[VA2SLOride]

I'm a CA guy, and have some friends out in CO that live at the base of Vail. I can imagine that there'd be decent riding there in the summer months, but I was wondering if any of you CO peeps could fill me in on this....what it's like, and when the snow goes away?

Any info would be greatly apprecitated.....grassy-ass....

 

[dcamp29]

theyve got some good dh, and xc though, i only have ridden dh there. lifts open mid june i think-most snow should be gone by then.

 

[SkaredShtles]

They have some *STELLAR* XC there. Whoa. Great stuff. PM me if you want details.

-S.S.-

 

[Pau11y]

Rode DH there but haven't been back in 2 seasons (long story). Anyway, about the 1/4 way thru '03 I think, they shut it down, along w/ Steamboat. I thought it was because of trail issues like Steamboat was having. However, they re-opened later in the season after some 'updates'. From what I've heard, they built a full on park w/ stunts and updated the trails.
When I was going there, before the update, they held a Worlds there (I think it was either the '01 or '02). Very nice and fast course w/ some good sized drops (at least a couple of 8 - 15 footers). But it wasn't open to the public. They did let you ride the '98 (I think) Worlds course. It didn't have as much on it nor technical, but still fun. I can't wait for summer so I can go back there w/ a new 204 Magnum (building right now, waiting for a floater arm). For a variety, you might also want to visit Keystone. It's more of a pedally area. I've also heard Winter Park is going to be building something DH specific this coming summer. Rumors has it it's like 7 trails. Steamboat reopened 'cause I think they finally figured out that it's hurting their pocket books to close it to DHers and will be building one or two DH specific trails as well.

Edit: some of the front range boys should be chimming in here shortly and fill in the details.

 

[DHblur]

First of all, I'll believe the winter park and Steamboat rumors when I see 'em. That stuff is talked every year and so far, only keystone and Vail have even remotely stood up to the plate. I know Intrawest would like to do something with winter park but the problem is that the NFS is a little more picky here than it is in the areas of Intrawest's other resorts.

Vail is good though. There are two solid trails up there that have a good variety of fast, steep and technical riding. There aren't any gay bridges, but just fun fast Dh riding. If they keep everything they had last year, I would recomend it for sure.

 

[Pau11y]

First of all, I'll believe the winter park and Steamboat rumors when I see 'em. That stuff is talked every year and so far, only keystone and Vail have even remotely stood up to the plate. I know Intrawest would like to do something with winter park but the problem is that the NFS is a little more picky here than it is in the areas of Intrawest's other resorts.

Vail is good though. There are two solid trails up there that have a good variety of fast, steep and technical riding. There aren't any gay bridges, but just fun fast Dh riding. If they keep everything they had last year, I would recomend it for sure.

You're right, rumors are rumors. But Steamboat has re-opened. I rode the last couple of weekends of this past summer. Man was I rusty, strong from the trail and road riding, but rusty on the bike handling!
Anyway, if you end up coming up this way, any of yas, there's a really good shuttle to a super tech dh trail called Fish Creek. It's a total of 7 miles long but you'll need a full hour to do it. The bottom 4 miles of this is one of the most tech dh I've ever ridden!

Edit: I want to do some above treeline stuff around Vail. SS, you know of any up around Vail?

 

[caputo1989]

They heled the 94 world cup and all courses are still there. Go to my link.link
Every thing will be open for 05
If you go and ride XC check out bad simba!
DH 94 DH, Olde 9 lion down, enchanted foresst.
$20 lift ticket or ride up great workout only about 45 min. to mid-vail and 1 hour to the top. PM for mas info

 

[Pau11y]

They heled the 94 world cup and all courses are still there. Go to my link.link
Every thing will be open for 05
If you go and ride XC check out bad simba!
DH 94 DH, Olde 9 lion down, enchanted foresst.
$20 lift ticket or ride up great workout only about 45 min. to mid-vail and 1 hour to the top. PM for mas info

Thanx for the correction. Had my dates all screwed up.
Also, there were some serious amounts of bootleg trails that I'm not sure if they were closed down. But from what I can recall, there were a bunch of 4 foot booters in the aspens...

 

[dexter]

come to montana we will **** on co better trails longer jumps bigger jumps etc etc

 

[SkaredShtles]

come to montana we will **** on co better trails longer jumps bigger jumps etc etc

What the Hell are you talking about?

-S.S.-

 

[SkaredShtles]

<snip>

Edit: I want to do some above treeline stuff around Vail. SS, you know of any up around Vail?

If you have "above treeline" as a requirement, then Vail isn't really the place. There's nothing around there to speak of above treeline. Get thee to Summit county. Lots there.

Summit County Alpine Goodness

Vail does have steallar XC, though:

Vail Goodness

P.M. me for the....... <ahem>....... "details"

-S.S.-

 

[Pau11y]

If you have "above treeline" as a requirement, then Vail isn't really the place. There's nothing around there to speak of above treeline. Get thee to Summit county. Lots there.

Summit County Alpine Goodness

Vail does have steallar XC, though:

Vail Goodness

P.M. me for the....... <ahem>....... "details"

-S.S.-

Is that your page? Me likey a lotz That's what I'm talking about! I just got my grubby little hands on a set of XTR cranks. Unfortunately, it has a 24 low ring and I wanted a 22. This is so I can see just how slow I can pedal at above treeline. I remember I was going pretty damn slow on the up for the Crest trail. Didn't that sucker start at damn near 11K? But I didn't vomit...hehe

 

[SkaredShtles]

Is that your page? Me likey a lotz That's what I'm talking about! <snip>
I remember I was going pretty damn slow on the up for the Crest trail. Didn't that sucker start at damn near 11K? But I didn't vomit...hehe

Dude. You live in da Boat. What are you, some out of shape wuss?

Yep - that's my page. Morryjg took the pictures. That's him in the last one.

-S.S.-

 

[SkaredShtles]

Is that your page? Me likey a lotz <snip>

Oh, and if you like that one, you'll really like this one:

http://home.comcast.net/~elan_mbx/Butte04/

-S.S.-

 

[caputo1989]

Thanx for the correction. Had my dates all screwed up.
Also, there were some serious amounts of bootleg trails that I'm not sure if they were closed down. But from what I can recall, there were a bunch of 4 foot booters in the aspens...

If I recal correctly those booters are deignated (?sp?) trails either olde9 or the top of lionsdown or somthing could even be magic forrrest. There are more thrails like this but they are hiking use only.
The DH trails are also tight, steep, and fast if I rember.

 

[scrublover]

I've not done the lift stuff at Vail, but have at Keystone. They are pretty close to each other distance wise....... Hope to hit both this summer, and more than last year.

There is a ton of shuttle-able good stuff, and a ton of high up alpine/above treeline epic stupid long day singletrack riding to be done all along that area of the I-70 corridor. I spent one awesome day riding from Frisco to Breck winding along throught the tops of the Ten Peaks for about 6 miles last summer; several hours of riding above treeline, flirting between 11k-13k feet. Blissful. I then went to hit the lifts at Keystone the next day! Gotta love it.

A good travel medium bike would let you do both types, without suffering too much on either. A straight up XC bike would not be great on some of the shuttle/lift rides, and a DH rig would not be great on some of the high up alpine view stuff.

 

[SkaredShtles]

<snip> I spent one awesome day riding from Frisco to Breck winding along throught the tops of the Ten Peaks for about 6 miles last summer; several hours of riding above treeline, flirting between 11k-13k feet. Blissful.

Sounds alot like this trail: http://homepage.mac.com/saemisch/MinersCreek/Miners.html

-S.S.-

 

[darb04]

yea, nothing to tech but fun and fast

 

[scrublover]

Sounds alot like this trail: http://homepage.mac.com/saemisch/MinersCreek/Miners.html

-S.S.-

yep; realized shortly after posting. finally looked at your page. pretty much the same route, just in reverse. i started at gold hill, from leaving my car in the little parking spot there. my girlfriend went trail running while i was riding it. we both consumed mass quantities of food that night.

i did it solo, which could have been a bonehead move had something happened. saw a few people early on peaks, but once i split off onto miners, i saw no one until i got down towards the bottom of the lifts at breck. and only saw a few on the way back to the car. carried alot of food/water, shell, the works. got lucky and had clear blue skies the whole freakin' day.

i did some decent pic stuff, with a thread on empty beer. can't get that up here wat work, but i'll link that one up tomorrow.

did seerle/kokomo passes for the first time this last summer too, starting from officers gulch. another loooooong solo day. took me a bit of searching to find where the correct trail junction stuff was at the bottom of copper.

 

[SkaredShtles]

yep; realized shortly after posting. finally looked at your page. pretty much the same route, just in reverse. i started at gold hill, from leaving my car in the little parking spot there. <snip>

Gold Hill was where we went too. Went up over G.H. then up Miners - over the 10-Mile to the Wheeler Trail - back over 10-Mile on Wheeler, then through Breck and finally down the Peaks Trail. Total loop was nearly 50 miles.

Good times................

-S.S.-