Good day on the slopes! Read on for details.
Last night, some new people moved into the condo above us, and they apparently stayed up all night long walking around. And, I think they might have been doing some sort of construction in the room above my bedroom.
For some reason, it took me forever to fall asleep last night. I read for a little while first, but then tried to fall asleep, and it just wasn’t working for me. I’ve had pretty good luck for the rest of the trip, but not last night. I’ve generally been waking up a few times during the night, but I’ve been able to fall asleep pretty quickly, until last night. Anyway, I got up around 6:15 this morning. I’m trying to push myself earlier and earlier in preparation for Saturday. We want to leave here by 5am. So, I’m going to try and get up around 5:15 in the morning, and that should put me in reasonable shape for the next day.
I could see the mountain peaks when I got up, and that was a great sign. It wasn’t snowing! From the weather report it looked like the snow was supposed to start around 11am. The ski instructor we had talked to last night had emphasized getting on the slopes early to avoid the crowds and get the good snow, so I ate my typical breakfast of oatmeal, got ready and caught a bus around 8:15 (the lifts open at 8:30). We made it to the base of Peak 9 and took the Beaver Run lift. Our plan was to do Volunteer (a blue) and then Gold King (another blue) which had given us a lot of trouble last year. Depending on how we felt after that, we’d decide if we wanted to go more difficult.
We went down Volunteer and got to where Shock (a black) led off to the side. Brian said that if he was going to do a black, now was the time. He felt better than he ever had. So, we slowly slid over to the edge and looked down. I suspect it is named Shock because that’s the state that it puts people in who aren’t expecting the steepness. We talked about it for a while and decided to wait. So, we edged our way back up to Volunteer and I told them that we could try a blue-black instead. So, we slid to the bottom of the hill, took the same lift back up, and decided to try American, which is a blue-black.
One of these times on the way up we went up with a girl who was helping out with the Honda Ski Tour ski-cross race that was going on today (time trials). She had just finished her degree (elementary ed) and had moved to Breckenridge about 6 weeks ago. She had been ski racing since she was 4 years old, and was excited because Darren Rawles (US Ski Team member) was going to in the ski-cross. As we passed the ski-cross track, she pointed out Darren to us. Pretty cool.
We sailed down that run as though were a greenish shade of blue. There were moguls on the side of the run, and Bill said that he didn’t consider it a blue-black since it was so easy. Fooey on that. We did a blue-black, and that’s that!
Next, we decided to do Gold King. Gold King was Brian’s nemesis. We sailed down it and Brian decided that they must have recut the hill, because it was a lot easier than he remembered it being.
Next, we wandered over to Peak 8 via the Superconnect. We took Crescendo (a blue) down to the bottom of the Peak and rode the Rocky Mountain chair back up. Next, we took Northstar (a blue) down. Northstar is steaper than any of the other runs that we had done. It was tougher than Gold King by a fair margin, in my opinion. Brian and Bill decided to stay at the bottom of Peak 9, and I decided to do Duke’s Run (a blue-black). I took the Rocky Mountain back to the top and headed down Duke’s Run. Duke’s Run (unlike American) would probably be truly called a blue-black. It was steaper than the other runs that I had done, but I made it down without any trouble. I caught up with Bill and Brian and we headed back to the top of the Peak 8 on the Colorado lift. I decided to do Spruce, the blue-black right next to lift.
Bill took another run down, and Brian decided to do Spruce as well. (He later said that he hadn’t realized that American was a blue-black, and that the only reason he took Spruce was so that he could say he had done a blue-black) Spruce was a set of three or four steep sections followed by a much more level area. It was a blue-black. The final steep area was steeper than anything I’d done up to that point.
At that point, I decided I was going to do Rounders, which is a BLACK. An expert-rated run. Bill and Brian took another path down, and I headed down toward Rounders. Rounders was interesting. It had some relatively steep sections, but the final steep was longer and steeper than the last part of Spruce. But, I made it down it in pretty good time. I made it about halfway down, where a bunch of the trails meet up (and the difficult part ends), around the same time that Brian and Bill got there. I had conquered a black! The rest of the day was downhill from there. (ha ha)
I had done my black. I had done an expert run. In and of itself, this isn’t a big deal. The nice thing about it, though, is that it shows me that I can handle at least some of the blacks at Breck. This opens up a lot of possibilities for me. I’m sure that there are several blacks that will make me freak out, but I can handle SOME of them.
Breckenridge is made up of 4 peaks (7 through 10). I’ve been on every peak except for 10. Peak 10 only has blue-blacks, blacks, and double blacks. It’s always scared us to death. Tomorrow I plan to be on Peak 10. For a couple of reasons… One, I’ve shown that I can handle the blue-blacks and the easier blacks, and two, we rode up one of the lifts today with a ski patrol dude. He told us about a run on Peak 10 that isn’t on the maps. It’s the “peak road” and is rated a blue. Breck decided to open it this year after they had printed the maps. SO, I can go to the top of Peak 10 and see the scenery and get down alive!
After the black, we poked around on a few more runs and headed back to the condo for lunch. I had another excellent lunch and we headed back out. The afternoon was a pretty low-key affair. It had started snowing about 11am (as predicted) and it was getting colder. I went down Spruce one more time in the afternoon, but we mostly played around on Peaks 8 and 9. We didn’t even stay out until 4pm. We actually came in around 3:30 because we were really getting cold.
We went to the Horseshoe restaurant for supper (actually the Horseshoe 2, to be technical). I had the Country Fried Steak with chili cheese whipped potatoes as a side. The potatoes were interesting. It was a dollop of mashed potatoes with a layer of cheddar cheese melted in and a hot chili type sauce. I was expecting texas-style chili, but that wasn’t at all what it was. The Country Fried steak was really good, and it came with a slice of Texas Toast and a couple of orange slices. The meal was really quite good. I should have gone with regular mashed potatoes, but it was still interesting.
After that, we walked up and down the street for a while and looked in a few stores. I had been thinking about getting a pair of “over mitts”. It’s a large mitten that’s designed to fit over a regular pair of gloves. But, I decided to save the money and just use hand warmers tomorrow instead.
Why is this important? Well, it’s going to be insanely cold tomorrow. The high is supposed to be between -5 and zero F, and a fair amount of wind. Wind chills will be in the -20s (or colder). We aren’t really planning to spend the majority of the day on the slopes. I think that Brian and Bill are going to wait to go out, but I think I’m going to go out at 8:30 like normal hit Peak 10. I want to hit the runs freshly groomed, and then I will either come back in or do some of the runs on the other peaks.
All in all, a great day at Breck!
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