10:40 Saturday night, I was tired from the night before . . . had only slept four hours after partying all evening. I was supposed to drive to Breckenridge and stay at a friend’s house up there for skiing the next day. I’d heard a blizzard was coming through and it was already snowing at my house. I called him and said I’d head up in the morning. Tonight I was going to take it easy, and get some rest.
An hour later I run into a friend, we’ll call him Mick. He’s hanging out with a girl he’d met a few weeks ago. As we’re talking about perhaps going skiing - she pipes in and says she hasn’t been all year, but that she’s a former ski instructor and would love to go. 1:00 am. The three of us are heading up to Breckenridge. As we get into the mountains, dense fog and heavy snow engulf us, making it difficult to see. The rain had turned into sleet and the roads were extremely icy. On the east side of Eisenhower, it was a rain/snow mix and the beginning of the tunnel was a bit icy. Coming out the west end of the tunnel, the snow was coming down hard - and we were driving on powder, not snowpack or ice. I drive a light car, so my speed was fairly low as I wanted to keep it on the road! From nowhere, a black suv that looked like a Suburban or perhaps a Yukon flys by us, going at least 60 mph! We make a few comments about how people in trucks think they’re invincible with 4 wheel drive and continue driving. About two minutes later we see tire tracks in front of us, they couldn’t have been more than a few seconds or maybe a minute old. They veered from the left lane off the side of the road into the mountain. The snow was falling so hard there was only one possibility of vehicles that could’ve done this. We glanced toward where the tire tracks were, but couldn’t see the truck or where it landed. This drive was intense . . . luckily we were almost there. As we came in toward Dillon the conditions improved a bit. The snow calmed down and the roads had been plowed. A semi-truck was in the right lane, and I moved over to the left to pass him. The roads were drying, and I increased my speed. As we are coming around the truck, a snow drift appears right in front of my vehicle. My speed was about 50 mph and their was no way to miss it. Crossing my fingers I blasted through the drift with no consequences other than a bit of fright! At 4:00 am we pull into our destination - hit the sack and get some rest!
9:00 am Sunday morning we wake up. Looking outside, it’s still snowing at a moderate rate. The three guys in the group get ready to go. It’s 9:30 now, most of us are ready to leave. Noon. Mick’s female friend is ready to go. Half the day is gone - we’re fifteen minutes from our destination resort. Although I’m seriously frustrated, we’re nice and simply get in the car and drive to the resort. The snow has lightened up for the short drive from Breckenridge to Copper Mountain. Getting there, the first thing we noticed were the essentially empty parking lots. No one was there! This was going to be unbelievable!
Once we get on the mountain, the best skiing of the season awaits. It’s literally snowing hard enough that fresh powder is to be had on every run. There’s not enough people there to ruin the tree runs, we’re able to find 5 - 10 inches in the trees all day. The back bowls had wind blown powder sitting on top of hardpack - it made for nice quick lines and an intense workout. Air was everywhere, kickers would launch you up and landings were soft and ideal for spring. It wasn’t the typical 50 degree day that one would expect in the middle of April at a ski area, but rather soft powder like we were in February. The day was short, only three hours of skiing, but with no lift lines and three great skiers and riders in the group we were able to get in about a dozen or so powder runs in that short time.
Although all the runs were nice, one stood out in particular. About 2:30 we hit a run named “Union Meadows”. This is a double black diamond (expert) run on the far west side of the mountain. Getting off the S lift (Sierra), we stayed high and went straight west. Cutting across the ridge to the gate to Union Meadows, we continued to stay high. To the right a beautiful powder field presents itself - looking like the finest clouds in heaven had settled to the ground in the form of giant pillows for our skiing enjoyment. Dropping in with complete disregard we sailed through the meadow into the nice, open trees. Soon after getting into the trees, a steep pitch comes for about 200 feet, the trees are loose and the powder deep. Air is plentiful, with enough snow to make every rock and tree stump a kicker. The adrenaline was rushing, it felt amazing with the powder flying up into my chest and face with every turn. Reaching the end of the pitch, we dumped out to a nice little catwalk to get us back to the center of the mountain. We stopped here for a little rest, and met a couple of riders from South Carolina who were, perhaps even more so than I, extremely impressed by the run they’d just experienced.
All in all the day was amazing. After skiing we hit up Jack’s for a little Apres Ski, wanting a drink after such an amazing day. The Smithereens were playing live at the bar and everyone was in great spirits. We couldn’t drive back that evening, Denver was in the middle of getting 20 inches of snow. We stayed up there in Breckenridge for one more night. It snowed again but we had to work on Monday . .