On day two, I figured we'd head for Beaver Creek. It was probably going to be our only chance to visit "America's Grand Resort", plus it's right outside my doorstep. Shit, I can see the place out of the window of my single wide. However the day was kind of fucked again.

In the morning, we went to Christy Sports and rented Brian a pair of K2 Escapes and some boots that actually fit. That problem solved, we hit the slopes. One of the great things about Beaver Creek is that there is free parking. Two huge lots are serviced by massive shuttles that run every few minutes. We parked, slipped into our boots, grabbed our skis and paced over to the shuttle stop. Helpful valets grab our skis and place them in the rack behind the bus. (at the top, similarly helpful valets remove the skis from the rack and hand them to you as you exit the bus).

On the way from the parking lot the base of the mountain, the bus passes a series of massive mansions on the far side of a now verdant golf course, a very disturbing sight during ski season. The last time I had been up there, the whole place was covered with snow. I had no idea there was even a golf course under the huge field of powder between the road and the houses. This did not bode well.

The first couple of runs (C-Prime and Centennial) were fine. Brian felt so much better on his new equipment. The altitude was still getting to him, but he was fighting through it gamely. Then we skied down Red Tail. Steep and Icy. Fun for me because my edges are sharp enough to slice my hands (and they have), but for Brian, it was a challenge that his thighs were not up to.

We took a break at the Red Tail Camp at the bottom of the run, but I was disappointed to find that the restaurant and the bar were shut down. They did leave cups in the bathroom so you could get a drink of water. But no beer, no fire pit and now chili stuffed baked potatoes. It was not the last disappointment of the day. We had also found out that the entire west half of the mountain, including Arrowhead, Bachelor Gulch and Strawberry Express were shut down. This was (usually) some of the best skiing on the mountain. Skiing from Rose Bowl to Arrowhead and back is one of the great features of the Beav. And there's very little to compare to skiing down to the Ritz Carlton in Bachelor Gulch. C'est la vie. Like everyone else, we had deal with the spring conditions.

Fortunately, Vail and Beaver Creek have dropped their lift passes prices considerably from 73 bucks to a more reasonable 49. My manager Kurt gave Brian a free day pass (awfully nice of him) and he got a discount by joining Vail's Peaks program which links your credit card to your ski pass. All told, Brian only paid 180 smakeroos for 5 days of skiing. Not to bad in this day and age.

From Red Tail we headed up the Larkspur lift, the mostly westerly operating lift on the mountain. A few weeks ago the electricity went out on the Larkspur lift stranding hundreds of skiers 40 feet in the air for hours. They couldn't get the backup generator working so the ski patrol had to evacuate the poor people with ropes. That would have scared me shitless. I know that if a lift is non-operational for over an hour, the resort gives the victims a free ski pass. I don't know what they did for the people who had to be rescued, but I'm sure their compensation was considerable.

Fortunately nothing of the sort happened to us. We were only victimized by horrible now conditions that sucked the resolve out of Brian's legs. Exhausted (him, not me) we headed for lunch at the mid-mountain Spruce Saddle for chili and taters. 4 lifts, morning over.

In the afternoon, we headed up the high on the mountain to find better snow. One odd thing about The Beav is that the "family" area is on the top of the mountain. A relatively flat area of green (easy) runs is serviced by the infuriatingly languid chair number 5. But that was where the best snow was, so that was where we were headed.

One of my fellow action photographers from Sharpshooters, Derek, was up there on Red Buffalo and he took some decent shots of us. He got a really great of Brian looking good despite his struggles.

A few runs at the top and it was time go home, but as we headed back towards the Spruce Saddle, you guessed it. THUNDER!!!!!! The lifts would be shut down for at least half an hour. So again, instead of just bypassing the muck snow by downloading, we were going to have to ski down. It didn’t bother me much. I've been skiing this corn meal crap snow for the better part of a month. I don't necessarily enjoy it, but I can get through it. But for Brian, this just meant more pain for his thighs. These are also prime conditions for knee injuries because the snow is what they call "variable". Basically it means the snow is so fucked up that your skis will not ride smoothly over it and your knees, which are your shock absorbers, are put under a huge amount of strain. We took it slow and made it down unscathed.