Feels Like Spring

The temperature is in the mid 30's today and it feels like heaven. You know it's been ridiculously cold when you walk outside and think it's warm, only to have the temperature gauge read 8 degrees. The low to mid 30's feel like a summer day. The snow is supposed to move back in by Thursday and winter will be back.

On Friday I begged my friend to go out for a skin/ cross country ski with me. Since she's in the process of acquiring gear, I let her use my AT (alpine touring) set up and I used my cross country skis. We headed up Baldy and had a gorgeous night ski. The best part was watching her try to skin with adjustable poles that kept shrinking until her hands were practically at her knees. Eventually she figured out how to tighten them up and the ensuing ascent was enjoyable. I wish we had a camera that night, the town looked gorgeous lit up against the snow.

The view of the ski area from the summit of Baldy. We were a little lower than this, but a couple of weeks ago, I headed out with Brett before work and skinned up to the summit and had a great ski down.

Although we've had a ton of snow, the typical Breckenridge wind has been blowing and packing down that gorgeous powder. I headed up Little French Gulch with a friend on Sunday and the snow was wind crust for the first half of the turn and the second half would be super soft, sink down to your knees snow. It was a tough ski down, but the skin up and the views were more than worth it. I had been up there two months ago and the wind drifts were five times the size they were the first time. Ridiculous.

I also made it up to Peak 6 for the first time a week or two ago.

I don't know how I have been missing that. The skin up was a little sketchy- wind buff was maybe an understatement at times, but the ski down was more than worth it. The snow was soft and deep and completely untracked.

Next week The North Face corporate and The Skylark Group, our rep group, are sending two of us from TNF Breck to a two day avalanche workshop. I lucked out and grabbed a spot. It is an industry-only avy workshop with speakers Martin Volken, an IFMGA, AMGA Guide and author of "The Backcountry Skiing Book," Andrew McLean, a ski mountaineer and author of "The Chuting Gallery," Ace Kvale, an adventure photographer, Kasha Rigby, a ski mountaineer and TNF athlete, and Brad Sawtell an avalanche forecaster. The opportunity to attend a workshop with experienced outdoorsman as well as recieve my avy one cert is pretty incredible.

I hope your winter has been soul-fulfilling thus far.

La Nina Loves Breckenridge

January 18 saw 26" of fresh snow for a record 1day snowfall total in 18 years. And then it kept snowing. The last week saw 58" of snow- that's 2" shy of 5 feet in one week! Incredible. There's no over-reporting going on here. The streets are full of snow with no where to put it- parking is a challenge!

The weather report is calling for more snow for the next three days. La Nina really does love Breck.

Check out the radar too, storm after storm is heading onto the continental US.

If you're in town, come visit us, we have a pretty nice 20% off section in the back of the store.

Catch Up, Anyone?

It's been a quiet start to the new year around Breckenridge. Maybe the negative degree temperatures even before wind chill have contributed to that. It has been miserably cold the past couple of days, but it seems to finally be warming up.

We had an incredible start to the ski season- we were graced with powder day after powder day until the week before Christmas. It has tapered off a bit recently and the storms have been favoring the southern part of the state as they normally do early season, but we're hoping for a change in the jet stream that will bring us some big storms from San Francsico. Last night six inches hit us and hopefully more is coming in the next couple of days.

 

A picture from the resort this morning

In other news, we've hired two new employees who now feel like a part of the family.

When Peter walked in to pick up an application we chatted for a little while and he turned out to be a mini Greg. He has spent his youth and college days playing soccer and his summer whitewater rafting. If there are two things Greg loves in life, it's soccer and rafting. Peter was an instant in.

Peter and Susan checking out his white elephant gift

Historically we are a one girl in each store type of business, and you know, I kind of like it. But this year Greg met Lindsey and she was in. Next door at the Main Street Outlet we hired two girls also- it's pretty great to have more female energy around the company.

Lindsey has the moustache on along with the girls from the Outlet- Sara and Averi

Our company grew this summer as we partnered with Columbia Sportswear and opened the Columbia Breckenridge store, located at 108 S Main, across the street from Downstairs at Eric's. We lost one of our own to the Columbia store. Brett moved down to co-manage the shop with Timmy from the Outlet. It was a great move for him and a great loss for us. We miss him everyday. Luckily he still stops in for a quick chat most days. Since we opened Columbia our holiday party grew to the point that we almost didn't fit in front of the fireplace for our annual picture.

The party was just as good as last year's- the food was incredible, the gifts were hilarious and it's always wonderful to spend the time hanging out together outside of work. This year after the party we took over The Motherloaded Tavern for a couple of hours and then we had the urge to dance, so we made our way to Liquid Lounge, where we got some pretty sweet pics.

Love this one of Jeff

This has been a pretty great season so far- lots of snow (soon we will be thanking Ullr for his generosity), great new hires, and a wonderful holiday season.

Breckenridge Ski Resort Open for The Season!

At 5:30 this morning, Breckenridge Ski Resort had reported 20" of new snow in the past 24 hours, making this one of the best openings in a number of years. The t-bar also opened today which is the earliest we have had lift access to this terrain in history! I was returning home from a product showing in California and sadly wasn't in line for the opening or the fresh pow but I'm sure it was a who's who in line this morning. Whats a who's who at the t-bar line you ask? It's when all the locals, shop owners and skilled skiers rush out to get the first and best tracks in Horseshoe Bowl and the surrounding runs.

Here's a picture of me, Sydney, Sara, Brett and Timmy on opening day just after our free french toast at One Ski Hill Place.

I promise to have lots of great pictures of us skiing some better terrain, and to keep you updated when something BIG happens at Breckenridge!

Ski Wear Decoded

Andy and I filmed short commercials for the local Resort Sports Network station explaining what to wear on the hill for a normal ski day and for a cold ski day. Most days here would be considered cold for most people, but then we get the bitter, -63 degrees with windchill days that are almost impossible to dress for. We layered up well and explained the rationale behind each layer.

Andy with what to wear on a normal day:

Me with what to wear on a cold day:

Send comments our way with questions, related and unrelated to the videos, and we'll let you know how we've solved that ski day or even just winter day conundrum.

Also, don't forget about the Speaker Series featuring Kit DesLauriers coming up this Saturday, October 9. Come join us at 5:30pm at The North Face Breckenridge for a VIP reception where you will be able to chat with Kit one-on-one, as well as other outdoor enthusiasts. Tickets are available for free on a first come first serve basis, while guaranteed seating begins at $8.00. Tickets for the VIP reception, which include preferred seating, a meet and greet with Kit, beer, wine, and light food, are $20.00. All proceeds from the VIP reception will benefit The Breckenridge Outdoor Education Center (BOEC),which is a "national leader in outdoor education serving all people, while ensuring the outdoors is accessible to those with special needs and disabilities." All tickets are availiable for purchase here.

2nd Annual Speaker Series

The North Face Speaker Series_2010_trailer from camp4 collective on Vimeo.

We're getting excited about our second annual The North Face Speaker Series on October 9th. This year we're hosting ski mountaineer Kit Des Lauriers, the first person to ski the seven summits of the world, which she completed in October of 2006. In 2010, she embarked on a journey to bring awarness to the effects oil drilling would have on the 19.6 million acre Arctic Refuge and she'll be sharing her adventure with us. We can't wait to meet her and hear her story.

Check out her video

Kit will be speaking at the Riverwalk Center at 7pm, Saturday, October 9th. Come join us at 5:30pm at The North Face Breckenridge for a VIP reception where you will be able to chat with Kit one-on-one, as well as other outdoor enthusiasts. Tickets are available for free on a first come first serve basis, while guaranteed seating begins at $8.00. Tickets for the VIP reception, which include preferred seating, a meet and greet with Kit, beer, wine, and light food, are $20.00. All proceeds from the VIP reception will benefit The Breckenridge Outdoor Education Center (BOEC),which is a "national leader in outdoor education serving all people, while ensuring the outdoors is accessible to those with special needs and disabilities." All tickets are availiable for purchase here.

We hope to see you there!

Mountain Bike Stoke

Check out this video of TNF snowboarder Ralph Backstrom mountain biking in New Zealand

New Zealand Mountain Biking Video from UnofficialSquaw on Vimeo.

Here's another one of TNF skier Sage Cattabriga-Alosa

summer bike road trip 2010 hi res from sage on Vimeo.

We've been mountain biking our summer away also. It's been raining like crazy, but we find a window in the morning or afternoon and head out for a quick spin. On the positive side, the rain has been making for some amazing wildflowers and mushrooms.

Andy and I have been racing in the local mountain bike race series, the Summit Mountain Challenge, and it has been incredibly fun. It's been great to get out and meet more like-minded locals. Everyone in the series feels like family and is encouraging and supportive, even as a newby. I really enjoy participating in the races and look forward to more next year.

We're beginning to get our winter gear in, which means spring items are on sale. Come on in and check out our hot new gear and get outfitted for the snowy season. It's coming soon, there's already frost on the ground at night. Yikes!

(videos via The North Face Facebook fan page)