We're still in the early season here at Vail, which means that although there are huge crowds of people waiting to board the gondolas that will carry them to eighteen inches of fresh powder on the mountain, the streets of Vail Village and Lionshead are empty. The town feels especially eerie mid-morning, when the heated streets have melted the snow and give off thick clouds of steam. In a way, you almost feel like you're in industrial London or Pittsburgh, where gas street lamps and smog collected on the ground to the point where you couldn't see someone standing ten feet away. Obviously the major difference here is that this fog is healthy: in such a dry climate, our skin needs all the steam and humidity it can get its pores on. As the day goes on, the steam clears. The photo below was taken in the afternoon at Lionshead.
This weekend is Snow Daze, which will really kick off the winter and holiday season here in Vail. After that, finding a street this quiet and empty will be a rare thing indeed. I'll leave you with a dubstep violin video. Yes, you heard right.
