OFFICIAL 2011 "The Gathering" Trip report!!!!

It turned out to be a great day, but then it usually does when a buncha Bears get together!!

Heck, I met a coupla new bears, MerryDog, Fairtomidlin(sp) ......and a few others who met for apres' ski.....got to meet up with a buncha old bears(errrrrr, bears I've known for some time) and catch some untracked at Vail......

Rachel, it was great skiing with you again, sorry you had to leave, but looking forward to some May Madness with you!

CoSkiGirl, Nice guiding!!

I was in the same group as KingGrump and his report was right on.  Afternoon 5 runs in China Bowl were mostly excellent low angle powder, excellent terrain selection by our guides for the day's conditions.  Some more challenge in the trees and especially that powder over bumps run on Log Chute.  We stayed in town for dinner, left ~7:45, unfortunately got trapped by the second Vail pass closure for 20 minutes, but made it to Comfort Inn 9:20.

The group skied about 22,000 vertical.

EpicMix Sunday Vail stats for group of 9 led by Mr Vertical:

22,548 ft vertical!

 Thanks all for a Grand day, what started out as rough riding, turned into a fine day!

  Next few days should be Dandy!!

   Enjoy!

yesterday was some freaky weather, you could see it rolling in at just about 11, charcoal black cloud line with some serious winds, there lightening strikes at Mid and then a heavy bout of pea-sized now pellets (not really grapple) then it just stated puking. In about an hour the mountain transformed from frozen to powder. The lifts re-opened and it was game-on.  COskigirl, Robin did a great job of taking us into North woods and we hit some great untracked to the right of thr lift along the face and under the lift down the lift line through some fun stuff, trees, bumps small features and such. It was a great day. I had a great fall-rolll and landed back on my feet! 

Finn, I didn't think you were going to ski until today.  I knew you wouldn't be able to wait.  Have fun today in what sounds like great conditions.

I had a fantastic time guiding my group around some favorite stashes.  Phil is right, after one foray into another area of the mountain that produced vertigo we stuck to **** and had lots of fun in various lines.  Thanks to everyone for making my job easy (and to Phil for what are some favorite pics of me skiing ever!).  Hope you all are having fun at Breck today, looking forward to tomorrow at A-basin! 

Great day at appropriately nicknamed "Brecken-fridge"--man, was it windy again today!

The snow was sensational, definitely something for everyone.  Many thanks to Kneale Brownson for guiding our group today.  The terrain choices were spot-on and the occasional ski tips always appreciated.  Thanks also to Trekchick and Philpug for outfitting me on some demo skis for the day (I'll post my official "review" of them later!).  And thanks, Comprex and BatGirl, for the swanky new poles.  I will spike them in your honor!

Looking forward to another sunny and hopefully slightly less windy day at the Basin tomorrow!

The Cube (thanks, Old Boot!)

If it was windy up there again today I think I'm glad I missed.  Two sessions of microdermabrasion this week is probably enough.   Glad y'all had fun. See you in da mornin'!

well, I wasn't then I was going to just ski some easy stuff, then it puked, so I figured if I crashed, the soft landing would be OK... are you buying any of this?  Good news is a little dizzy after the 1st day and very tired, today, not dizzy, just very tired..  Wish you were here doc!  

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pwdrhnd 

Finn, I didn't think you were going to ski until today.  I knew you wouldn't be able to wait.  Have fun today in what sounds like great conditions.

crazy fun day today, catching first tracks off Horseshoe bowl; riding the t-bar up in 50mph winds. But oh, so worth the pain.  Snow conditions were a bit stiff but certainly good,  Rode DPS rp112's today. Loved it.  the 190 is sweet.  

I'm not so good at action shots; I only do really creepy portraits.

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Finn, I am glad that all is well but there is a reason I suggested you not go...because I knew you wouldn't be able to "slow down".  Enjoy!!

19,958 ft reported by EpicMix for the MasterRacer group. Should be higher but I've never skied in 50-60mph winds before like

we encountered on Wale Tail on Imperial lift.3 runs later we hit the peak 7 bar early at 3:00pm.

Wind on 5 runs in Horseshoe Bowl &  many T-bar rides didn't help.

According to A-Basin's website, a bit more wind is in store for us tomorrow.  Weather.com is predicting winds at 23 mph which might seem almost calm compared to some of today's gusts!

Wow!  What a day!  The most difficult part was choosing which group to head up with.  I know finding enough guides has been problematic in the past but we had a whole bunch of good ones to show us around Breck today.  The group that I ended up with (thanks for the nudge, Uncle Louie) was really incredible.  From first run to last we ripped it pretty hard, stayed together and for the most part stayed out of each others' way.  It was a great pleasure to ski with all of you!

Three cheers for our leader, MastersRacer.  He got us to some really nice snow on some awesome parts of the mountain.  He even invited us into his House.  This is where I sacrificed my orange pants and a few drops of blood to Ullr.  In retrospect, I guess I should have sacrificed the other pant leg to Njord. 

Thanks for the duct tape MR.........hey everybody, look at my butt!

Really fun runs were had in the E chair area, Mine Shaft being a personal fave.  We skied Mine Shaft right after lunch at the Peak 9 Restaurant.  MR told us we had to climb up the fairly short pitch behind said eatery.  Today this meant climbing against a stiff head wind.  I looked back down after the first few of us had finished the climb and couldn't see MR anywhere.  For a moment I imagined him going back in for dessert and saying to himself, "I can't believe that all fell for that old trick!"  Little did I know that this windy climb would be dwarfed in the next couple of hours.

One of the many stellar runs today was on Whale's Tail.  I thought the ride up Imperial was brutally cold and windy but the long, slow, climbing traverse was.... ...well, being pelted with big, hard snow pellets for a run yesterday was an intense experience but that traverse in sustained 50+ mph winds certainly topped it.

I don't have much experience with open bowl skiing but the runs today were just spectacular.  Skiing the steeps beside sunlit marbles of slough skittering along the slightly crusty surface of snow like an exaltation of larks was just incredible =)

We even managed to find some deserted groomers to leave our signatures on as we exited this fine mountain for the day.

Wow!

Sounds like some minor whining to me. LOL

Hey, they don't call it "Breckenfridge" for nothing, or "Breckenwind" for nothing.

It's a great mountain reguardless BF, isn't it?

Did you ski a run called Mustang? A great bump run as is The Burn, trees and bumps all together. Nice.

A big, big, shout out for Uncle Louie, guide extraordinaire. Breck is his home mountain and he took Me, Bazzer, Mahthias99 and Garyskr out for one spectacular day of skiing. The man knows where the pow stashes lay. Wind? Come on now. No pissin' and moanin' on a pow day. And yes, I made and skied with some friends on a pow day. Bazzer skis entirely too good for a marine photographer from Miami with 6 years on skies.

this is disturbing on many levels however the wonders of the simple soybean never cease. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by segbrown 

I'm not so good at action shots; I only do really creepy portraits.

 

 

 

hmm, at least he's a good guy!  

 

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Beardski - wins "accessory of the day" award

Philpug - alien leprechaun

JohnL - wearing a helmet!?!

MdSkier - wearing new duds!?!

Bumpfreaq - loads of mojo even without psychedelic helmet

Keep the shots coming.  Looks like too much fun.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Philpug 

From the bathroom at Bart & Yeti's...

 

 

 

 

Men's or Ladies ? 

When's RETRO day???

Nice photos!

(why does a social site get more ski pics than a dedicated ski site?...)

From this pic of trekchick:

Gettin' some angles girl! Sweet. You should send this to coach Robin.

It's cold and windy.

You like blue...are those poles blue?

Look at the early rise, rocker of the dps skis. The downhill weighted ski is really bending up at the tip. Not so much in the middle.

Would we conclude these are too stiff for her? Can't tell from one photo.