The Y

This is a lousy picture, quality, not content, of Paul getting into the Y chute in East Vail. I took it with my cell phone. Still haven't bought a camera. Paul has a really great camera, and took some really great shots. We were too tired yesterday to get them from the camera to the computer. We will get some better pics from the Y up soon.

The Y is on the north side of the highway, east side of the Bighorn Creek valley. You can see the chute from most anywhere in the Vail village, however, not too many people know what you are talking about when you mention it. We have been talking about doing the Y for quite some time. Yesterday it all came together. It was the best worst run I have ever skied.

Early in April I bought some K2 Coomba's and put some Marker Duke touring bindings on them. The heal frees up for hiking and locks back down for skiing. All the benefit of being a meadow skipping butterfly chaser without actually having to chase any butterflies. Since I got these skis, the April showers gave me plenty of pow to test them in. Pretty much the only way I have been able to accurately describe the way the Coomba's ski is that they make you feel like you are riding a pair of rocket powered snow sharks. Anyhow, on Thursday I got out of work early. I had not yet tried hiking with the RPSS's. Paul was off and suggested we go up the west side of Bighorn Creek and take a good look at the Y. We hiked for about an hour and got a good look at the chute. There was a good amount of avy debris in there from recent snow. We scouted as best we could how to get into the chute, figured the run might suck, and decided we were going up there on Friday.

Friday's hike started at 7:30. We were gaining elevation pretty quick, through powder filled glades of pines and aspens. Before we knew it (two and a half hours later), we were at 11250, on an overlook just above the lookers left of the Y, looking down a different powder filled north facing chute just begging us to ski it. We may go get that later this spring; we just need to look at it from below to make sure it doesn't cliff out. When I say powder filled, I mean it. Paul put his probe pole in and there was 10 an a half feet of snow up there.

We were pretty sure we were above the skiers right chute of the Y. We knew we did not want to get into that chute. That side is much tighter and looked as though there was a nasty rock section near the bottom of it. As I mentioned, we were pretty sure where we were. Not 100%. The pine trees surrounding the Y seem to guard the location of it's entrance. Right about this time is when the adrenaline started moving though my system and the excitement of the day was about to peak. We worked our way down and left, occasionally poking our heads through the pine's, looking over the edge, and trying to find our entrance. After about 10 or so minutes of looking, we found our spot. These were probably the best, and definitely the most exciting turns of the run. There was about 4 -5 inches of slabby powder up here. The picture is of Paul entering the chute from the skiers left of the skiers left chute of the Y. The chute is huge. 1500 - 1700 vertical. Plenty wide. Unfortunately full of avalanche debris from a few days before. The skiing was not the best ever, not even that close. But the run was right up there.

Stay tuned for some better pics.