Perhaps I should have called this Beaver Creek Feb 2012 instead of Vail… We skied there three out of the four days due to crowds! I’ve had a long standing belief that I did not really like Beaver Creek, but after spending several more days there, I have really grown to love it.
The drive out was uneventful aside from Jen getting pulled over again. For those counting at home, I think that makes about six tickets Kansas has issued us. I hear their state budget is predicting a surplus by early next year.
Jen spent some time in Ski Jail and we were back on the road.
We stayed at The Roost this time which was very exciting. It is the only economy priced hotel in Vail. Like many things, the anticipation may have outpaced the reality.
There was not room to get better photos. Not pictured are the sheets so old they were see-through, the ascot sized towels, or the poisonous continental breakfast. Overall, I give it an B+. At least they had lamp shades! It did not have it’s own gondola like one of the houses we saw while exploring. Walking up the stairs is a real pain.
Being as it is Vail, the guy with his own private gondola didn’t even have the nicest house on the block.
We are booking that house next time. We just have to call for pricing. I’m hoping they price match The Roost.
Jen was not very amused with this backcountry run at Vail.
Perhaps it was the skull hanging from this sign.
Or maybe it was this three stage cliff we wisely chose to avoid. For the record, I think it’s totally doable… by people younger and more adventurous than myself.
This was a trip of playing with all kinds of new skis. Jen demo’d several types of new skis, including Patrick’s old favorite some Volkl Kenjas, and a few others. She even ended up deciding to buy a pair! As for me, I took some GS skis I scored on eBay into the bumps, trees and powder and remembered what it’s like to bust ass for every turn!
I’ll be keeping them on-piste where they belong from now on!
Later in the day we took advantage of their free professional photographers. I’m not real sure why we look less than completely stodgy and refined in a few of them, but I assure you we were not misbehaving and he was reprimanded.
The next day we found a very adventurous run in the Beaver Creek backcountry. It required a short hike, but gave us access to a very challenging snow filled run with a fun stream/canyon run out. Unfortunately, on our first run through we stumbled across an impassable cliff. After a touch of drama, we successfully avoided falling off it, threw our skis off the cliff and scaled down.
The cliff wasn’t the only thing that gave us trouble. The snow was really deep! Jen took a rest (read: tumble) and tried to hide her face so I couldn’t document it!
Later on Jen’s ski went under a tree root and she became very good friends with a small tree. I am worried she is going to become a druid.
Overall, it was a great run even if it did completely drain us. I think we are both still feeling it days later.
Jen even found time for a nap!
One of the neatest little parts of the trip was Jen’s repaired skis. After Big Sky took a Kansas sized tax on them, we dropped them off at our favorite ski shop and they put a little extra touch into it.