Long time Breckenridge buddies: Brian, Pete and Bud took a windy UpSki ride in tunnel bowl on Sunday the 20th. Huge Cornice on the white wave area of the bowl, some of them approaching 20 feet of vertical. After brief checkout, Pete followed buddies Brian and Bud out of the base area by the Tunnel complex. Even with winds gusting to 50 MPH the mountainside was quickly tamed and wind powered ski lifts were everywhere. With the strong wind came a whole bunch of smiles and hours of fun. Check out the slideshow here.
Unknown to us, Jon Harrington of the Red Baron Canopy fame, arrived later and UpSkied across the bowl from our position.
Warren has climbed almost all of Colorado’s Fourteeners and extensively ski tours. So for him, strong gusty winds were just to be expected on his first UpSki outing. Tunnel Bowl and the peaks above and beyond it are often used for training walks by Warren and his friends, on this day, he got the fast ascent version.
The winds were forecast to be 15-25 with Gusts to 40 and the wind guage a mile away later showed why we were tossed around with such force. Gusts were actually to 60 mph and average winds in the 30-40 range. After a few training runs we got a pretty solid ride into the lower valley. One particular strong gust caught Warren working on his venting technique. Clearly this isn’t golf but even so, a sudden blast of wind helped create the perfect Buettner Divot . While we sought the shelter of the wind protected lower valley we were still getting very strong wind.
Not to let a little body slam get in his way, Warren followed me up to the 12,000 foot level and the upper bowl. The ride was hot but with the stronger than forecast winds we skied out.
Pretty impressive day for a senior mountaineer.
Paul decided that he would try that funny sounding sport outing offered by his wife Mary’s Technology Instructor. So one of the first UpSki visits into the Tunnel Bowl was launched on 4/5/2008 with Paul, game to go. After some instruction and almost no wind to speak of, things picked up for Paul and me as we made it to the upper bowl above the 12,000 foot level in a few minutes. Click on the picture above to see a slide show and map of the 1,000 vertical foot playground.
This year we are using Twitter to keep everyone up to date on those Instant UpSki adventures. www.twitter.com/UpSki is the link and if you follow on your phone then you will have the latest information.
Long time Breckenridge buddies: Brian, Pete and Bud took a windy UpSki ride in tunnel bowl on Sunday the 20th. Huge Cornice on the white wave area of the bowl, some of them approaching 20 feet of vertical. After brief checkout, Pete followed buddies Brian and Bud out of the base area by the Tunnel complex. Even with winds gusting to 50 MPH the mountainside was quickly tamed and wind powered ski lifts were everywhere. With the strong wind came a whole bunch of smiles and hours of fun. Check out the slideshow here.
