TR: Seattle To Santa Fe and Back; 20 Consecutive Days of Skiing

[Buster Highmen]

Seattle Snow Basin Silverton Wolf Creek Taos Ski Santa Fe Silverton Telluride Silverton and back.

(pictures below O pantless ones...)

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First off, props to the people who extended their love:
MD9, Meats Of Evil, GT40,
Silvertonians Wellers and Bosworths,
The Brills for all their work and love and the guides @ Silverton for patience with this slow old fart and his children,
Kendall Mountain Center,
Frank Zappa for the tour and company at Wolf Creek
, DPS for the best skis evah made (circa 2006 200 cm Lotus 120s),
BrianH @ Taos & Santa Fe
, Meadowskipper @ Ski Santa Fe,
Mike and Mike @ the Camel Garden in T'ride
, Iceman, SFB.

Apologies if I've spaced others, I have severe roadburn.
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Monday Feb 4, 2013.

Rolled fat black studded rubber roadslaps on the Pirates Volvo over that flat knobbled cement thread out of Seattle 2/4 around noon; drove to La Grande Oregon on pleasant mostly snow free roads. Grabbed a snooze at the Royal Motel in La Grande, Safeway sandwich and some bitters for dinner. Klonk.



Tuesday Feb 5, 2013

Drove out of La Grande with some of that purple mountains majesty stuff reflecting off the Elkhorns to the West and the Wallowas more subtly to the East. The fat creamed concrete ribbon wound past the Burnt River then over the Snake for the first of maybe a dozen more times in Idaho. Dunnt dunnt dunnt dunnts bzzzt bzzzzt bzzzzt. From I-84, the Ms Eubonics state teases with peeks of peaks over the dry wastelands. Sad wrecks season the interstate proximities. Speed limit is 75 mph, so blazed at 80+. Rolled into Ogden to hook up with Clan Carne', Meatdrink9 and Meats of Evil.



Wednesday Feb 6, 2013

Railed around Snow Basin in soft pack zippy groimers and some fun bumps. 2+ flakes out of four (**+/****) on the ski quality experience scale. Meats Clan Papa GT40 showing how to ski fast in a slow zone. Fun day ends early by 1:00 with me slipping the sled S through SLC to Spanish Forks then SE over Soldier Summit US6 past Price to Green River I70 then Grand Junctio, Co on a clean tarmac tongue with partly blue skies. Damn Red Mountain Pass snuck up and clocked me with another goddamn snowstorm. What is it with that pass? Plowing though 8-10 inches going up the exposed side from Ouray. At leat there were no semis this time. Settled into Silverton around 9:00. Dumping. W00t. Major props to the Meats clan for all the love, madness and ripping times and turns.



Thursday Feb 7, 2013

Back to Silverton, first time in 2013 and it just plopped 10+ inches of fresh little fairy crystals on top of the previous weeks 20+ basebuilder. -10F in town. Bitter cold in the morning lot sorting scene. Hiked up to Left Cabin and let it rip with a bunch of huDge honking face blaster GS pure pow corking turns, welcomed back to my best place on earth. Yo Pedro. Subsequently flatlunged it up to Tiger Claw to get a slasher into Rope Dee 1, then over into Nighmare where a trench had ripped out on skiers right 8 feet wide, 4 feet deep to rock and 30 feet long. Managed some other Tiger variations and beer thirty came none too soon for one who lives at 400 foot elevation. ****/**** day. Felt so good so beat. Sweet to be back.



Friday Feb 8, 2013

Silverton again with wind reset. Weird North winds had been blowing which set up some N exposure with tricky windpack and redeposit on S. aspects. Bitching cold still. Skied mostly minimal hikes on Cabin/Raff/Riff/Waterfall/Mando and Simmons through Tiger. Wild snow. Shockley is da mang. ***/**** day. Tired with thin sleep at altitude.



Saturday Feb 9, 2013

Finally got some more decent sleep. Guzzling water, eating Avalanche bacon and egg burritos. The sun and wind are setting up some weird and tricky snow. I opt for the medium groups there so as to avoid the often overly self confident "hard chargers" in the self professed fast groups. More fun skiing lower mountain hikes with woods and S faces in the lee of winds with best snow. ***/****



Sunday Feb 10, 2013.

Colorado opens for the first time in 20 inches and we're the first in. Blower facebombs of super light snow in the upper before the choked reins in the speed for the remainder of the run. Sweet stuff. 100 Acre Woods is on the bill; no time for Eyore. Snow starts late afternoon. Drive back to town, consult the local weather oracles (thanks Jim!) ands headed towards Pagosa Springs by 6:00. Barreled headfirst into one of the worst driving experiences: start wars eye zots, blinding spindrift and oncoming semis that left swirling plumes of whiteout for 30 seconds after passing. Dizzy driving. Harrowing. Dug into the Pinewood Motel in downtown Pagosa Springs and passed out.



Monday Feb 11, 2013.

Wolf Creek reports 26" overnight on top of 22+ inches of previoius 2 day accumulation. Fathoms of snow. Wound up the pass in more whiteout conditions and wandered around at the top looking for the parking lot until I drove down the other side a bit. Duh award for me. Met up with Frank Zappa after a couple laps on the Treasure chair and continued to ski among the deepest days I've ever had. Got icicles on my nipples. Not just face shots but more like a powder plaster to the face applied at speeds in excess of 10 mph, guessing glimpses to negotiate the few trees until the slog on the flats looking for another skiers trench. FZ lead me around, both of us laughing and oooing and ahhing at the madness of the depth. Yes, WC is flat, but man that was a day. *****/**** ++ awesssssssomeness. Split and rolled on down to Taos and checked into the Abominable Snowmansion then had a bite at Sabroso and bed while it continued to snow. Grazzyass FZ!



Tuesday Feb 12, 2013

Up early in iterated bitter cold blue, dusting of new, got a good spot in the upper lot and watched the village wake up. Good coffee from the cart and then up Als and down into West Basin for a flew slashes of refreshed leftovers. Taos is a real jewel box of aspects and pockets so I had to sample a few before hiking up to Longhorn and that burning thigh bumpfest. Damnn that thing is long. Then 2 more mogul mashers down Als before heading back up top to check out the ridge. Last time there was 1985. Chatted up a local betty on the lift about hiking the ridge who quickly ditched me once up there. As I was clmbing was talking to some dood who turns out to be TGR poster BrianH. So we rip around some more before Brian decides I'm not a complete asshole and offers crash space in Santa Fe. After a high octane beer at the St. Bernard (Jean and Dadou missed) I tailed BrianH back to SF. Dinner...crash... ****/****



Wednesday Feb 13, 2013.

Meadowskipper had kindly extended SSFe hospitality and gave me the grand tour. First time @ SSFe for me and it's a hill with a ton of character. Road up from town among the windy-est ever. Rolling loops and curves sway slosh bank tilt yaw heel woah on that road. Only place so far without new snow, but their glades r00l and some fun groimers too. Tons of thanks to both BrainH and Meadowskipper for the great times. ***+/****. At about 1:30 I folded the ski tent and heeled, yawed and pitched back down the access road to the interstate and scooped up the family at ABQ International to thunder back to Silverton. Quick late night sushi stop in Durango before rolling up over the white wall (see Mark Helprin's Winter's Tale) to Silverton endless winter.

(TBC)

__________________

[BrianH]

You should have been there the week later. HA! We just spent 5 days in the whiteroom and when the sun came out it showed 36" fresh. An EC buddy flies in tonight and we got a bro-deal one mile form the slopes. The next 4 days is sliding, drinking beer and watching the Salomon Freeriders/Extreme whatevers ripping up the West Basin.

It started off slow, but 12/13 is turning out pretty damn good in the SW. It's been a while since I've seen the base at Taos go higher than my nose.

[Buster Highmen]

Heh.... Silverton, T'ride, Solit00d and Snowbasin were pretty decent too!
Thanks again man!

[Buster Highmen]

Thursday Feb 14, 2013.

Back to Silverton, still sub teens in the morning and accumulations of around 8 inches over the week. Kids too tired to ski and L's bum knee leave me free for to rally. Dust on crust conditions on S. aspects and lots of N aspects wind scoured but guts and bench and tree pocket lees skiing bottomless in that searing San Juan blue. ***/**** day.


Friday Feb 15, 2013.

Still bitching cold, no new snow, mining for pow stashes around the mountain but the little man T (age 11) is up for some turns. Mostly short hikes to the likes of Waterfall with a bunch of super slow moving clowns who were damn scary going down the waterfall ramp. The little man got cold and had to sit one out after a fairly scary descent of the waterfall ramp with said bozos above us. Cabin which skied well later and the little guy loved the snow down around the diamond, but bailed after that due to cold. Friends come to town to hang with L and the little pink thing R (age 9), watch the ski joring comps, ski and skate at Kendall, drink hot chocolate and enjoy all that deep winter stuff. ***/****


Saturday Feb 16, 2013.

Still cold and stuff is getting wind hammered. Snow is definAtely native, primitive and raw. But it's good times with the little ones taking a day off to play, skate and ski leaving us to hike and sample stuff high above treeline. ***/****.


Sunday Feb 17, 2013.

Surprise day. Guided by Adam, mined some unreal virgin deep soft pow in a couple of different tree pockets: Twig Snapper and Dead Elk Woods. Amazingly good snow, best runs of the week. 3 runs for T! 1 for R. ****/****.


Monday Feb 18, 2013.

Skied with the little ones and got in 3 laps.
Best day yet because after 2 laps, R really wanted to do another, but she was slagged. T wobbled up the bootpack toward Hollywood Rock with wee R gasping after (she weighs 65 lbs).
Halfway to the Waterfall turnoff she sat down and said in a cracking voice that she couldn't go any further. So I gave her a hug, told her to wait and stomped up to the guide with her stuff and mine and dropped it and ran back down the bootpack to her. I had her jump on my back and piggy backed her the rest of the way with her whispering in my ear "thank you daddy...thank you daddy...".
Between seeing her, then T swoop down the Waterfall Bowl in deep pow and later getting ribbed by all the guides and complimented by the Brills for another first (no one has carried anyone else up the bootpack before; don't give the other clients any ideas...).
After the little ones got scooped, I took some heli laps including finally skiing the Grande where the top was wild windboard but the gut was bottomless blower.
definaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaately a ****/**** day.

[Buster Highmen]

Tuesday Feb 19, 2013.

Woke up in T'ride slopeside, got coffee for L, robed and geared up the little ones and headed up the gondy. Covered nearly every lift except the Apex lift and got the kids running some gates. Good snow everywhere: packed powder, some side stashes big fun. ***/****. Then after some drinks soared over to Le Marmotte for a fantastic prix fixe including foie gras, flights of wines and uh...I forget.
I do remember the snow coming down on the walk back.


Wednesday Feb 20, 2013

Up again, pack car and out skiing by 9:30 in 6-8" of fresh. Kids shrieking with glee. Again hit everything: lift 7, 9, gondy, Gold Hill, Prospect, Revelation in a driving snow. Man, I like that hill. ****/****. Then loaded in the sled by 4:00 and drove back to Silverton over RMP again in a freaking snowstorm: plowing through the Ouray wall in 10" of fluffiness.


Thursday Feb 21, 2013.
Up early without the kids who came after it warmed, the skiing got better and better. Over a foot of accumulation since the previous week skied deep and fine. Kids got 2 runs and were pumped. Fatigued, but I wanted more it was so good. 6 run day ****/****

Friday Feb 22, 2013.

Possibly the last Silverton day, R too tired, just T and I started out and had a blast again on lower mountain hikes. He got in 2, took one out then one more while I did one more after that. L came up with R and we had a last blast in the tent post skiing. There's a lot of ebullience in a lot of ski bars post pow days across the world, but the energy in the Silverton tent with your family and friends around has got to top it for me. ****/****

Saturday Feb 23, 2013

We're geared to leave for SLC to queue the family for a Sunday flight, but my wonderful spouse shooes me out the door to grab one last Silverton run in yet another 10" refresher. So up to the lot I roll and step into Shockleys group who target Cabin for their first run and my likely last Silverton run of 2013. Shockly rips the gut of cabin at mach manic and I follow, eighting his tracks all the way past the Diamond. High fives and bumps all round, I head back to town.
****/****
Lead the sled and droned over yet another snowstorm in RMP to SLC. 6 hours into the drive we crest Soldier Summit to hit a blizzard that dumped 22" on Snowbasin and more like 10" on the Cottonwoods. Iceman had extended an invite but there was no way we could make it up to Solitude, so we chose a hotel near the airport and snoozed out.

[Buster Highmen]

Sunday, Feb 24, 2013.

Dropped the clan off at SLC International and bolted for Solitude. The traffic was unreal: cars headed for LCC were backed up N of the sandpits on Wasatch blvd. I slid around and managed to get in the cener lane and headed up BCC where a crapfest of unparalleled proportions was taking place: Soli lots full and cars parked along the road, I went to the upper lot and beached the sled at the turnoff to the upper lot. In ticket line by 10:25 it took me 25 minutes to get a ticket because Solitude had allocated 1 person to sell tickets. Supposedly the busiest day of the year and the busiest day ever for Powder Mountain.

Anyway, linked up w/Iceman (sans jeans) for catching up and a few runs around the Summit lift before SkiFishBum and spouse led me out on a sidecountry run of bottomless proportions. Awesome virgin bottomless turns far from the crowds

(photo: SkiFishBum)

but I got lost and ended up at the Silverfork Inn and had to hitch back up to Solitude where Iceman had retired so I rallied 2 super laps in Honeycomb finding many clumps of 100 yard long virgin bottomless patches before joining Iceman and Co for libations and subsequent food down @ Silverfork. Muchos thanks to Iceman and SFB! ****/****.
After dinner, I carefully steered the sled up to Ogden to join up with MD9 and MOE to pick leftovers from the storm. A surprise awaited, a topping cherry.

[Buster Highmen]

Ogden, city of dented dreams, battered wrapping, tumbledown palaces, potential, opportunity and best of all, home to the meat clan: MD9 and MOE. Pictures coming. It was unreal.

[Zeedashbo]

Hell yeah buster! You are the king of conditions.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using TGR Forums

[RootSkier]

When I grow up, I want to be just like Buster.

[The SnowShow]

Unbelievably jealous...can't wait for the pics

[Buster Highmen]

Now for the Snowbasin photos, obtained by Meats of Evil sacrificing evil rubber eyebrows.























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[greenmachine]

LE BRUCE! Another triumph!

[~mikey b]

you got to ski with MeadowSkipper? I am jealous. Never skied with Bob.

Guided by Adam Brown at Silverton? More jealous. I love that guy. Skied with him a bunch one winter. One of the best.

[userA]

le toque ftw even with a deep snow scene right in our own backyard!
buster that gyno biz been good to you welcome back from such awesomeness ****\****+
bobby

[Norseman]

Sounds like a dope trip. Lookin forward to more photos.

[Buster Highmen]

There's only a few more from the SB session. Normally I don't do the camera thing but I'll see if I can dredge up some Silverton photos.

[liv2ski]

Sweet pics taken by MOE. What a great trip. Wish I had been there for sure.

[Sutter]

Well-played, all you young-ins take note, this is how its done both in the sense of a proper TR and just life in general. Bravo.

[Canada1]

[
(photo: SkiFishBum)


How did you take this picture. Seriously, did someone climb a tree? People's trip reports here piss me off because I don't have the patience to set up for something like that and then when I see a picture like that I recognize the cost of my uptightness - race up, race down attitude. That is a very cool shot.

[Buster Highmen]

[
(photo: SkiFishBum)


How did you take this picture. Seriously, did someone climb a tree? People's trip reports here piss me off because I don't have the patience to set up for something like that and then when I see a picture like that I recognize the cost of my uptightness - race up, race down attitude. That is a very cool shot.

SkiFishBum was on a bench above a gully and I'm a chickenshit about skiing in terrain traps, so I was skiing the edge of the gully on the other side. And clearly he ees ze artiste. I should add some audio so that one can hear the whoosh of the pow contrail....

[hoarhey]

sfb's photo skills have progressed!
chapeau to the bearer of the toque...

[Hugh Conway]

much gratitude for sharing

[dino]

Great TR - Awesome to hear about the kids getting out.

As I'm reading this, something rings a bell, and then I see the hat and remember that you joined our crew on my only Day @ Silverton back in 2010. Nice!

[MTT]

NICE TR. Glad you caught it right!!

But now I am angry that I never made the 7 hour drive to get some of that Utah Pow.
Just sitting home in a funk about Tahoe No new snow

[Ski to Be]

Love the pictures