Christmas Powder

Ullr Claus delivered the presents just in time:
Click on images to view full size

Met up with my good friend Mark on Christmas Eve morning to ski some pow and get some exercise before the big Christmas feast. The Vail zone has been getting some decent accumulations over the past week or so making for some really good powder skiing. The nice thing about much of the Vail zone is the winds typically aren’t as strong as they are along the Front Range, Summit County, Tenmile, and Sawatch zones.

We started the day just before sunrise and skinned a couple of miles to a fun and mellow powder stash north and west of Vail Pass. A few inches had fallen the night before that sat on top of a good 12″ from the previous two days. The morning was cold and windless with frozen fog sitting within the valleys and low points in all directions.

Here are a couple of early morning shots from our skin in:

Mark skinning:

Hazy shade of Winter:

Clouds were real low throughout the morning as the next storm system was knocking on the door. As we crested treeline and traversed along the ridgeline the clouds parted for a couple of minutes giving us some nice views of the southern Gore.

Temps were cold (single digits), so we didn’t spend much time up high. Eager to delve into the powder stash below, we ripped off our skins and made our way down. We ended up skiing seven or so laps before calling it a day. Conditions were near perfect as the snow was floaty and smooth. Enjoy the pics:

Mark:

Dave: