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| The town of Silverton. During the winter, it seems the population is about 12. (Bruno pic) |
The Grand Imperial Hotel was a step up for this year. |
They opened the bar for us but had to take time to ice the "beer". |
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| "Lets see, Bob (right) wants a Turkey sandwich and Kurt is in room 300. OK, got it." (Neither came to be) |
Each day starts with a safety briefing. The Other Mike (center) looks horrified, as he should. |
Things are different this year. With a capacity of 80, there was actually a lift line. |
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| Groups are sized at 8 maximum. Another group is checking out the scenery. |
Brian, Gary, Bruno, Dave from Spokane, Todd, Bob. I was the 7th in the group. |
Warm up run, Silverton style. Bob easily handles the steep part of the run. |
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| For our second run, we hike to the run called Colorado. |
Dave shows we find some good snow for a few turns above the trees. |
Brian shows the nice quality in the trees. |
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| Bruno hiking away from the Colorado. |
For the third and final run of the day, we hike the ridge to Ropey Dope entrance #4. |
"Should we ski it or base jump?!!!" Guide John, Todd and Bruno's ski scout out the run while we wait for a group below to get clear. Meanwhile, they were throwing bombs behind us. |
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| This the view from that spot, from the top of the 55 degree entrance. I sent this pic to Powder. |
The 55 degree entrance from below (Bob up high, Todd low). The skiing was pretty good on this run in places but with flat light (= no pics). |
The next day, with a few more inches of freshies, we begin with a hike, here looking back at The Other Mike's group. (Bruno pic). |
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| Sinking above the knees was an encouraging sign. |
We made the tracks along the ridge in the middle. (Brian pic) |
Bob documents the quality we found on that run, possibly the best snow of the two days. |
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| Bruno. |
Dave from Spokane. Here come da judge. Here come da judge. |
Todd. |
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| Bob's head. How did the snow get there? |
The middle part of the run was a steep glade with some boot-deep snow on top of a base. (Brian pic) |
For the second run, the lift breaks down and it takes 50 minutes to get up. We all finally make it except for guide John who is stranded an extra 10 minutes. |
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| While we wait, time to take some pictures (me shooting Bruno - don't worry, I did not really waste the pixels). Brian pic. |
After another short hike, we stack turns nicely in some sun-softened snow that was very skiable. |
A nice view looking southwest from my photo site. |