I’m always following the weather during the winter, tracking the big storms that yield glorious dumps of fluffy powder. I wasn’t able to get away too much this year, just too much business stuff combined with a pretty dry winter.  Well the storms finally showed up in late March and early April, and I was determined to get my money’s worth out of the pass.  So through the glory of Facebook, I found a co-pilot, 2 places to stay near Vail, and we set out for 3 days of bottomless powder hunting.

Things started out normally enough the first day at Vail. Until about 2 hours in the day I randomly shared a chairlift ride with a couple, and the girl had a piece of bridal veil material in her helmet. Turns out they were in town from Houston to get married at the swanky new Arabelle Resort in Lionshead. So we were chatting about weddings, and I mentioned that I have a shoot planned soon where I’m going to do portraits of the bride and groom in the dress and tux on skis. Tricia looks at me and says, “Can we do that on Sunday!?” Fortunately I had my camera gear with me, and I booked the shoot, thereby lengthening my trip another day. Well now I know that I need to get up skiing more often next year! And does this mean that I can write off my pass next year as a business expense?! Look for pics from that shoot soon on The Light Side.

Two runs later I went into the lodge to meet up with Io. She was talking with a man, who had a cute little girl pulling on his leg. Turns out he does energy-body work in Boulder. I asked him if he was interested in trading some family photos for body work . . . Yes! Two shoots hooked up in an hour! The next two days went pretty much as planned. I did a crazy amount of tree skiing. The next shot shows the aspen trees that lead down to the High Noon lift in the far Western back bowls. I’ve never skied them before because the slope is southwest-ish facing and is usually pretty bare. But after feet and feet of snow in two weeks, I was able to hit the chute just to the right of the lift, fresh tracks all the way. Very deep and steeper than it looks!

The second day at Beaver Creek was my best day there ever. We woke up that morning, and it dumped a foot of snow in 6 hours. It snowed crazy hard and I would have taken more pics but I was way too busy shredding. It was snowing too hard anyway. I hit tons of glades: Bachelor Gulch, Coyote Glade, Thresher Glade, Heads Up, 4 Get About It, Corkscrew, Stickline . . . my only regret is not hitting some of the steep upper glades earlier, by the time I got there they were closed. Next time I’ll know where to go first.

My last photo from this set is of a random guy who I shared a lift ride with. His beard was so awesomely coated with icicles that I had to take a portrait. Can you say, face shots?

So, I booked photo shoots, while skiing deep powder. I think it’s apparent that I need to manifest a place to live in Eagle County!

I finally was able to break away from the photo biz for a midweek powder day at Abasin. I wanted to make sure and punish myself for my lack of exercise routine this winter so I decided to telemark ski.  It was my first real tele day since February 1, 2007.  Yes, I’m already sore.

I dove straight into a Pali run right away. Here are some random guys enjoying some turns. The coverage was pretty thin, so the new snow is needed. It was a little crusty underneath but overall the skiing was good.

It was fairly windy on the ridges, but not nearly as bad as it was in Boulder the day before. The temperature was quite mild so it was quite bearable. Down in the trees and in the bowls it was quite nice.

After two laps on Pali I headed over to the Lenawee Lift. Insert more pictures of skiers gettin’ some.

Um, make your own comment.

I found a place to get arty.

So then I hiked up to the double-black terrain in Montezuma bowl that is skier’s right. There really is some cool, steep terrain here. Parts of it are steep enough that you can’t see what’s below you from the top. I need to learn the lines better from the lift so I can know where to go. The coverage is so thin that I played it safe and stuck to the places I could see. There is also a nice cornice for launching at the top.

It was quite windy at the top at times.

I ventured down around the edges of the bowl looking for powder stashes in the trees. Most of the hiking terrain on skiers right still isn’t open. They did open Crags, but there was nasty sun crust underneath the powder and the coverage was super sketchy. Then I made my way over to the Lightening Trees and . . . jackpot! Untracked backcountry-like conditions at midday. Its a bit of work to get there and get out, so it probably isn’t worth it. You should never go there or tell anyone about it! Check out how far my poles went into the snow. That’s what I’m talkin’ about.