I got a late start in the afternoon so I just stopped off at Keyston and skied for a half day. I had been there earlier in the season and there wasn’t that much snow. I was expecting more cover this time around but it was still very thin.
I spent a good portion of the time seeking out runs with smaller bumps to practice on. I’ve been skiing for over twenty years and I honestly didn’t have a clue what I was doing on moguls. It was time to change that. Before heading out on this trip I made a point of watching a few videos on the correct way to ski moguls.
I think the first thing I had to get down was keeping my feet calm and connected to the snow when going over the moguls. Previously I would kind of freak out if I had to ski over a few bumps to get to a better place on the trail to make a turn. I would flail and lose my balance and that would understandably ruin my flow. The small bump runs are really good for practicing this.
It’s very difficult to park overnight in Vail so I decided to give the Copper Mountain parking lot a try. Copper is just on the other side of Vail Pass. The drive from there to Vail only takes 25 minutes so it was a good location to spend the night. There were other RVs and campers parked in the lot and so it seems this is a well-known spot. Power in numbers I suppose. I didn’t have any trouble.
The parking situation is pretty ridiculous in Vail if you ask me. If you want to park in one of the lots close to the lifts you have to pay thirty dollars. So you have to pay two hundred dollars plus for a lift ticket (if you don’t have a pass) and on top of that, you have to pay for parking. It’s a bit insulting honestly.
I didn’t want to do that so I did a bit of digging and I found a park that had free parking. There is a bus stop close by and the bus takes you into the resort. From one of the stops, it’s only a short walk to one of the lifts. The buses ran on time the two days I was there so it wasn’t so bad doing things this way.
Vail is a huge mountain and I spent most of my time on the west side of the resort the first day. I found some nice cruisy runs with some moguls mixed in. I spent a lot of time in the Game Creek Bowl just because the conditions were better there and they had a good amount of moguls I could practice on.
The second day I went towards the middle of the mountain and did a lot of the runs near the Avanti Lift. There was a big mogul run along the lift line that I thought I was ready for but it didn’t work out that way. Fell a ton but I guess if you’re not falling you are not challenging yourself.
I went towards the back bowls in the afternoon and did a lot better than I had done when we all went around NYE. I even skied the trees a bit so was definitely getting better with the bump runs. It’s fun to see yourself improving.
The next day a storm was coming in so I decided to head towards Breckenridge and then home a bit earlier. I just didn’t want to drive over the pass in the snow in the morning and then potentially again in the afternoon. It was probably the right decision because the driving conditions weren’t the best in the afternoon. The van is doing exceptionally well in the snow though. As long as I don’t come to a stop on an incline and have to accelerate again there aren’t many problems with traction.
I skied mostly Peak 6 and 7 at Breck which were mostly new to me. The snow was really good but the visibility was poor above the treeline. I went to the top of Peak 6 and literally could not see anything. That was a bit nerve-wracking because I didn’t know the trails that well. The snow conditions weren’t that great up there honestly which was a surprise. I would like to go back and ski these runs when the snow is better.