Had a nice visit with my son and 5 month old grand daughter in Chicago and an uneventful drive across the plains. In Georgetown, CO right now and will ski Sol Vista today. I have a 'retired' friend who teaches there. It has been a few years sincE we skied together. SV is a little place and rather low and mellow. Winds up on the divide today are over 80 mph. I'll be picking up my season pass at Monarch in the next few days and then moving on to SLC to ski with daughter and family for a week. After that, wherever the spirit moves me.

Have a good trip Denis. Hmmm, Sol Vista's in the general direction of Steamboat. I guess you heard Steamboat's got a private blizzard going on right now with something like 40 inches in the last few days.

That Monarch season pass includes multiple free days at lot of "anti-resorts" . Should be fun figuring how you are going to exploit that thing:
http://skimonarch.com/index.php/ticketspasses/season-passes

Any chance his name is Frank? We had a patroller at Timberline for a long time
who retired to CO and now teaches/patrols at Sol Vista. If so, tell Uncle Frank we
said Hi.

Darren

We don't like you.

<grump>

That's him. Great guy. I spoke with several of his ski instructor and patroller friends at SV. Unfortunately he wasn't there today. He has not been skiing much because he recently injured his thumb. Surgery I think.

Interesting thought, although I am now in Salida (Monarch's town). It is well south of I-70 and my first take on it is that it is one of those "you can't get there from here" places. Steamboat is not in my deals and the 70+ price is $67, but I have to be in SLC by Sat. Night and it may be possible to hit it enroute.

Small world, eh? Too bad you didn't get to ski with Frank. We miss having him around at Timberline. I keep threatening to crash on his couch for a week but haven't been able to make the trip yet.

hi dennis - cool - like i said i'll be in park city mar. 15-30 if your wanderings take you that way. :-D

6-10 I'm guessing with heavy drifting along the treed edges. I live for tele turns in stuff like this. Cold and windy, probably 60mph and 9 degrees. No more than 200 people there until afternoon. I quit at one, had a big lunch, 2 beers and back to town for a nap. Life is good.

Monarch is a very good mountain. It sits right on the continental divide, base 11,000 summit 12,000. It skis bigger than that. If you took away Loveland's above tree line terrain, Monarch is bigger and better. It did remind me of Loveland.

I have full-on envy going. I grew up skiing Monarch as a kid in Colorado. (My family had a cabin outside Buena Vista.) Fantastic powder (2nd only to Wolf Creek in CO snowfall IIRC), no crowds, cheap tix in those days and really friendly people. Hope that vibe lives on.

I'm in Moab. It is hard to stay alert driving thru a vast empty desert. Once west of Montrose, CO there are hundreds of miles of it. I saw a sign for the Black Canyon of the Gunnison and decided to use my slack day to ski in another national park. Completely alone, complete silence, beautiful. Skiing was lousy, deep soft snow covered with a punchy breakable crust. I did a few hundred feet only. The list now stands at Shenandoah, cuyahoga valley, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Sequoia, King's Canyon, Denali, Black Canyon.

Driving on west I saw a sign for Moab, 30 miles south of I-70 and two more National parks, Canyonlands and Arches. I hiked up to Delicate Arch and arrived just before sunset when the light is the most sublime. Hiked down just as it reached full dark on a clear starry night with. Just a slender setting crescent moon.

I'll drive the final 250 miles to SLC today.