Its easy to forget how exhausting a day in the snow often turns out to be, when getting excited about vacation or a day on the hill and such is fed by Warren Miller movies or Seth Morrison videos. You may not see it in extreme videos, ski games, or on the smiling faces of winter-sports related websites, so its easy for it to slip out from under the radar. Visitors and getaway locals have every right to be excited, but keep in mind- you will be tired, especially:

• If its snowing out.
• If you haven’t skiied within a couple of weeks -or-
• If your regular exercise routine does not involve lunges and squats.
• If you are an intermediate skier or better using rental ski boots.
• If you don’t bring water on the slopes with you.
• If you don’t already live in a high-altitude environment.
• If you drink the night before.

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At 8 a.m., students up and down the Vail Valley in Colorado are entering the doors of the local high school.

But not freshman Abby Ghent. She is standing on the snow at Vail Ski Resort and using a heavy, metal wrench to screw a racing gate into the snow. The gates — the bright poles that skiers race around at the Winter Olympics — have to be screwed in tight so they don’t rip out when the girls come racing down the mountain.

If they want to attend the Vail Ski and Snowboard Academy, these girls have to be willing to do dirty work like this, carry a lot of gear and stay ahead in school.

Read about it here or listen to it at NPR.org

The Avon Transit Center is now one more step closer to being the complete transportation hub in its dreams of itself- the Gondola to Beaver Creek Landing is now fully operational, cutting the average transit time of skiers from Avon to Beaver Creek by about five minutes. The gondola also serves end-of-day or lunching skiers downloading back to Avon. Check out the ride in this slideshow:

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At one time it seemed that Aspen and Vail / Beaver Creek had a rivalry, each trying to one-up the other on lift ticket prices as seasons alternated. This year was Aspen’s turn, with a price of $87, until Vail Resorts announced its rise in ticket prices this week. Now it seems, that the whole industry is facing a rivalry with the price of crude oil. Does skiing in Colorado everywhere cost this much?

• Copper Mountain:up to $79 one day, but steep discounts provided at 2+ day rates. Distance from Vail: 25 gorgeous driving minutes.
• Ski Cooper: $39! A great deal but many fewer on-mountain amenities. Ski where the 10th mountain division used to train, on the continental divide in some of the highest altitude. Distance from Vail/ BC – one careful hour or 35 bat-out-of-H*** minutes.
• Breckenridge: Up to $86 depending on the week of the year. Check their prices online. Distance from Vail: 45 minutes.
• Keystone: $79. Distance from Vail /BC – 50 minutes. Keystone has night skiing too, so this may be a good choice if you get a late start.
• A-Basin: Colorado’s first, and lowest! Only $58 and score a season pass for less than the price of five nights. This bald mountain on the continental divide is still “the Legend.”

I was really hoping to find you a deal, folks. Here’s what I would say: stay next to the mountain you want to ski- get an early start, and hit it hard. Take a couple of days off to enjoy some snowshoeing or ice climbing in East Vail. The cost of renting a car may outweigh the lower lift prices at other destinations, but we understand. Realistically, the prices have only gone up $10 or less, so just find a place to stay that makes that cost back for you. Places like Beaver Creek West that are close to the bus route but off the slopes make a great compromise. Again, sorry the ticket prices are so high! But we’d really love to see ya.

The Vail Valley Blog went to Beaver Creek to ski today, on its first powder day of the season. Outside the window in the morning there were about three inches, but since Beaver Creek reported six, we figured it would be worth a shot. After stopping in at Venture Sports for a quick tune-up, we were up the lift and down the -one- run, Latigo, which was long, winding, and surprisingly not crowded, considering the packed busloads running up and down the mountain. The snow was loose and soft and ice was minimal.

Later on, we spied skiiers and riders breaking in some fresh powder on a run called Double Diamond which ran alongside the our Centennial Express lift. “Did they just open that? No way!” Surprise! Powder.. a lot of it. Enough to support dozens of us on the trail, not enough to cover all the weeds and saplings that had sprung up over the summer. I spoke with ski patrol just a few minutes ago to find out what other train would soon be open, and learned that Double Diamond was already closed. Why? “We only opened it for a couple of hours. We just wanted to get some tracks in it to get some of the air out of the snow. We don’t know when its going to open again. It was pretty rocky.” Oh great.. guess its a lucky accident that my head didn’t come in contact with any. Lesson one: wear a helmet!

My friendly ski patroller was able to tell me that a few of them were going over to Rose Bowl to see if the snow would support its opening. An expected storm on Friday and Saturday this week would undoubtedly support the opening of more terrain for the weekend. Still, the guns were going, and the mountain looked good. I was tired. I got one day in.. that’s one for us, zero for ski-blog. Today’s 6″ of snow get a 6 out of 10 for a worthy effort but lacking the volume to open more trails on the mountain. We are looking forward to a 7+ out of 10 this weekend.