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Hurtling Hippie Volume One:

Steamboat, Loveland , Eldora and Loveland …passing too high for the Shaggin’ Waggin’…finding the powder…finding the gear…finding the good.

There is only one suitable reward for leaving Vermont’s best winter in 30 years, and driving a wheezing 1984 Westfalia Camper Vanagon (Love Machine, Shaggin’ Waggin’, Stabbin’ Cabbin’, etc.) 2000 miles.

And no, the reward does not involve whiskey, weed, kneepads, or a high speed run to Las Vegas in a very fast car with no top and a Samoan attorney…

The reward is powder: deep, soft, dry Colorado powder.

So I make the three day drive to Colorado, taking interstate 80 across Nebraska (which is almost as far across as upstate New York - endless, I highly recommend folding the map to get across more quickly), and into Wyoming.  From Laramie , I took the high and lonely route southwest to Steamboat Springs.

After spending two days acclimating and playing two shows (one acoustic music, one standup comedy) at the Steamboat Mountain Theatre, I spent a day up on the legendary mountain of Steamboat Springs, which had an epic, record breaking year, scoring 489 inches of snow.

For the record, Jay Peak has totaled 399 inches of snow for this season, so if you’re looking only for snowfall, it’s available in VT.  If you can tell the difference between a 400 and a 489 inch winter, you’re looking too hard and skiing too little.

Despite its epic winter, Steamboat had been dry for about a week, and my guide for the day had to beg off because he was called into work.  With no guide and no obvious fresh powder, I headed onto the mountain to find myself some good groomer skiing.

My first ride was 2200 feet up the gondola, and then down the back side of that peak to the Storm Peak Express, a high speed quad with a 2160 vertical drop.  The conditions were standard carve-able groomer trails, nothing special.  Notably, the terrain was hero pitch (the perfect pitch for perfect skiing) for the most part, even on the black diamond stuff.

I cranked out 5-6 high speed runs making big Herman Mailler style GS turns on my old stand by Big Bang telemark skis (Rottefella cable bindings), and headed skiers right to the Pony Express high speed quad, and cranked out some pretty interesting (though hard packed) runs.

The Middle Rib and Fletcher Glade were my favorites of the day.  The snow was not available to really explore the outlying chutes and glades (they always make you work to get to the double black material out West) of this storied ski area.

From Steamboat, I made the drive across Rabbit Ears Pass (elevation 9,420 feet – 120 feet higher than level ground in Dillon , CO ) into the big empty, and on to Dillon , CO where I stayed with a friend for a few days, across the street from Keystone.  I could feel Keystone taunting me…skiing Keystone was not in the cards this year, and I must say, I will miss skiing the Outback Express, with some of the best tree and bowl skiing in CO, one of my Colorado faves for sure.

For the record, Keystone (base elevation a whopping 9300 feet!) has received a record 273 inches of snow this year.  You heard me right, the word was record, and the total was 273 inches.  That’s 116 inches less than Jay Peak , and 15 inches less than Killington.  Never let them tell you that there isn’t good skiing in Vermont !

From Dillon , CO , I ascended the Loveland Pass (elevation god knows how many feet, 11,000 plus, WAY too high for the Machina de Wheezing Love).  I gave a little sniffle and a fond wave as I passed Arapahoe Basin (the Mad River Glen of Colorado ...definitely my favorite ski area overall in CO…no available total snowfalls on their website).  I then crested the Loveland Pass , and skied a few hours at the eponymous ski area (that’s Loveland , for the stoners out there…”eponywhat?”). 

For the record, Loveland ski area has a base elevation of 10,600 feet, a summit elevation of 13,010 feet (lift served to 12,700 feet), and total snowfall so far this year of 367 inches, (32 inches less than Jay Peak).  For note, this is lower than their 400 inch season average (which may well be reached by the end).

Because I was on a four hour pass (4 hours for $40, $54 for all day, an excellent value in a world of $80 lift tickets), I stuck close to the base, so as to get a maximum number of trips up and down the lift.  Lift One was just the ticket, being the lift farthest to the skiers right, nestled against the ski area boundary (an area of national forest closed to traffic to allow re-growth, so there was no poaching available).  Lift One is an old school lift, slow and cold, giving an old fart like me a rest between thrashings. 

And thrashings I got.  There was six inches of fresh snow, a bluebird sky, and crisp temperatures to escort me to the top of each ride, and gorgeous views of the surrounding mountains.

Every trail on skiers right of the lift (Over the Rainbow, Avalanche Bowl, Tigers Tail, Zoom, Busy Gully, and Holy Cat), and one to the left (Cat’s Meow), was stupendous.  Loveland’s Lift One, much like the Outback Express at Keystone is a complete gem, and I skied myself well beyond the capacity of my legs, my lungs, and my liver (don’t ask, I’m just into alliteration) on this lift alone, and though my legs were begging for rest, my soul was begging for more, more, and more of lift one.

Making my love affair with Loveland complete, a stranger walked up to me in the parking lot at the end of the day and sold me a voucher for another whole day at Loveland for $20, because I was from Vermont .  Go figure.

From Loveland, I coughed and wheezed the Shaggin’ Waggin’ up the Berthoud Pass (elevation OBSCENE, 10K feet plus) and descended into Winter Park (home of some of the best moguls in the West), and played a St. Patricks day evening show (for the hard core afternoon drinkers) at the perennial favorite Winter Park Pub, and back to Dillon Colorado that night.

The next day, I drove from Dillon, over some pass that wasn’t really a pass (it was basically a plateau of flat ground cresting at over 11,000 feet) down into Leadville, and down 24 to Salida where I stopped for lunch.  Salida is a fantastic town, but I will not tell you where I had my delicious lunch because it was so outrageously expensive that the check gave me reflux.  Suffice it to say that Salida is a fantastic, funky little town, and you pay for every funky minute that you are there.

Out of Salida I drove south on 285 to state route 17.  The reason I bring up 17 is that it is a very unique experience for a Vermonter.  For 75 miles, route 17 does not turn, and runs ever so slightly downhill to the south. 

I mean no turns.  Not one.  I could have tied my steering wheel in place, dropped acid, found myself a Plains Indian Princess, had a large family, sent them to overpriced colleges, retired into relative obscurity, and still made it back to the front of the vehicle in time to make the turn into Alamosa. 

The road disappeared into the distance, as did the high tension power lines running next to it.

I expected to see the road runner.

I expected to see Clint Eastwood.

I expected to see Jessica Simpson in boyshorts. 

But then I always expect to see Jessica Simpson in boyshorts, and I am nearly universally disappointed.

But perhaps this could be explained by the LSD, and the strain of putting a large family through overpriced colleges.

Anyhow, I played a show at Adams State in Alamosa, and then a big show at Wasted (Western) State in Gunnison (Monarch Pass is fabulous, one of the most beautiful in CO when not beset by starving deer, driven out of the plains to the roads edge to die at the hand of snowplows and car bumpers by record snows), then back to Pueblo for an afternoon show, and Boulder for the weekend.

Boulder is like Burlington , only with half as much air, and no water to speak of.  Boulder has great food, great fun, one of my best friends from High School (R.U. High in Randolph , VT in case you were wondering) and is only forty five minutes from my next adventure, Eldora ski area.

For the record, Eldora’s summit elevation is 10,800 feet, and its total snowfall this year so far is unavailable, but the base is 70 inches.

Eldora is the red headed step ski child of Colorado .  Familiarity breeds contempt, no?  Being 45 minutes from Boulder, Eldora is not only taken for granted, but serves as the easy stop for both families, and the hard core outdoors folk of Boulder (and the outdoors-folk there are of the hardest core…many of your most famous rock/bike/ski folks live there).  This means that not only will you find families, kids, and all sorts of shiny happy things going on, but that the cool crusty old guy you ride up the lift with will lead you into the woods and then proceed to spank you with your ski equipment, and anything else available…leave you in shreds.

My favorite part of Eldora isn’t in Eldora, it’s off the map to skiers left of Corona Bowl which is farthest lift to the skiers left in the entire area.  Corona Bowl itself is excellent, has great terrain, fantastic tree skiing and fun groomers and bumps (Bryan Glades, Salto Glades, Moose Glades, West Ridge, and Muleshoe are all excellent), but you will need a local to find the best stuff (Burl, Rope Burn).  The terrain is excellent, but I’m not sure that any of it really rates as double black diamond, but most trails don’t, as far as I’m concerned, unless they are under the Madonna lift at Smuggs, or in the Back Bowls there on in the woods at Mad River Glen or Jay Peak.

One of the best parts of the day at Eldora was getting out into the unpatrolled wilderness to skiers left, and poaching some runs.  This, you definitely need a local for, and should have food, water, avalanche peeper, shovel, etc. with you (you should always have water anyhow, CO is high desert and sucks water out of you like Hunter S. Thompson eating blotter acid.

It is easy, when you are heading out past Moose Glade, to get distracted by the great shots that come at you hard and fast, but if you keep trekking out toward Bryant mountain, there are some AMAZING powder chutes above lost lake.  That’s all the detail you get from me, except to say that you must be CAREFUL on these chutes, because they WILL slide, and instead of just grinding you into the ground at the bottom where we can shovel you out, they will dump you into lost lake, which will make for a very cold end.

This was an epic ski day, bluebird, with six inches of fresh snow.  It was so epic, in fact, that I broke my favorite pair of skis putting my knee down in the moguls on Corona , under the Corona Bowl Quad.  To my credit, I skied all the way back to the base (3 trips down, 2 lift rides up) telly style, one ski.  That’s a story to tell the grandkids.

The next day, I was back at Eldora on a donated pair of super wide Black Diamond 180’s, courtesy of Black Diamond and Isaac Stokes of Boulder Weekly fame (thanks Black Diamond, Isaac Stokes, and Boulder Weekly!  Google “Elevation Boulder Weekly to find them).   These skis were a fantastic ride, almost as fast and easy to turn as my Rossignol Big Bangs.

After buying a used pair of skis from the Boulder Craigslist, and taking a side trip to Ft. Collins (a great town, but a town where NO SHOP had the jigs to mount my used tellys…BAD Ft. Collins !  BAD town!), I went back to Loveland for another shot at their high country.  I was foiled this time by driving snow and a sustained 40 mph wind.  I had to head over to lift nine (closed to the top) getting off at the mid station.  Feeling my way down over the ridge, I found a fantastic powder field that was offering fresh tracks with every lift ride, due to the volume of snow being deposited on the leeward side of the ridge.  From there I would catch some delicious tree shots down to the bottom of the lift, and ride again.

This ride was a thousand foot drop at most, but a fantastic way to make lemonade out of the lemons of a VERY windy day, so windy that it once knocked me over, and blew my Shaggin Wagon door open so hard that it crimped the end.

My mid fat Atomic TM’s courtesy Craiglslist) performed suitably, though not exemplarily (needed a tune, THANKS FT. COLLINS), and I blew out a bail on my Rottefella binding.

I was skied in a prototype marmot jacket graciously provided by marmot via Doug Schnitzpahn (former executive editor of the folded Hooked on the Outdoors magazine, and contributor to so many publications that my head spins thinking about it) and the jacket performed with real style.  It looked fantastic (really set off the blue of my eyes), fit very well (most companies have trouble fitting a 6 foot 4 inch frame), and aside from some basic issues (I would have liked a little more room for my chin), it was excellent.  The zippers were absolutely wind proof, and easy to vent and operate with my gloves on (vital).  The hood and the powder skirt (the VERY EFFECTIVE powder skirt) are zipper removable, making them easier to lose, but more convenient to wear, a definite plus.  I was kept warm in some very blustery weather with a thermal, a Smart Wool jacket, and the Marmot Shell.  Not bad atall, mistah.

I wore a pair of 180 gloves (provided by 180), which were warm, though a bit tight for my large paws.  The gadget for blowing into your glove to keep your hands warm was interesting, but only proved to push the cold air form my palms onto my fingers, making my palm marginally warmer but my fingers cooler.  That said, a less snug glove might have been more effective.

That’s all the news that’s fit to print from this trip, aside from saying that the skiing was frankly weak from a weather point of view, cold and mainly icy.  I can get that at Smugglers Notch, Jay Peak , Mad River Glen, or even Killington *shudder*.  You’re at the mercy of the weather wherever you go, so if you want lots of powder days, it’s best to pick a place you like, live there, and ski there so that you can pick your days.  What you can’t get in VT, that you can get in these places, is different terrain (hero pitch for instance, the terrain is as different from Vermont as East Coast waves are Different from West Coast waves), different locals, and different beers.  The locals (who are cool, though different, every where you go) were my favorite part of this trip.  Everywhere I went, I found good, solid people.  But I guess if you’re looking for good, you’ll find it right?

Written by Nathan Brady Crain

Photo of Taraleigh and Mike.  Taraleigh is wearing a shirt by www.vintagevantage.com  

Interview with Mike Rempel of Lotus

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