Awesome Closing Day @ KS & More @ Breck, Plus Outdoor Tech Chips 2.0 Field Trial 08Apr17-09Apr18

What a difference some snow makes in skiing conditions. After 15" of wet new snow on Fri night, then another 9" of soft new on Sat night and yet another 9" overnight on Sun, I targeted closing day @ Keystone on Sunday for my first outing in the storm set and Breck on Monday. Conditions on Sun AM were excellent despite some false starts by mtn ops - the gondola wasn't running till mid-AM and therefore the River Run base lift had a line across both bridges into River Run village - this even when I arrived ~8:15. I blew off RR and hiked ~.5mi to Mountain House base where Argentine had no line and I was on Monetzuma quickly headed over the hill. Then, the descent to Santiago, including Diamondback, was closed for some reason - I observed the reason from the gondola to the Outpost - a huge line at Santiago, and it was down, as was Ruby - all those folks were just stuck in the valley. Needless to say it was a day on Outback for me. Which was a blast. Movies have GR8F1sh as password.

The Movie

Sunday at Breck was even better. I jumped off the gondola at Pk 7 and sped straight to Pk 6 for many dedicated loops off Kensho chair. What a blast in knee deep new snow. I went hard and by ~1pm I was tired and the snow was getting heavier from sunshine and rising temps. So good in Wonderland.

The Next Movie

Like DD I wrote Smith helmets when my bluetooth audio began failing with just a 1 hour battery - they sent me a new one a year ago. I tried recently to use it but it wouldn't even take a charge so I wrote again - and they sent me their new model which is and OEM version of the Outdoor Tech Chips 2.0 shown below. I charged it and field tested it this weekend. I works great, sounds good and has a long battery life (still worked after 2 days on the slopes without a charge). My only complaint is that to recharge I have to unzip the ear flap to attach the cord. I tried pre-attaching and it powers down the system.