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November 15, 2007 —
It’s a beautiful day here in Vail – so beautiful, in fact, that Vail Resorts has opted to forestall its opening day. With continued cold, nighttime temps, Wednesday, Nov. 21, will be the new opener.
It may seem unseasonably warm, but this kind of weather in November isn’t all that abnormal, and it doesn’t really indicate anything about the coming season. As a kid I remember that sometime in December was usually the opening day, and with more snowmaking resorts began opening earlier and earlier, so now the public expects snow to come sooner than it used to – as if the resorts have anything to do with that.
The Vail Resorts website indicates that November averages 58 inches, as measured from the top of Vail Mountain (and other, historical, measuring locations). But averaging is funky math. In the same way that you don’t go to the store and ask to pay the clerk your “average” amount, you don’t expect November to provide its average amount of snow every year. In fact, it would be an anomaly to have the exact average amount fall in any given year.
I’m taking the time to enjoy a few more hikes (without snowshoes) and ride my bike a bit more. If you’re up for the same, check out our complete mountain bike and hiking guides in our “guides” section, and see where this warm weather leads you.
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Photo by Tom Boyd
Snow, Nature, waiting, skiing
November 13, 2007 —
It is natural for Nature to be fickle, normal for it to remain unknown, and very typical for it to be unpredictable. For every truth about Nature there are a million unknown things, facts which lay undiscovered beneath the reach of microscopes and beyond the grasp of telescopes, and always it creates performances which we could never, never predict.
This is what happens to me when snow is scarce in November. I get philosophical.
Allow me to restate: Natural snow is scarce. Man-made snow is doing fine, thanks to cold nights which allow snowmaking to occur. Still, due to September’s stormy insistence on being more wintery than usual, and November’s cheery insistence on being more autumnal than usual, the snow conditions of the two months are identical and, strangely, very much like what one might expect in October. Call it a tradeoff. Can you guess when the picture in this blog was taken? Late September, and conditions have been more or less the same ever since.
A reminder: don’t fault Nature. She almost always leaves leaves on the trees far too late, or steals them far too early. Our mean averages of the climate are just that: mean. Nature, like Napoleon, never chooses the middle ground. She prefers to attack all-out, or hide her big guns for later times.
Right now she’s hiding her big guns. In response, we are bringing out our guns, our snow guns, and when Vail opens this Friday, I’ll be out there riding on the man-made stuff. It’s not a snub of Nature, it’s just a form of insurance, a way to keep the annual clock ticking regular so that we humans can feel a little more secure in an otherwise fickle, unknown, and unpredictable natural world.
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Courtesy Keystone Resort
The November motto: "Always forward, never back"
November 10, 2007 —
People like to look to the future. To slide is to slide and to ride is to ride, and the early season hunger to get out and start skiing/snowboarding seems to be alive and well here in the Rockies.
Rumor has it that more than 1,000 people a day have been riding Keystone this week, and based on what I saw there last Thursday, those numbers seem about right. I have a few friends skiing A-Basin right now, as I type, and I’ll get a report from them and post it as soon as they’re back.
This past Thursday – yet another bluebird day - I expected to see a few die hard locals out on Keystone’s single slope, but even on a weekday I witnessed a relatively large crowd shuffling onto the gondola in the a.m. Most of them were snowboarders on their way to the A-51 railyard (an early season version of the A-51 terrain park), which boasts an impressive 20+ features, even in this dry, early season.
Copper has some terrain park action happening right now, too, but mainly we’re looking at single runs at a handful of resorts.
And yet, the hiking is fantastic right now. Only moments ago my nostrils were filled with the sweet, dry smells of crunching leaves and dry grass, delivered to me during a jaunt along the North Trail, here in West Vail. It’s a time of year when the mountain bike and the skis can receive equal billing – the hiking boots are as important as hat and goggles.
Still, I carry a kind of guilt with me for choosing to hike this morning, rather than ski. I'm like some lost soul who, obsessed with wringing the most from the summer season, cannot part with it, cannot part with memories of summer walks, green trees, and dry ground. Shouldn't I let go of warm weather and embrace the winter, whose white fingers are already spreading downward from the mountain peaks? Shouldn't I choose to ride down rather than walk up? Isn't it an intrinsically more optimistic viewpoint to look forward, rather than back?
The truth is I can't decide. Based on what I saw at Keystone, most people want to look forward, never back. It's November 10, and that means ski + snowboard season is here, no matter what. To take a trip down that one, white slope is not just to ride again, but it is also to have a small taste of what's to come. Forget memories of summer, they say, there’s simply too much to look forward to. Save thoughts of summer, they seem to say, for the spring. Right now, it's time to ride.
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Courtesy Sweet Basil
Vail to get air time on Food Network tonight
November 9, 2007 —
Vail will get national exposure on television tonight at 8:30 p.m. (MST) as part of a show on the Food Network hosted by the lovely Giada De Laurentiis.
De Laurentiis came to town Tuesday, Sept. 11, and visited Vail’s famed Sweet Basil restaurant to film tonights episode of the popular “Giada's Weekend Getaways.” De Laurentiis also visited Beano’s Cabin in Beaver Creek during her filming stint, all as part of a broader episode to be entitled “Vail/Beaver Creek” or “The Rocky Mountains."
We'll find out tonight which name the episode will have, and we'll get to find out what De Laurentiis thought of our home turf.
Sweet Basil marketing director Jana Morgan received a call in August from one of the producers of the show stating Basil was “in the running” to be in Giada’s Weekend Getaway Rocky Mountain edition. The producers began with a list of 20 Colorado restaurants that had great reputations, interesting food and name recognition. After numerous meetings, they narrowed the field down to just a few.
The fact that two of the chosen locations were in our valley comes as no surprise to me since, in my opinion, we have the best food in Colorado, no question.
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