Day 8: Blue Skies

Due to Brian's injury only Whitt and I hit Vail's slopes today.  The skies were blue and the view of the surrounding Rockies was breathtaking.  The snow is starting to get a bit crusty and heavy because of the warm weather and sunny conditions.  The skiing was again mediocre today, but we still had a blast shredding groomed trails instead of pow.  Unfortunately today was Whit's last day of skiing, so hopefully Brian will be able to ski tomorrow or else I will be hitting the slopes by myself.  The epic storm that was suppose to hit us Monday through Wednesday, seems to have broken up and now we are just hoping to get a few inches in the next couple of days.  A quick excerpt from a ski patrol run in yesterday after the jump....

After getting off at the top of the Birds of Prey Express lift, Whitt and I headed over to scope out the Pergrine trail.  What concerned us was not the yellow ropes and closed signs, but the 3 feet of untouched powder lying on the otherside.  We just couldn't allow it to remain a pristine trail, so we headed over to the next trail over and started cutting through the woods.  What awaited us on the otherside was the most epic virgin snow we'd ever seen since the trial had been closed for the entire season.  We started slashing the waist deep powder just under the lift and everyone started hooting. About half-way down the trail, we hear a ski patrol yell out to us to stop and ski down to him.  All I could think about was he better not take my epic pass from me.
"You guys know this is a closed trail", said the ski patrol in an angry voice.
"Ummm we had no idea. We were skiing in the woods and popped out to all this fresh powder."
"Corporate has been telling us to take lift tickets away, what kind of passes do you guys have?"
I hesitantly said, "I have an Epic Pass, but Whitt.."
Before I could finish he cut me off..."Ahhhhh perfect, Epic Pass, that's what I like to hear." His tone changing immediately. "Where you guys from?"
"Baltimore."
"Perfect, east coasters. You guys are going to have fun tearing up the rest of the powder on this trail after your done with your up-downs."  He forced us to pack in some off the powder around a gate to keep it from sliding.  (Yeah there was that much pow).
"How long you guys staying here for?"
"I'm here for a month with my brother, but my friend Whitt here is here until Thursday."
"Ahhhh perrrfect, you guys are getting all the good snow then."
He then proceeded to tell us the best way to slash up the pow on the rest of this trail, and admit he hits it regularly.
"Alright you guys are all done here.  Thanks for your help.  Now go tear up the rest of the powder."
As we ski away, Whitt and I can hear him saying to himself, "Ohhhhhhh Yeaahhh, look at those kids tear up that powder.  Just perfect."

He has to be one of the coolest ski patrol that I've ever met.  We were thinking about going back for a second run, but when we went up the chair lift again he wasn't on the trial anymore. What a bro. Epic passes really do have some serious perks: http://vimeo.com/15439033.


Apologizes for the delayed posting, we were dealing with technical difficulties last night.


Day Stats
Mountain: Vail
Vertical Feet: 20,953
Lifts: 16
Pins Earned: Century Club (covering 100,00 ft. this season)