Saturday A-Basin Ski/Breck Short Hike

Another ski afternoon, this time at A-Basin after the snow had softened. I checked this premise with a fellow skier who had arrived in the AM, and he said the snow was hard for the first few runs, so I think I called it pretty well, but maybe could have arrived an hour or so earlier.

The catwalk back to the base and the chair lift:

I think this might be the lower part of West Alley:

These slopes got more steep the further down you skied. I would rate the top as hard intermediate or easy black. But towards the bottom, particularly in the trees, you could definitely feel the slope dropping away and the last part was rather steep all the way across the ridge. Parts of it warranted the double black diamond rating. There's also a cliff section in the middle that looks pretty tough, but I didn't get to it yet.

This is below the bottom of 2nd Alley, to skier's left. On the map it's the trees below the end of the trail. This was the steepest of the day.

Distance was 14.45 miles, time 3:13 (moving 2:15), elevation gain/loss 10,674 feet, avg. speed 4.5 mph, and max speed 24.0 mph, for 9 runs total.

Peaks of the Gore Range from Sapphire Point:

Later I went up to check out conditions on the Peaks trail in Breckenridge. Still pretty snowpacked, so it's going to be a while before it's dry running or riding. Might be a fun run or hike anyway, as long as your feet don't keep sinking in.

Distance was 1.71 miles, time 54:21 (moving 43:11), elevation gain/loss 318 feet, avg. pace 31:45 (moving 25:14).