but understated area.

I have to agree with TonyM.

I grew in Aspen, always an unfair rival to Vail, and as we always used to say...

"Vail. A freeway runs through it."

But, I hope you enjoy your time. You'll certainly enjoy a lot of great snow and even better weather - things I sadly miss hear in the PNW.

[img width=800]http://photos.imageevent.com/banos/bcskiingtablemtn/huge/IMG_4926_Panorama.jpg" />
[img width=800]http://photos.imageevent.com/banos/mtbakerskiapril10/huge/P4100393_Panoramashrp_1.jpg" />
[img width=800]http://photos.imageevent.com/banos/swiftcreekpow/websize/P1030536b3shrp.jpg" />
[img width=800]http://photos.imageevent.com/banos/mtbakerskiapril10/large/P4100387shrp.jpg" />
[img width=800]http://photos.imageevent.com/banos/shannonridgehikeskinskimay17182012/huge/P1020971_Panorama.jpg" />
[img width=800]http://photos.imageevent.com/banos/shannonridgehikeskinskimay17182012/huge/P1020981_Panoramacrp.jpg" />

[img width=800]http://photos.imageevent.com/banos/misc2/large/Baker%20snow.jpg" />

personally..  I'll take the PNW  ;)

Banosser change is nice sometimes and using all your gear year round is nice sometimes to. (Just got back from the desert) pastmyprime I think your right. This area is so beautiful with some prime hut skiing and big lines like on Mount of the Holy Cross. I won't be here for ever but I'm really glad I came here. And by anti-PNW i meant instead of Subaru's at a trailhead in the rain with tele skiers your at a trailhead in the sun with a land rover and dynafits! I'll post pictures soon and for the record I've skied in the backcountry all but two of the last 18 days and we are jealous of mount bakers snow statistics!

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greetings-from-vail-colorado
joseph.szasz
2012-11-16 14:52:46