Originally posted by Courtney
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Skiboard Connection 2020 Event Recap
I flew in on Monday, so I missed the Copper day which didn’t work out for much of the group for various reasons.
Tuesday at Vail: We had a great start with 7” of fresh powder. Most of our day was spent in the trees off Blue Sky Basin. We rode 25,625 vertical feet, resulting in 25.4 miles skied. Top speed: 44 mph. No lift lines.
Wednesday at Breckenridge: We had about 1” of fresh powder over night, with about 5” the previous day. We were still finding some decently deep snow in the tight trees where others didn’t dare venture. Despite the super cold temperatures and below zero wind chills, we made 22 runs in 6 hours with most of that time spent in the trees. We rode 31,492 vertical feet, resulting in 31.1 miles skied. Top speed: 54.1 mph. No lift lines.
Thursday at Keystone: We were originally planning to head back to Vail today, but decided to hit Keystone so we wouldn’t get stuck at Vail if they closed the pass. Keystone was perfect - another day with a nice amount of fresh powder and snow falling all day. We were getting free refills the whole time we rode. We spent the day in the trees in the Outback and burning calories skating the cat track back to the lift. We rode 20,922 vertical feet, resulting in 22.3 miles skied. Top speed: 50.4 mph. No lift lines.
Friday at Keystone: 19” of snow fell in 24 hours. I-70 from Denver was open long enough to get the resorts packed. Although the powder was awesome, the lines were not. I was only able to make 4 runs in 2 hours due to the lines, though they weren’t nearly as bad as people were reporting at Vail (1-2 hour lines at several lifts). The deep snow paired with wind gusts up to 60 mph resulted in a lot of terrain being closed for avalanche mitigation. Lifts were running slower than usual due to wind and gondolas were not running. I rode only 7,618 vertical feet (7 miles skied) before I called it quits - the lines and increasing crowds and winds weren’t worth the limited terrain that was open. Top speed: 38 mph.
Close out: I-70 back to Denver was closed Friday, so everyone who was able to make it up was stuck there. Emergency shelters were opened and people probably spent way too much on any remaining hotel rooms in the area. Saturday morning we headed back to Denver and there were steady cars trying to get up the mountain almost the entire way.
Overall, it was another awesome event. We couldn’t have asked for better conditions. With the exception of the last day, the resorts weren’t at all busy.
I flew in on Monday, so I missed the Copper day which didn’t work out for much of the group for various reasons.
Tuesday at Vail: We had a great start with 7” of fresh powder. Most of our day was spent in the trees off Blue Sky Basin. We rode 25,625 vertical feet, resulting in 25.4 miles skied. Top speed: 44 mph. No lift lines.
Wednesday at Breckenridge: We had about 1” of fresh powder over night, with about 5” the previous day. We were still finding some decently deep snow in the tight trees where others didn’t dare venture. Despite the super cold temperatures and below zero wind chills, we made 22 runs in 6 hours with most of that time spent in the trees. We rode 31,492 vertical feet, resulting in 31.1 miles skied. Top speed: 54.1 mph. No lift lines.
Thursday at Keystone: We were originally planning to head back to Vail today, but decided to hit Keystone so we wouldn’t get stuck at Vail if they closed the pass. Keystone was perfect - another day with a nice amount of fresh powder and snow falling all day. We were getting free refills the whole time we rode. We spent the day in the trees in the Outback and burning calories skating the cat track back to the lift. We rode 20,922 vertical feet, resulting in 22.3 miles skied. Top speed: 50.4 mph. No lift lines.
Friday at Keystone: 19” of snow fell in 24 hours. I-70 from Denver was open long enough to get the resorts packed. Although the powder was awesome, the lines were not. I was only able to make 4 runs in 2 hours due to the lines, though they weren’t nearly as bad as people were reporting at Vail (1-2 hour lines at several lifts). The deep snow paired with wind gusts up to 60 mph resulted in a lot of terrain being closed for avalanche mitigation. Lifts were running slower than usual due to wind and gondolas were not running. I rode only 7,618 vertical feet (7 miles skied) before I called it quits - the lines and increasing crowds and winds weren’t worth the limited terrain that was open. Top speed: 38 mph.
Close out: I-70 back to Denver was closed Friday, so everyone who was able to make it up was stuck there. Emergency shelters were opened and people probably spent way too much on any remaining hotel rooms in the area. Saturday morning we headed back to Denver and there were steady cars trying to get up the mountain almost the entire way.
Overall, it was another awesome event. We couldn’t have asked for better conditions. With the exception of the last day, the resorts weren’t at all busy.
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