2007’s Year Ending Holidaze in Telluride/Silverton – 12/31/07

Date(s):

December 26-31st, 2007

Location(s):

Chicago, Telluride, and Silverton – all in the United States of America

Weather:

Cold…colder…and close to coldest. Also, snow fell from the sky and landed on the mountain.

Shoppers, givers, boarders, and skiers:

666, Bone, Link, StroupSkier, Nick Pappagiorgio

Photos by:

Link (courtesy of linkroberts.com), 666, Nick (cellphone hotel shots), and StroupSkier

Music:

Hot Chip – ‘Boy From School’

Synopsis:

Spend Christmas in Chicago, fly back to SF, fly to Salt Lake, fly to Montrose, ski Telluride, ski Silverton, play some PSP, eat some great food, go to sleep, go back to work, stare at weather for pending Tahoe storm, and make a TR. Sadly, Mrs 666 is still having ankle issues and is looking as if an ankle fusion is in her near future, so no skiing for her.

Holidaze

Chicago: Land of the deep dish pizza

Played some Twinbee for the JAP PSP on the plane…so cute but oh so brutal

Chicago at night….

Michigan Ave….sure, its snowless, but its damn near coldest.

Beetlejuice fireplace….

Can you smell the xmas eve apple pie apples roastin’?

Evil snowman….I had a deep conversation with this guy after a couple single malt scotches with my father-in-law

Telluride, Coloraddy:

This is Earth, my planet. Telluride is on Earth.

Oh, and by the way, please do me a favor and DO NOT stay at the Peaks up at Mountain Village. They used to be outstanding, but in the flux of ownership, lawsuits, boarded up bathtubs, painted-shut shutters, the scramble to find early 80’s hotel furniture, and an utter complete misrepresentation offered by the website, be warned and trust me, do yourself or friends a favor and do not stay there. Yes, it was that bad.

As luck would have it, I ran into an old college buddy at Telluride. His name is Bone, and eats Turducken 5 nights a week. His brother Link, a photographer from Brooklyn, wanted to be in a ski blog so badly that he actually gave me pics from prior to my arrival….such a sweetheart to the blog community. Check out his website if you need his skills in the Empire State.

Here, Bone traverses to skiers left off of Gold Hill….

Even after a huge chicken lunch, he still managed to blur…

The excitement of the legendary Black Iron Bowl or the excitement of sunshine, hmmm?

Bone finds the fluff….

Here, his mp3 player gets cold….

Me and the Mrs. fly into town on one of our favorite airlines….

Ahhhh, cold, crisp, and cold….

View from Prospect Ridge into the backcountry….

Link schralped some pow for the blog….but only for the blog.

Bone searching for Black Iron….

…he found some.

View from the top of the new terrain….the bluebird weather washed out this photo, sorry.

Link skis very aggressive….in an alpine style.

Yes, he skis the fall line…right on the boundary line that is….

Bone shreds some winter packed powdah….

Black Iron Bowl…..full of black iron, also known as ROCKS….

However, in some areas, the snow can be deep….Bone Deep!

Bone always puts his money in the BANK!

Link, a very casual powder skier, thought that the cell-shading used in the first Gamecube version of Zelda was quite rubbish…

666 on the top of Chair 9. I think the close to 12,000 ft elevation was getting to him, as he was using to the trail map to see how he could access the terrain across the valley.

WARM NACHOS, WARM NACHOS, WARM NACHOS!!!!!!!

I had to take a taxi to get my INSANELY CHEAP rental car for the next day at Silverton…but I was able to get these shots.

Bluebird only at sunset….but of course!

Bring on Silverton…..

Location:

Silverton (retro new school)

Cold air scientists:

666, StroupSkier, and Nick Pappagiorgio

Synopsis:

While we didn’t have the epic pow pow session as others on this board have had (drool), we still managed to have a great time skiing nice pitches, and fast-cold-Coloradan-winter snow. Jen Brill told us of some opportunities of some high openings, but due to the wind, it never panned out, so we made due with what we had and it was far from shabby.

I departed Telluride at around 6:15 AM….yes the rental played MP3 cds

It was snowing when I left, at least I think it was….little hazy from the Turducken sandwich that Bone made me the night before.

The sun came up as I approached Ouray, also known as America’s Switzerland….I wonder why?

Red Mountain Pass has icicles…..

On the Summit, the temperature dropped….BALMY!

Since this is a blog….here is a view of the ROAD!!!!!!!OMG INSANE!

StroupSkier – strongest skier I’ve ever met from South Carolina, he rips.

Nick – Moment Ski collector and likes to arrive to ski resorts via Steam Engine….

On this day, he arrived on this….

The night before, the guys stayed at a local joint in a very intimate setting…

Or is it down right disturbing…..?

Thankfully, Nick woke up with his liver still intact, and we rolled up the mountain….

Here is StroupSkier’s first turn….

Nick pulls the whistle and makes a right hander above some exposure…

666 decides to jump over the exposure….totally extreme.

StroupSkier on a buffed out face….I took the pic a little early, but you get the idea….right?

Nick switches tracks and finds a route to powderdome…..

666 finds untracked days after the storm, and days after people have been skiing it….

Meanwhile, Shugs was sitting at Breck at the rear end of this….OH GOSH!

Can this guy take a bad shot? Seriously, he reminds me of Basom.

Nick on the other hand had a challenging day. On this lap, he lost his caboose, and it almost went all the way to the stream. But he does LOVE, I mean LOVE skiing down 50% of the mountain on one ski.