A Perfect Day at the Office (he said)
by Kent 10 Mar 2011People who know me will find it hard to imagine these words emanating from my fingertips, but I just had a fantastic day of work. I slept in ’til 8:30, made my patented fried egg sandwiches for breakfast, then went up to the hill for a high energy morning session at The Beav (2 hours, 8 laps, ~15,000 vertical feet). Got back down by lunchtime, had some leftover Gondola Pizza, and then popped open the PC and put in 4 hrs of programming for NASA. Pretty much a perfect day.
My last run was even better than expected. From the top of Larkspur Bowl, I could see the Fleet* grooming my favorite secret run, [redacted]. This run is ideal, because the location of its entrance is not readily apparent from the main traffic areas on Beaver Creek Mountain, so it is already in pretty good condition. Couple that with about 1,300 vertical feet of steep, rolling terrain, and you have one fantastic slope. And here was the Fleet, turning it into groomed, pristine, silky perfection at 11:30 in the morning. So, rip down Larkspur (a fun run on its own), up the Birds of Prey Express Lift, and then over to [redacted].
If you are prone to jealousy, please don’t look at the photograph here of the pristine groomed surface.
(*) The “Fleet” is ten or so brand new Pisten-Bully grooming machines (at > $300k a pop) that roam around the mountain all day, touching up the slopes to give skiers at Beaver Creek that “freshly groomed” feeling from first chair to last. I guess that is what a $108 lift ticket buys you.
Have you checked into actually becoming a part of the fleet and driving your own Piston- Bully grooming machine? You would probably have to get up very early in the morning. Weigh your options.