Bro Brown's Ski Week 01Feb22-07Feb22

It's time for Steve Brown's annual boys ski week in Summit Co; typically a blast with some good friends and good skiers. Unfortunately Bro Brown has a pair of cracked ribs and will not be joining for much of the skiing this year - he's gotta be bummed, and I am so for him. We kicked off the event on day 1 with Hubbs & I hitting Keystone on an overcast but snowless day. We skied all the peaks and while much was a bit icy we navigated fine. The best "snow" was on recently groomed trails where Richard carved like a demon. Of course we stopped at Steep for an apres ski brew ~ I strangely chose two beers in a row where I kicked the keg and just got the final taste. That night I made some appetizers that the boyz (Brad, Scott, Richard, Steve and I) enjoyed and Richard made killer meatloaf & mashies.

I sat out day 2 as 0° highs were predicted for the mountains and we only scored ~4" of new snow. Still the team of Scott, Richard and Brad said conditions didn't suck at Keystone. Steve and I caught some keen videos on the Nest Theater. We finished at Brown's Lodge with ski tuning, more Mediocre Armatures, lasagna and Dave's appetizers... I even built a new one made of Ritz, brie, shredded Mex chicken, sriracha-mango balsamic & dark balsamic - good.

Awaking to -11° temps at the Nest confirmed I would not be skiing on day 3 either. Such conditions even deterred the ambitious Boyz of the Lodge so I waited and started the day with lunch at ORB & Bird Cafe. ORB just celebrated their 5th anniversary and had plenty of cans made for that event. I tried the very worthy 5th Anniversary DDH IPA. The boyz watched the amazing film The Alpinist. We dined on Richard's tasty burgers at Steve's.

Jim arrived Thu per plan and we hosted totties (cassis sour and mango lemonade) & tunes @ the Nest before heading to the Lodge for lasagna. Brad ultimately admitted that he liked some of the music.

Finally the chill was expected to thaw on Friday so we hatched a plan to ski Vail and meet up with another MN boy, a friend of the young boyz, Glen. The thaw was not on as we awoke though it was still 0° at the Nest. Nonetheless, undaunted, we headed to Vail for $30 parking!! and bundled up. We skied decent snow all over the Back Bowls, even out to Mongolia, and then in the Northwoods. It was ultimately a gorgeous day and we took the chance to get the pics with Mt of the Holy Cross in the background and chill at Belle's Cabin for a bit.

Jim and I left a bit early with my knee twinging all day. We chose to have a pop at the Vail Brewing Co taphouse in Solaris Plaza (Yoho had never been) and then lunch on great food at Mtn Std. We hit the hot tubs and then ate again at the Lodge, this time on Hubbs' chili - accompanied by a nice shot of Heradura anejo tequila full college style. Folks were pretty wiped out and we all called it an early evening.

Saturday is a weekend day so no big resort skiing for me but Yoho got to ski KS with his kid Nick for their first outing in a while. We hit the Lodge again for dinner Sat night but called it an early evening. Sunday is another weekend day so Jim & I decided to hit the Blue River Tailwater in town. It's really a just a ~4 hour window when fish are active here in winter so we hit it without success 10:30-2:30. I targeted several nice fish I saw but did not hook up. We rolled over to a new Dillon restaurant, Bistro North, for lunch. It was pretty good.

Sunday night offered excellent vittles at the Lodge again. Steve prepared amazing ribeyes; Richard added twice-baked tatters; Brad thoughtfully prepared a salad; and I brought over a stellar bottle of 2016 Bodega de Edgar Mis Pasos (a great blend of cab sauv, syrah, and terpranillo). All delicious and enjoyed while I forced some historic tunes, including Randy Newman's "Putin," on Steve's guests.

We hit the slopes again on Monday - Breckenridge. The Scott-mobile got us there to meet up with Glen at the Grand Lodge on Pk 7 where we also met Yoho (so he could head directly home the back way after skiing). It was a great day skiing above the trees - mostly down Whale's Tail and surrounding runs. There were thin parts - especially on the traverse out from Imperial but we all survived and had a blast on a very nice sunny day (which ultimately softened the snow well). We even caught up with Dennis for some runs. After skiing Pk 6 and Pk 7 and Whale's Tail in the AM, after lunch I took Brad and Richard on a quest to get all peaks in one day: 6,7,8,9,& 10, for variety, so we headed down Pk 9 to E chair up and then down to Falcon up Pk 10. We chose to ski the dubl black Mustang off there (a steep but short bump run) where Hubbs took a header and slid the entire hill. He was "ok" but his neck was a smidge jarred - Brad made a great ski recovery and side-slipped the entire hill like a snowboarder. We made it back to the Super-Connect for our final Pk 8 score and then to Sevens to chill while awaiting Scott for a ride.

I convinced Scott (it wasn't too hard) to stop at Broken Compass so I could grab some ColoRADBro DDH IPA cans to take to Bro Brown. Yeah, we stopped in for a couple of pops in addition and had a fun time with the Minnesota Mafia tasting BC's fine beers.

It's been a great "week" with the Boyz of the Lodge and my only regret is that our big ski bro was down for the time being... we'll ski later my friend. Thanks for such great hosting.