Mar 20, 2010, Back on the slopes in Idaho

Although the Skibatical is over, my love for skiing and skiing with Cheryl and close friends will continue for years and years!

1) Hometown favorites: Cheryl Larabee, Jan Thorien, Eve and Kurt Marostica and Mark Thorien.

2) In dog years, the Skibatical lasted almost 2 years! Pele’s sequence says: I never want the Skibatical or winter to end!

 

Mar 19, 2010, Safely back in Boise, Idaho

Mar 18, 2010, Steamboat Springs, Colorado

Today found me saying goodbye to Hang Glider Chuck and Yolanda Webber in Breckenridge. They graciously invited Steve, Fran and I for dinner the evening before. After saying farewell, Pele and I headed north to Steamboat Springs. I was treated to a great day of spring skiing on one of Colorado’s Classic Mountains. I took a tour of the entire mountains to see the new areas that had been developed since I last skied here in 1978. More gentle terrain that appeals to the masses and two smaller areas that added some needed steepness. None the runs of epic proportion. Then I finished off the last day of the Skibatical wih two of my all-time favorite tree runs, Shadows and Twilight.

What a way to wrap up the Skibatical.

Then I pointed the Powder Wagon toward home and drove to Ogden, Utah.

1) Steamboat.

2) The Shadows.

3) Aspen, Pines and bumps.

4) Twilight.

5) Aspen and bumps.

6) The long road home.

Mar 16, 2010, Peak 8, Keystone, Loveland Pass, Hoosier Pass

Today was unusual. I drove to Breckenridge; climbed to the top of Peak 8 (12,976’ elev); skied non-stop to the bottom of the ski area; drove to Keystone (9 mi); skied with Steve and Monte; Drove to the top of Loveland Pass; then drove south of Breckenridge over Hoosier Pass to Monte’s home south of Fairplay. There is a long winded explanation for doing all this in one day for which I will spare you the details. Suffice it to say, I made a list of things I wanted to do before I left Colorado, and it worked best to check many off on this day.
1) View of Breckenridge from the top of Peak 8.

2) View looking north along Ten Mile Range with the Gore Range in the Background.

3) Peak 8 from Breckenridge.

4) Loveland Pass.

5) View from the top looking West.

6) Hoosier Pass.

7) View from Monte’s deck.

Mar 15, 2010, Copper Mtn

March 15th Don Hahn, Richard Kiteley and I skied Copper Mountain. I met Don in January 1975 when we were both ski bums at Copper. We skied almost every day that winter, mostly at Copper, but we always skied Vail when it recieved a big dump of snow.  Richard is a life long friend of Don's from Longmont, Colorado.  Richard and his wife, Rita, have lived in Summit County since the 70s.  Don and I enjoyed a fantastic dinner at Rita and Richard's following the day of skiing.


1) View into Copper Bowl with the Ten Mile Range in the background.

2) View into Copper Bowl to the left and Jacques’ Peak behind me.

3) Richard and Donald.

4) Peaks 1 and 2 of the Ten Mile Range from Copper.

Mar 13-14, 2010, Peaceful Days on the Williams Fork

Steve and Fran Dall hosted me to a few days away from the ski slopes at their log home in the Williams Fork River Valley. I met Steve 40 years ago at the Clearfork Ski Area in Butler, Ohio. He was on the Ski Patrol and I was a lift operator on the beginner hill. Steve graduated from Ohio State the year after I moved to Colorado. I encouraged him to move to Colorado and he has never left. He met Fran in Summit County, married, and settled down in the quiet Williams Fork Valley about 25 miles north of Keystone.

1) Fran and I in front of the log home they built together.
2) Inside.
3) A little R&R.
4) View of the Gore Mountain Range from the top of Ute Pass Road.
5) The west portal of the 9.6 mile long Henderson Tunnel. I worked 3 years as an engineer on this tunnel between 1974 and 1976.
6) The Henderson Mill. Steve worked here during the construction phase of the mill and then transitioned to mill operations and worked for AMAX for about 17 years before starting his own excavating business.

Mar 10-12, 2010, Rest Day, Keystone, Winter Park

Mar 10 was a day of rest. I had skied 9 days straight and over 225,000 vf when my body said enough! I didn’t wake up till 8:30 am and recognized my legs were definitely not going to make another turn until they recovered.

March 11th Steve Dall and I skied Keystone Mountain. Another fast groomer day with a few bumps thrown in. I then drove throught the Eisenhower Tunnel and over Berthod Pass to Winter Park. Luckily I drove over after skiing because CDOT shot off a cornice early Friday morning creating an avalanche that buried US40 with 38’ of snow closing Berthod Pass for 4 hours. Great crowd control!
1) Arrival at WP.

2) Pele enjoying the snow on her early morning romp.

3) View from the top of the mountain.

4) Lunch time for Stellar Jays.

5) The beach with a view of Parsenn Bowl.

6) Yours truly enjoying the view.

Mar 9, 2010, Arapahoe Basin

Monte Lowrance and I caught another Powder Day, this time at A-Basin.

1) Tracks under upper lift.

2) Looking down avalanche chute “Standard” at the base lodge.

3) Those a bumps surrounding my knees and "The Professor" avalanche chute in the background.

4) Monte enjoying the fluff.

5) Looking down from the lift at the famous Palivacini avalanche chute.

6) Looking at Loveland Pass, just over 12,000’ elev. A favorite hang gliding site of ours back in the 70s. I made over 100 flights from the mountain to the right of the pass to the hairpins below.

Mar 8, 2010, Leadville, CO

I skied in the morning at Vail then headed to Leadville to visit the National Mining Museum and Hall of Fame.

1) Top of the mountain pass between Vail and Leadville.

2) Memorial to the 10th Mountain Division troops that were so instrumental in WWII

3) Entrance to Museum

4) One of many historical photos

5) Model of the mining method used at the Climax Mine where I worked underground as a mining engineer for 3 years from 1977-1979. The following pictures brought back a flood of underground memories from my work on the Henderson Tunnel (1974-1976), designing underground mines in Montana, Colorado and Chile while working for Bechtel (1979-1984) and working underground at the WIPP nuclear waste repository in New Mexico (Bechtel 1984-1986)

6) Description of the block cave mining method..

7) Low profile front end loader used undergroiund at Climax (called an LHD, load-haul-dump).

8) Haulage drift for transporting the ore to the surface crusher at Climax.

9) Miners working in the slusher drift fingers.