Monday, October 30, 2006

In October, everything is gravy



OK, sure, it was 70 degrees in town Saturday, but with all the snow I was jonesing to go skiing. Not skiing at a resort (It's good to avoid crazy early season skiing that funnels black, blue and green skiers together on just a few runs.) just skiing, so Gazette TV reporter and generally game-for-anything dude Andy Wineke and I drove up to the Pikes Peak Highway. We were hoping to ski the old ski runs of Pikes Peak Ski Area. Unfortunately, the road wasn't open that high. Instead, we drove up about 10 miles to a spot where a small access road went down to Crystal Reservoir. We found a few open glades off the road and did laps.
This wasn't exactly Warren Miller action - six inches of HEAVY, wet snow, a gradual slope with maybe 150 feet of vertical - but hey, when it still feels like summer a few miles down the pass, you take what you can get. I've skied worse snow in December.

We were able to link a few turns together and have a great time, which is really what skiing is all about. If the road up to Glen Cove is open now, there could be some very good skiing at hand, just stay below treeline, the higher stuff isn't ready yet.

Anyone else go skiing this weekend? How was it?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Awesome. Went snowshoeing and XC skiing just north of Woodland Park. I've been up here almost 7 years now, and this is the best early snow I've ever seen - 38 inches so far this year. Haven't been over there yet, but I imagine the snowshoing / skiing at the Crags is awesome. So too for Rainbow Gulch (if you can get there).