“The Verticals” are back on
snow again

Great to be back on skis again
after 2 months of beach life in Central America. We’ll now be touring the United
States & Canada for 2 month in an RV/motor home – it’s not the small version
that’s for sure, but it’s of course the USA. 

First stop Vail (Colorado). No
(not enough snow) back bowls are open and the back bowls are what Vail is all
about to us. Spent a day off piste skiing and that was enough for us. The
weather forecast was telling us heavy snowfall in the Aspen Mountains and we
did head for the opening day (Dec 8) at Aspen Highlands.

Perfect timing, Aspen Highlands
had it’s best opening day in many years, 120 cm (4 feet) of fresh Colorado
powder – FANTASTIC.

More than 1100 vertical meters
(3300 feet) of deep powder, what more can you ask for. Since the Highland Bowl
was not open (to high risk for avalanche), we spent the first day around the
Deep Temerity lift skiing some great runs (Mushroom, Kessler’s, Garmisch, St
Moritz, etc.). Steep deep powder skiing among the trees - VOW. Deep fluffy snow
splashing all over us in every turn, amazing stuff.  Clearly the best snow on the journey so far.

Highland Bowl partly (the G-zone)
opened the second day and it’s a 45-minute hike up to the summit of 4100 meter
(12 300 feet). Great view from the summit over the surrounding mountain on this
clear sunny day. Still plenty of untouched powder and what can we say…………
simply stunning skiing and so much better than we ever thought.

Aspen Highlands is where the
locals hang out and we clearly understand why. Another reason to go there is
the Cloud 9 restaurant up on the mountain, great food and atmosphere. Check out
the Danish waitress Anne…

Our friends Peter Suban & Jens
Eriksson are now joining us on the journey. Peter will be with us for the
entire US/Canada part and Jens will head for Chamonix by Christmas time. Five
skiing guys in an RV/Motor home… you can imagine the rest…

The tour must go on and we headed
for some more spectacular Colorado skiing (Crested Butte, Silverton and
Telluride) before we go to Utah.

Did you know that the ski patrol
guys use a snorkel in Aspen Highlands!!!!!! Deep fluffy powder that’s for
sure.

Crested Butte & Telluride

The weather guy is certainly
continuing to work for us, more snow and we like that.

First stop Crested Butte (still
Colorado). Crested Butte showed itself from the best side, lots of snow and it
really made this beautiful little western style town bring out some Christmas
feelings in all of us. One Main Street with great little shops, bars and
restaurants. We also got the pleasant surprise that the ski passes are for free
until December 15 – great. It’s a thing that they have done for a long time.

We faced the first real challenge
with the RV and the cold weather. We ran out of propane gas in the RV and that
means no heating….. It was freezing cold the whole night and a nightmare.  Not fun at all to be in a RV sleeping
with fleece pants, socks and the jacket on and still be freezing.

Not all back
country access were open so we skied around the “High lift” and the off piste
runs (The Headwall, Big Chute and Paradise Cliffs). Great steep terrain, but
still not enough snow so we were hitting rocks all the time. Crested Butte has
933 vertical meter (3000 feet) and it has some excellent steep terrain. It’s
certainly a place to back to when it’s more snow and the city in itself is
worth a visit.

Silverton was the next stop. A short travel, but it’s over a
3800 meter (11400 feet) high pass on a narrow road and it’s not a relaxed drive
in a RV. We did though mange OK. Silverton is a very tiny (500 inhabitants) old
mining town located in a very beautiful valley surrounded by stunning
mountains. Silverton Mountain is an expert off piste skiing mountain with only
one ski lift. It’s also only open Thursday through Sunday.

The weather forecast for the weekend was not entirely good.
It’ll be sunny, but it’ll also be extremely cold – minus 41 Celsius (incl. wind
chill factor) on the summit. It’s stupid to even be outside in that
temperature. It’ll be the same tomorrow Sunday, so it’s nothing else but to
leave for Telluride. It’s hard to leave since the snow conditions are
excellent. We’ll though try to come back after being in Canada.

We did spend the night at a very cheap motel in Durango.
After a long hot shower to we got our freezing body back in to normal.

Telluride is a stunning small old Western style town located
at the end of a valley with fantastic surrounding mountains. One Main Street
where all the action is. The Smugglers brewery, Chop House and Dark Dog are
some good places to go to. And don’t forget “Giuseppe’s” up on the mountain on
4000 meter (12000 feet)!!

Telluride has some great backcountry areas and the area
where we spent most of our time was the Bear Creek Bowl. Take the Gold Hill
lift up to 4100 meter (12300 feet), hike for 30 minutes and then drop into the
bowl for 2000 vertical meters (6000 feet) all the way to Telluride town.
Brilliant skiing with, some really tricky parts.

Some other extreme areas to check out are “Bald Mountain”
and “Black Iron Bowl”. It’s not for nothing Telluride is called “To hell you ride”

Telluride is the place, so far, that has surprised us the
most with excellent skiing. Not only back country skiing, but very good piste
skiing that is for everyone. Good atmosphere in the town and very organized
with a service minded touch. This is a place you MUST visit.

We continued to Utah (Alta, Park City, Snowbird) and the
claimed “Greatest snow on earth” – we’ll let you know if it’s true. We really
hope so!

Did you know that you get a worse hangover from microbrewery
beer than normal beer………..

 Utah, Wyoming and Montana

Salt Lake City (Utah) or “Salt
Lake” as we say is where to stay when skiing in Utah. It’s so close (30-40
minute driving distance) to so many Utah ski areas. We hooked up with our
Norwegian friend, Morten Solheim (from Chamonix), in Salt Lake who was skiing
with us for 2 weeks in the US. We did ski Snowbird and as well got a teaser of
Alta for a day. We’ll be back in Alta end January for some more serious skiing
and we’ll give you an update then. The snow in Snowbird and Alta was very
fluffy and dry, but it was a great lot colder than what we are used to. The
snow can very well be the greatest on earth, but we need to see more of the
white stuff to determine this.

Skiers are really a little weird
when it comes to be first to put their tracks in untouched snow. We have never
seen so disciplined people on a powder day, they (more than 100 people) waited
nicely in line for the ski patrol to open the gates to the back country and the
white “goods”. So we had a few other runs for ourselves in some nice untracked
areas.

IKEA saved our Swedish Christmas –
herring, meatballs and some other Swedish goodies were purchased. Richard did a
great job in the RV fixing a nice Christmas dinner and of course did we have
traditional Swedish schnapps even though we were in Utah.

We did one mistake in Utah, Park
City.  We could not figure out
where they could have had the skiing events in the Olympics and for sure it’s a
mystery how they count the vertical meters that they claim to have.

“ We are going to Jackson……….” –
next stop Jackson Hole. Best skiing, so far, in USA. This was where the
legendary Johan Enstrom (Alpingaraget) landed big cliff jumps on the hip back
in the good old days. This is a mountain you have to visit. It certainly has
some steep terrain and the back-country have stunning possibilities. Here you
have everything you wish for from a ski area.

Take a hike up to Cody’s Bowl and
you have some serious skiing all the way down to the village or if you really
are up for it – drop in to Corbet’s couloir and you’ll see what happens……

Jackson even have black bears in
the backcountry, one came much to close to us one day. We thought it was cold
one morning and when the thermometer shows  -42 degrees Celsius (with wind chill factor) it’s time for a
few quick runs and then a long brake with hot chocolate. Another option is of
course an early apres ski at Mangy Moose – needs to be checked out.

After discussing rodeo with Gary
Cole (Jack Killian-Midnight Caller) in the gondola, we continued our road trip
up to Big Sky, Montana.

Big Sky turned out to be a big
surprise to us. It’s a great ski mountain, easily compared to the best. We
skied with the great skier and guide, Mike Manelin, the first day.
Unfortunately had it been very windy a couple of days before we arrived so the
snow was not at it’s best, but we found  some powder stashes. We did ski the “Big couloir” from the top tram.
It’s a fairly narrow and step couloir and it certainly became our favorite run
– needs to be skied.

Now it’s time for Canada. We’ll
start in Whistler and then it’s time for some heli skiing in Bella Coola
followed by Revelstoke and Red Mountain.

Did you know that you can buy our
cool “Vertical Way Around” t-shirts at Chambre Neuf in Chamonix!!! HURRY, it’s
a limited amount of t-shirts.

Read more about this exciting journey on www.verticalwayaround.com

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