Vail
Saturday 14 November 1998

Very early in the season and there was nowhere near as much snow as on previous visits at the same time of year. In addition, Vail was still in the throes of rebuilding after a series of arson attacks over the summer.

My start was a little delayed by standing in line to get a "Vail Card" which entitled me to half price skiing for two days (and also meant that I did not need to actually buy a lift ticket .. the first time that the pass is read each day a credit card charge is automatically applied). By just after 9am, I was in the Eagle Bahn gondola heading for Eagle's Nest.

After one easy run to warm up, I headed down Game Trail to Game Creek bowl. This was the only way to get across to mid-Vail and the trail was horrible, with bare patches and strategically placed snowboarders to guarantee that everyone had to ski into the areas of mud and grit.

Game Creek Bowl was open for the first time this season and at least initially the snow was in good condition, with (not very fresh) powder on some of the ungroomed runs. I did four runs off Game Creek Express before heading for a mid-morning break at mid-Vail. The highlight was The Woods where moguls were just beginning to form. The most difficult was Wild Card with deep heavy powder with unpredictable terrain underneath.

South Look Ma a short steep ungroomed run just above mid-Vail was the main feature of an otherwise simple cruise down to mid-Vail. With slow controlled turns over the bumps, I began to remember how to ski from earlier in the year!

South Look-Ma from the Mountaintop chair

After a cup of coffee, I headed up Mountaintop to the area which was most damaged by fire and took a couple of relatively simple runs and then up to the summit of Wildwood for a cruise all the way down to the main Village and the Vista Bahn back up to Mid Vail.

There was just about enough energy left in the legs for a final run down to Lionshead from the top of Wildwood.