These two pictures were taken from the observation lounge on the California Zephyr train. There are a lot of windy canyons, and we were able to see some mining cars and tracks on some of the cliffs. The train goes through a long network of tunnels.
Winter Park Mountain (10,700 feet)
Winter Park mountain has a lot of easy ski runs mixed in with some intermediate and black diamond ski runs on the eastern side.
This is the view from the base.
This is White Rabbit, a very nice easy run which is good for warming up your ski legs.
Cranmer Cutoff, an easy way to ski from the top of Vasquez Ridge to the Winter Park mountain base.
Cranmer, a popular intermediate ski run. This picture shows the NASTAR slalom race course on the right. The small hut you see to the right of the center is the starting gate house.
Vasquez Ridge Mountain (10,700 feet)
Vasquez Ridge is the western-most mountain at Winter Park ski resort.
This is a view from the summit.
The ski runs on this mountain are somewhat steep and give some nice views of the mountains.
Mary Jane Mountain (11,200 feet)
This mountain is mostly black diamond and more difficult intermediate ski runs with mogels. The name comes from a prostitute who lived in the area during the late 1800's. This day was particularly unpleasant because of the wind and thin show at the summit, as these pictures show. The second picture (also taken at the summit) has a 'Thin snow' warning sign posted.
This is at the summit, where the wind was howling at 50 mph when I took this picture. There's a ski mountain in the background called Parsenn Bowl (12,060 feet) which was closed for lack of snow and the bad weather. The conditions were so bad you couldn't see it from the summit.
This is from the Lonesome Whistle ski run, which starts at the Mary Jane summit and ends near the base of the Vasquez Ridge mountain. If you're looking for a long ski run, this is it.
This is a picture taken on a much nicer day from the Lower Arrowhead Loop intermediate ski run, showing the mogels.
Other Pictures
This is a picture of Abbie, a member of our Champaign Ski Club group and myself posing on Cranmer.
This is what I saw when I got back to my apartment. The entire parking lot was buried under a foot of snow and ice. This picture was taken from my front door.
It was a very tricky job getting into the parking lot, especially with a lot of buried cars that were in the way. The snow was piled up high, but the angle I took this shot (I'm on the second floor) doesn't show it as well.
