Vail December 2008
Ok, Something a little different this time. Since if your a non skier, one picture of snow covered slopes looks a whole lot like any other picture of snow covered slopes. I've reduced the number of picture and tried to give some points of interest for each picture. Enjoy!
The Slopes
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Mount of the Holy Cross Mountain as seen from the top the Avanti Lift. Bowlside. But who really cares? With this kind of view I could ski all day. |
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The view while skiing the front side. Probably near the Meadows heading toward Mid Vail. This is on the Front side for those of you who think all of the good views are from the bowls. This was the only picture I took all day that came out of the camera exactly as you see it. Snow pictures can be difficult to balance the brights and darks so its very common to have to adjust the pictures afterwards, but this one was one of the rare ones. |
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The Sun Up Bowl. This is why people ski Vail. Vail is big. Really, really
big. Vail has 7 areas called bowls like the one shown here. Each is a semi
circular ski area as big as this one. You can see the Sleepy time trail
on the left. What makes Vail so interesting is that instead of slopes you
have these 7 ski 'areas'. You ski on the access trail and any time you like
the look of the slope you ski down there. So not only are there 7 areas this
big, a whole other side of the mountain just as large with regular slopes, but
in the background you can see 'Blue Sky Basin' which is Vail's newest ski area. |
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A Sense of Scale. This picture is take from the ski slop under the chair lift mentioned in the previous picture. The two dots on center of the slope are people. Ya, its big, really big. It's also a total blast to ski. |
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The Sun Down and Sun Up Bowls. The sun Down bowl is in the distance. This is my favorite picture. I was lucky to ski both while I was there. |
The Spa at Sonnenalp
So Louise forced me to go to a spa the second day we were there. We had a ski one day, Spa one day, Ski the next day arrangement. It was rough, really rough. Between the Massage, the hot tub, and indoor outdoor heated pool, I just didn't know what to do.
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Dining
The Dining at Vail is simply a class above any place we have ever been. Incredible food at every place followed by incredible service. Of course this all comes at an incredible price. ($9 for a gatoraid and a cookie?). Thankfully 2 weeks before Christmas week is still off season so everyone has some kind of special going. So yes, we hopped from one special to the next :). Had a blast, spent less, and eat at some wonderful places.
The first two pictures are from the Lionshead square area in Vail. Extremely nice place to walk around and window shop. The third is from the Centre V French Bistro. Excellent.
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Ok, I'll give you two guesses as two the name of this pizza joint. Two words, the first is color, the second an animal. Just can't figure it out? |
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In Vail they call this a bar. |
Various other pictures
2 Pictures from the Sun Up Bowl and one from Blue Sky Basin. As you can tell the crowds were awful. I think these shots give a good idea of the incredible variation you can have skiing in just one day. Wide open to the middle of the woods. Can you tell I liked it?
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