Breckenridge
Saturday 11 January 1997

Weather

Pretty cold, snowing virtually all day, but with little wind.

Conditions

A powder day. 13 inches of snow overnight making 27 inches in three days meant that there was fresh powder everywhere.

Overall

Skied on my own, prior to a business meeting in Denver.

Thanks to an earlier than planned flight, I got to the new Denver airport at a reasonable hour, which was just as well as it was snowing all the way from Denver to Dillon, meaning that a 4x4 was de rigeur.

The drive to Dillon was uneventful, if rather slower than normal. The hotel did not meet expectations and I had to change rooms to get some heat.

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Breckenridge Base Area

 So to the skiing. On this trip, I decided to visit Breckenridge for the first time. It about a 30 minute drive from Dillon, on reasonably well cleared roads.

Breckenridge has four linked mountains and a number of dfferent base areas. I chose to start at the base of Peak 8 (because that was the first one I came to!). I rented a good pair of Roosignol side-cut skis. At 177cm they seemed a bit on the short side but worked pretty well.

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The main lift here is a high-speed quad and the queues were very short. Snow conditions were excellent, so I skied off this lift for the whole of the morning, a total of 8 runs of just over 1300 feet vertical, varying from almost untracked powder to a steeper run with new moguls forming on top of old ones. Duke's Run in particular was in perfect condition for almost flat out skiing despite the fresh powder and forming moguls.

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Unidentified quad chair

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 After lunch, I explored a few other areas, but I was really rather tired after a morning of aggressive skiing and started to get cold, so I packed up at about 1:30.

 

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Rental car showing new snow during the morning

Vertical (feet)

15687

Runs

Lift Vertical Easy Runs Intermediate Runs Top Intermediate Runs Advanced Runs
Colerado 1325 Columbine Duke's Run
Colerado 1325 Spruce
Colerado 1325 Columbine Little Johnny
Colerado 1325 Columbine Rounders
Colerado 1325 Spruce
Colerado 1325 Columbine Duke's Run
Colerado 1325 Spruce
Colerado 1325 Columbine Duke's Run
Lunch
E 1000 Bonanza, Cashier
B 1232 C-Transfer Cashier Peerless
C 930 American, Union
4 600 Spruce Callie's
Total vertical 15687

Last updated: 19/11/98