Skiing/Riding 2016-2017

GoJeff!

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May 30, 2007
2,001
Los Angeles
We're about a month away from opening day for many ski resorts. Anyone making plans for this winter? Anyone looking for advice on where to go?
I have kids in local race programs, so I probably won't get too many interesting trips, but I'm hoping for a good snow year in southern California so I hit the backcountry for the first time since 2010.
 

petefungtorres

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Jul 31, 2006
729
Portland, ME
We were up at the ski house this past weekend getting the wood delivered and stacked and generally getting excited for the upcoming season. Did a nice hike that my eldest thinks will make for a good backcountry trip (provided we actually get enough snow). Rode the lift they had running and were told to go ahead and pick as many wildflowers as we wanted, they're going to start making snow as the weather permits. Friends have a place in the three valleys but I think that more of a spring 2018 trip, so we'll get our skiing in almost exclusively at Sunday River. Very much looking forward to the ski season.
 

DJnVa

Dorito Dawg
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Dec 16, 2010
53,716
Heading to Snowshoe in late February for a few days. Haven't been there in a few years, and didn't get to ski last year at all. The year before I was in Colorado for work and had enough time to sneak away to Loveland.

I'm not really a good skier at all, but I absolutely love everything about it.
 

graffam198

dog lover
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Dec 10, 2007
1,855
Reno, NV
Tahoe has its first dusting. Some of the resorts have gotten over a foot to date. High pressure ridge will keep everything out for the next couple of weeks, but looking for another shot in mid-November. La Nina pattern is threatening, so could be a good/better than average year out here.
 

Quintanariffic

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Apr 23, 2002
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The City of Studios
Tahoe has its first dusting. Some of the resorts have gotten over a foot to date. High pressure ridge will keep everything out for the next couple of weeks, but looking for another shot in mid-November. La Nina pattern is threatening, so could be a good/better than average year out here.
I don't think anyone is going to make money predicting CA weather this year. Signals point to dry, but last winter is all you need to know about the state of season prediction models. When one atmospheric river event for a few days could make the season in the Sierra despite an otherwise lack luster winter, I'm not sure any forecast around ski season quality can would be wise at this stage.

I'm just hoping I can get to Mt Baldy here in SoCal for a day or two. Hasn't been worth it for 6 years. Several trips planned to the Rockies but local days can help pad the numbers quickly and easier with the kids.
 

DJnVa

Dorito Dawg
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Dec 16, 2010
53,716
Anyone with unused ski gear they don't want and will sell?
 

Zososoxfan

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Jul 30, 2009
9,201
South of North
Getting a trip together to Vail in mid January. Hoping to get a lot of midweek days. If things break right, may also make my first trip to Park City in March-April for a long weekend. Got some gear and tune ups yesterday. Giggity!
 

Ale Xander

Hamilton
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Oct 31, 2013
72,203
Lindsey Vonn fractures her humerus (arm) on the slopes at Cooper in training.
 

petefungtorres

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Jul 31, 2006
729
Portland, ME
Killington has been working hard to make enough snow for it. The past few days have been good for snowmaking and we've had a little bit of natural snow, but for the most part temperatures have been too warm for much snowmaking. Opening day at Sunday River is tomorrow and my kids are hell bent on getting out there early.

My eldest says he wants to join the ski team this year. He's a good skier but currently is on twin tips. Any advice on decent downhill racing skis?

@DrewDawg - I've had good luck buying gear on craigslist and ebay, just make sure you have your bindings adjusted before using any new/used equipment.
 

GoJeff!

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May 30, 2007
2,001
Los Angeles
Skied opening day at Snow Summit, our local area, yesterday. Limited but good coverage and nice weather made for a fun day with the kids.
 

doc

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Jul 14, 2005
4,471
Killington has been working hard to make enough snow for it. The past few days have been good for snowmaking and we've had a little bit of natural snow, but for the most part temperatures have been too warm for much snowmaking. Opening day at Sunday River is tomorrow and my kids are hell bent on getting out there early.

My eldest says he wants to join the ski team this year. He's a good skier but currently is on twin tips. Any advice on decent downhill racing skis?

@DrewDawg - I've had good luck buying gear on craigslist and ebay, just make sure you have your bindings adjusted before using any new/used equipment.
Try Putnam's in Portsmouth NH

http://www.putnamsports.com/



I am heading out to Wachusetts for a few hours in the morning tomorrow
 

Foxy42

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Mar 1, 2002
3,652
nyc
Day tripping this Thursday (wife and I and 5 yr old who is a natural and can handle any blues / greens).

Anyone have insight on if Waterville or Loon will be more crowded / have worse lift lines during vacation week?
 

petefungtorres

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Jul 31, 2006
729
Portland, ME
The snow will likely be better on Friday if you have some flexibility. Loon is so convenient from the Boston area that it's typically a little more crowded than Waterville. But it's vacation week so likely going to be crowds just about everywhere.

We are really looking forward to the likely dumping tomorrow and Friday. Glades should open up this weekend. Woot!
 

Saints Rest

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So tomorrow my wife, my daughter (6), my son (5) and I head to Mt Snow. It will be my first time skiing since I was 24 (I'm now 50). I was never great just decent (blues at easy places). What has changed in 25 years? What should I expect? Should I think I can ski two days in a row (Sat and Sun as tomorrow will be travel day) or should I ski Saturday and plan to spend Sunday in the lodge nursing sore muscles and hangover)?

We haven't yet booked ski camp for the kids; are we SOL?
 

Stickman709

New Member
Jul 20, 2014
15
You may be SOL on the ski school. I would contact them ASAP. As for the skiing you can expect wider skis that are a lot shorter and turn easier. Also boots will be more comfortable and generally better overall experience. If you are generally athletic you should be fine for back to back. If you will be skiing hard or picking up your kids off the ground after lessons then plan for one day and one recovery.
 

doc

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Jul 14, 2005
4,471
I picked up skiing again after a 20 something year hiatus at 51, and it is much easier.
 

Zososoxfan

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Jul 30, 2009
9,201
South of North
Has anyone been out to Colorado recently this season? I'm heading to Vail/Breck on the 13th and am a little concerned about conditions.

Also, is anyone an intermediate/advanced boarder? I ride bowls, trees, and bumps and have questions about binding setup.
 

monty10

New Member
Nov 16, 2006
86
In Vail we had some major snowfall before Christmas. Followed by some nice sunny weather. New weather pattern bringing snow for the next few days. The whole 6,000 acres are open. Conditions are very good. Be sure to check out Bart and Yeti's in Lionshead. It is the local Red Sox bar. Run by a couple of guys from Mass.
 

Saints Rest

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You may be SOL on the ski school. I would contact them ASAP. As for the skiing you can expect wider skis that are a lot shorter and turn easier. Also boots will be more comfortable and generally better overall experience. If you are generally athletic you should be fine for back to back. If you will be skiing hard or picking up your kids off the ground after lessons then plan for one day and one recovery.
We got the kids into ski school for both days. They did pretty well, making it out of Red level (absolute beginner) by end of Day 1, but both will need more time at Yellow Level to work on turns and stops.

My big issue was that my boots were too small, and because I rented them here in CT (which was great for avoiding the long lines at Mt Snow on Sat morning), I had no way to make it better on Day 2. That said, I was still pretty sore on Sunday and Monday. Sunday I was sore in my quads (the instructor in the group lesson on Saturday said if my quads are sore, I'm leaning too far backwards). Monday I was sore in my calves -- no idea what that means.
 

GoJeff!

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May 30, 2007
2,001
Los Angeles
Mammoth has back-to-back storms coming in that are expected to drop 30 inches of water qfp over the next ten days.

Not 30 inches of snow. Water.

They are talking about 200 inches of snow.

Holy crap. I'm looking for some very creative excuses to give my wife and work.
 

FlexFlexerson

Member
SoSH Member
We're getting hammered here in Colorado (not to Tahoe levels, but we're also skipping the rain). Just came back from a weekend in Aspen and can confirm the skiing is great all over the state.

Had never been to Aspen Highlands before. Loved it. Big, steep expert terrain that's just relentless fall line skiing. The hike-to bowl was also spectacular Sunday. highly recommended.
 

Zososoxfan

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Jul 30, 2009
9,201
South of North
I'm hoping this week's weather system in CO goes into next week. I saw CO got pounded last week and it looks like more of the same for this week. Save some for next week!!

Also, can anyone speak to goggles? I have a midrange pair of Smiths, but I just came into some unexpected dough, so I'm tempted to upgrade. Smith I/O and Oakley Airbrakes seem to be popular. Any reviews/sites that you all trust for gear reviews?
 

Stickman709

New Member
Jul 20, 2014
15
As far as goggles go I think your best bet is to talk to someone at your local shop. They will have all the questions for you. Unless you are really anal I would not worry about adjustability. Get a broad spectrum lens that suits the light you ski most often. Personally I ski mostly in the trees so I prefer a bright colored lens to improve depth perception .
 

monty10

New Member
Nov 16, 2006
86
Zososoxfan or anyone else coming out to Vail. I have some 50% of coupons for lift tickets. They can be used for tubing and adventure ridge activities also. Let me know if you would like some of them.
 

Kliq

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Mar 31, 2013
22,622
I'm going up to North Conway tomorrow and I don't know anything. What would be a good place that has trails for beginners as well as a decent amount of intermediate trails?
 

jk333

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Feb 26, 2009
4,318
Boston
I'm going up to North Conway tomorrow and I don't know anything. What would be a good place that has trails for beginners as well as a decent amount of intermediate trails?
Are you a beginner or novice? If a beginner, not Wildcat; it's my favorite mountain and great for intermediates but the beginner area doesn't have the best layout. Probably Cranmore? It's right downtown and moderate size with a pretty good beginner area.

The best NH mountains to learn to ski at are Sunapee and Waterville Valley. They have separate areas for people that are just learning.
 

Zososoxfan

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Jul 30, 2009
9,201
South of North
Zososoxfan or anyone else coming out to Vail. I have some 50% of coupons for lift tickets. They can be used for tubing and adventure ridge activities also. Let me know if you would like some of them.
Thanks Monty, just seeing this now. I was up at a Vail a few weeks ago, but I had a season pass. Had a couple of glorious powder days - 1 at Vail and another at Beaver Creek. Also hit up A Basin and Breck for a day each. I'm still getting media from my buddies, but I'm going to try my hand at making an edit in the near future.

Unrelated, but next season I'm going to try and make a few days of cat skiing and maybe a heli day. Revelstoke looks completely ridiculous, but I'll look into Whistler and Powderbird too.
 

Kliq

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Mar 31, 2013
22,622
Are you a beginner or novice? If a beginner, not Wildcat; it's my favorite mountain and great for intermediates but the beginner area doesn't have the best layout. Probably Cranmore? It's right downtown and moderate size with a pretty good beginner area.

The best NH mountains to learn to ski at are Sunapee and Waterville Valley. They have separate areas for people that are just learning.
A few of us are beginners and have only been skiing once or twice.
 

InstaFace

The Ultimate One
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Sep 27, 2016
21,591
Pittsburgh, PA
Unrelated, but next season I'm going to try and make a few days of cat skiing and maybe a heli day. Revelstoke looks completely ridiculous, but I'll look into Whistler and Powderbird too.
Heli skiing ruins skiing for you. You will become the biggest snob in the world, incapable of enjoying even a powder day at Vail, after you've been heli-skiing. Save your wallet and your perspective :)

Two weeks ago I did a long weekend at Vail, didn't have any powder but the base out there was spectacular. Managed to snap the heel latch of my bindings clean off in one of the powder piles of Mongolia Bowl - had myself a nice slide on my ass down the rest of the slope, and then a good mile walk along Silk Road before ski patrol caught up to me with a loaner ski. The Pete's Express lift definitely had the best snow, if you were prepared to do some trees. If you have pow skis, Sun Up Bowl (traversing way far wide) also had an untouched snow field, but it was too flat for my ill-equipped ass.

Followed that up with a long weekend at Mt Snow with a bunch of friends this past weekend. The snow quality there is surprisingly good right now, assuming it didn't all melt earlier this week. Everything was open and quite skiable, with some good powder stashes in the glades off Olympic, glades off Ridge on the main face, and on skier's right in the Sunbrook area. I imagine Stratton and Okemo are probably in even better shape given the recent storms.

Also, Monty - very generous offer, had I been scanning this thread earlier I would have taken you up on it and bought a beer or two for your troubles! Even with the Buddy Passes off my friend's Epic Pass, it was $116/day. Yow.
 

Zososoxfan

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Jul 30, 2009
9,201
South of North
Heli skiing ruins skiing for you. You will become the biggest snob in the world, incapable of enjoying even a powder day at Vail, after you've been heli-skiing. Save your wallet and your perspective :)

[snip]
Even as ridiculous as that whole experience seems, I can't imagine this being true. I got a midweek powder day at Vail (~8 inches in 24 hours) and it felt like another planet. That being said, I'm more than happy to get this experience once before I start a family. Next season will probably be my last chance to do anything like this while I can push my body to do stupid things. Carpe Diem.

Also, Monty - very generous offer, had I been scanning this thread earlier I would have taken you up on it and bought a beer or two for your troubles! Even with the Buddy Passes off my friend's Epic Pass, it was $116/day. Yow.
Lift tickets have gotten completely out of control. The only way to make skiing out west viable (relative term) is to get at least 5 days on the Epic Local Pass or snag a 4/5 day pass deal for other mountains. Last year I did a Route 40 pass (2 days at Steamboat, 2 days at Winter Park) for $250. There are definitely deals to be had. Check out this website for a bunch of options for next season (most of these deals are only offered thru October/November) - https://rootsrated.com/stories/pick-2015-2016-colorado-ski-pass. Pick a pass and build your trip around it is how I've found the best value.
 

88 MVP

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Dec 25, 2007
533
WNY
Heading out to Colorado in a few weeks - planning to spend a day at Breckenridge and then continuing on to ski for a few days at Vail and Beaver Creek (staying in Avon). I haven't been out there to ski before - any recommendations on where the best conditions will be found this season, or fun apres ski and nightlife spots?

My wife and I are both aggressive skiers and will be looking to see as much challenging terrain as we can for the first 2 days - after that we are linking up with some friends who will be more content to stick to cruisers.
 

monty10

New Member
Nov 16, 2006
86
88 the offer for discount tickets is still good. Not to familiar with Breck. For the Beav Grouse Mountain and Birds of Prey have the most challenging terrain. At Vail the Chairs 10 and 11 have a lot of fun stuff. On the back side fun is everywhere. The front has nice cruisers. We could use some snow in a bit of a dry stretch right now. Agave and La Montanas have live music in Avon. Pazzo's is a great stop for pizza and beers.
 

Zososoxfan

Member
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Jul 30, 2009
9,201
South of North
Heading out to Colorado in a few weeks - planning to spend a day at Breckenridge and then continuing on to ski for a few days at Vail and Beaver Creek (staying in Avon). I haven't been out there to ski before - any recommendations on where the best conditions will be found this season, or fun apres ski and nightlife spots?

My wife and I are both aggressive skiers and will be looking to see as much challenging terrain as we can for the first 2 days - after that we are linking up with some friends who will be more content to stick to cruisers.
Oh man you are in for a treat. I've ridden at Breck before, but only got a halfday recently so I'll let others who know it better take that one.

At Vail, the way to go for a big day is to hit a couple of groomers for warmups on the frontside before heading to the back. I like to get runs in under Northwoods Express (11) and Mountaintop Express (4), so you can make it to the back easily when you're ready. You can hit some blues and single blacks on the front in the morning and hit the harder runs after the back bowls close if you really want to get a full day. Some of my favorite runs are Prima Cornice, Riva Glade, and Cady's Cafe. Cady's in particular can be a blast although it can be pretty skied off at the bottom by the end of the day. Anyway, head to the back as early as possible.

IMO, the best way to do the back bowls is really dependent on conditions. On a powder day, go anywhere and have a great time - although I'm partial to the Mongolia Bowl because a lot of people don't make it over there. It's not quite as steep as I'd like, but still a ton of fun. Keep up a TON of speed at the bottom when you catch Silk Road back to the lift. On a packed conditions type of day, I like to "follow the sun" since the heat will soften up the snow. I'm trying to remember which face can be a real pain in the ass on a packed day, I think it's Red Zinger. Fairly steep and sloped sideways, so it skis like a burner even though it shouldn't. Poppyfields is easy and skippable, although the glades under Orient Express (21) can be fun if you run out of terrain to do. I didn't spend much time in the Sun Down Bowl, although I remember Ptarmigan Ridge being pretty cool. If you're OK going OOB, there's some shenanigans to be had staying skier's right on that ridge and cutting back in at the bottom.

After working your way over to the back bowls, definitely give yourself plenty of time on Blue Sky Basin. BSB is the best area for trees and steep terrain at Vail IMO. Lover's Leap is famous and is a nice steep, but short bowl. The rest of the run is fun too. Steep and Deep and is a pretty challenging steep tree run. I really enjoyed Skree Field a ton since it's tight trees but not terribly steep and a pretty long run. So it's pretty perfect for a snowboarder, although my ski friends enjoyed it too. Skree is great for non-powder days because you can keep up your speed and you can avoid other skiers because it's pretty expansive. The run under Earl's Express (38) is a good time. Bumps and sloped so it provides a nice challenge. Champagne Glades is a blast and is a nice long run. If you like really challenging stuff, ask the better riders out there where the good OOB stuff is in BSB.

I only did one day at the Beave but damn was it fun. Birds of Prey is a fun area with plenty of tough terrain. If you really wanna go at it hard, look up the Birds of Prey Challenge. Stone Creek Chutes is very challenging, but a ton of fun (OOB BTW). Black Bear and Royal Elk Glades are worth checking out too. There's some really challenging glades if you hang skier's right on Screech Owl and Loco. There are some other great tree runs if you go through the terrain park and hang skier's left at the bottom. There is a really fun tree run called 4 Get About It under the Centennial lift. The best part about the Beave though is that it's just not that busy. If you get annoyed at packed crowds or get a late start for some reason, going the extra 20 minutes from Vail will get you a very pleasant experience. Great lodges at Talon's and the base.
 
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GoJeff!

Member
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May 30, 2007
2,001
Los Angeles
Heading out to Colorado in a few weeks - planning to spend a day at Breckenridge ...

My wife and I are both aggressive skiers and will be looking to see as much challenging terrain as we can for the first 2 days - after that we are linking up with some friends who will be more content to stick to cruisers.
Despite being huge, Breck has a limited amount of challenging terrain. The best stuff is hike-to terrain off the top of lift 6 and Imperial. Both are REALLY high elevation lifts, so I hope your lungs are in shape.

Off 6, the best stuff is lookers left, heading out to the first big knob. On the map the terrain is labelled Six Senses/ESP/Contact. It's steep and can have a cornice, but isn't crazy.

Off Imperial, the steep stuff is also looker's left, Lake Chute's and Wacky's Chute on the map.

If you're not up for the hike or if visibility/winds don't allow it, The Burn off Peak 10 has some nice terrain, as does Horseshoe Bowl off the t-bar on peak 8. Another option is E chair on peak 9.
 

InstaFace

The Ultimate One
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Sep 27, 2016
21,591
Pittsburgh, PA
Also worth checking out is Bronc, a short spur off of the main trail over on Peak 10. You have to be careful about which turns you take to get down there, it's an oft-ignored, pretty short little thing. But it has had the absolute best snow of anywhere I saw at Breck, like multiple-feet-deep kind of bouncing. A pow day up on the top of Imperial will probably top it, of course, but it was a bit of a hidden gem at least as of a few years ago. The rest of Peak 10 might be interesting to you too, of course, but the traverse back to the lift at the bottom (Flapjack, I think) is a bit of a flat, pole-intensive bummer unless you get some momentum coming off the slope.
 

GoJeff!

Member
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May 30, 2007
2,001
Los Angeles
Also worth checking out is Bronc, a short spur off of the main trail over on Peak 10. You have to be careful about which turns you take to get down there, it's an oft-ignored, pretty short little thing...
The rest of Peak 10 might be interesting to you too, of course, but the traverse back to the lift at the bottom (Flapjack, I think) is a bit of a flat, pole-intensive bummer unless you get some momentum coming off the slope.
Agreed. 10 is great on a powder day, not just bronco but all the trails and woods heading towards flapjack.
 

InstaFace

The Ultimate One
SoSH Member
Sep 27, 2016
21,591
Pittsburgh, PA
Heading out to Colorado in a few weeks - planning to spend a day at Breckenridge and then continuing on to ski for a few days at Vail and Beaver Creek (staying in Avon). I haven't been out there to ski before - any recommendations on where the best conditions will be found this season, or fun apres ski and nightlife spots?

My wife and I are both aggressive skiers and will be looking to see as much challenging terrain as we can for the first 2 days - after that we are linking up with some friends who will be more content to stick to cruisers.
Zosoxfan has way more experience than I do, but I'll add my take on Vail and Beaver as I've spent some time there recently and I love glades. If you want moguls or chutes, I'm not your guy, but if you like in-bounds stuff with trees I have plenty of tips.

Vail
First off, my favorite runs at Vail are:
- Shangri-La Glade (stay skier's left along the ridge for a while, don't drop down too early and try not to cross the lift line)
- WFO (former off-trail powder stash)
- Champagne Glade (on the Earl's side of Blue Sky Basin)
- Hornsilver (on the Pete's side of Blue Sky Basin) - look for an extension off of The Star that's not on the map, signed as "Silver Star"

My days at Vail usually start with: (1) Gondola to (3) Wildwood, to get to the top of the ridge. I'll then take a warmup run down to Game Creek, since there's never a line there. I avoid the front-side trails at all costs because that's where the skiing traffic mayhem is - for whatever reason, there's some popular belief that the back bowls are all experts-only terrain so a lot of people stay away out of fear. They're wrong, but that's to our benefit.

After that warmup run, I'll usually do my one-and-only Sundown Bowl run of the day, because getting back to it is such a pain in the butt. You start down the ridgeline where you can turn into either Game Creek (on skier's right) or Sundown (on skier's left) and just keep going straight. There's a slight left to turn off onto Ptarmigan Ridge, which is a long traverse to get around to the stuff on Sundown. With minimal pole-ing you can get a long long way out there and usually end up on a huge snowfield making fresh tracks. This will be Seldom, or Never - if you get to a point that's basically flat where you're worried about running out of momentum, that's "O.S.". Anyway, head down your fall line and eventually you'll come to some groves of trees. Those will have some gorgeous powder in them, some are aggressively steep but you get some great turns in. Generally bias your run towards your right, because going straight left will put you onto the long catwalk run-out to Lift 5. You'll end up there anyway, but biasing right will prolong your run.

Take High Noon lift (#5) and from there I generally start just doing a run on each bowl, heading from left to right of the Back Bowls map. Do a run down to the Sun Up lift (#9). Do a Tea Cup Glades or other run down to Tea Cup Lift, or skip it and head down China Bowl to the Orient Express lift (#21). Do a Shangri-La run (or two, if you like it as much as I do), and then commit yourself to a Mongolia run, which involves taking the poma lift (#22) all the way out there. The farther out you go in Mongolia, the more untracked everything will be, but the shorter and less-steep the run, and the longer the run-back on the traverse will be.

Once you're satisfied with your quick tour of the back bowls, ski your run-out down to Lift #37 to head to the Blue Sky Basin. Try a bunch of different things in that area, if you like them you can stay on them all day really. Cloud 9 / Big Rock Park will be crowded but little else will be. The stuff under the #37 lift line, or visible from it, is often very mogul-y and might be icy, but the rest should be glorious. Pete's Lift (#39) closes at 2:15, Lift 37 closes at 2:30, and so that time will start a stampede to the Tea Cup lift (#36) to get out of there. My advice is to leave the Blue Sky area by 1:30-1:45 so that you miss that mad rush and have time for more runs rather than standing in lift lines.

The back bowls close at 3:00, but if you jump in to anything that runs out to High Noon (#5) they'll look past that until about 3:30, because they'll sometimes steer people that way to alleviate overcrowding on the main way down from Tea Cup Lift.

The last few runs of the day you'll need to do on the Front Side, a lot of which can be rather skied-off and icy, not to mention populated by beginners and out-of-control teenagers. What's worth doing are a few runs on the Northwoods lift (see Hairbag Alley on skier's right - it's a narrow canyon channel that usually piles up the powder), and stuff accessible from the Avanti lift (#2). I've found some great powder stashes if you go along the ridge map-right of the top of Avanti and try the trees on either side of Pickeroon or Berries. What you want to avoid are the long, slow runs down the mountain that everyone gets merged into: (A) the traverses from the bottom of #11 Northwoods to the bottom of Vail Village, and (B) the equivalent run, Gitalong Road, from Mid-Vail to the bottom. Some of that will keep you occupied until last chair at 3:30, after which point you can take the gondola down from mid-vail if you want (down-loads run till 4:00), or just pick some route home if accessible.

Beaver Creek

I've only spent a few days here but skied just about every black or glade run (a claim I can't make about Vail despite way more time there - good christ that place is huge). My picks are:

- The Grouse Mountain lift has most of the double-black stuff, which is steep but little of it is truly extreme or dangerous.
- However, for my money, the very best trail on the mountain is the Royal Elk Glade. Just absolute boatloads of powder over there, enough that you have to worry about tree wells (so bring a friend). It flows into Black Bear glade, the connections can be nebulous but it's a huge region that definitely deserves a few runs if they don't exhaust you.
- The Larkspur bowl, if it has some snow on it, can be the source of some great runs even if not particularly challenging for an expert. It just holds powder very well. The black runs to the left as you go off the lift are mostly moguls, but the trees in between them can be tasty.
- If you traverse from Larkspur over to the Bachelor Gulch area, Thresher Glade was my second-favorite run at BC. Most terrain on that side of the mountain is green/blue stuff, but the runs off of Strawberry lift #12 will be very lightly populated so you might enjoy some time there.
- The Stone Creek chutes (from the summit, off to skier's right, far left side of the map) emptying into Rose Bowl are reputedly the craziest stuff on the mountain. Some friends of mine did it and loved it, but from their description it would have been a little much for me to handle safely.

Give a thought to doing a day at Copper Mountain, too. It's not on the Epic Pass, so it's much more of a locals mountain, but I found at least 3 runs that were the equal of anything at Vail/BC. The best reason to go is that there is free cat skiing (!) 10a-1:30p on Friday-Sunday. The cat-accessed area is incredible, especially with a snowfall.
 

monty10

New Member
Nov 16, 2006
86
88 to add to the comments from above. If you are driving in from Avon for the day. Rental Car? May think about Lionshead Parking Structure. Eagle Bahn Gondola #19 or Born Free Express #8. From 8 you can get to Avanti #2 or #26 which will bring to the you same place as #19. From there you can access Game Creek#7 via catwalk. Ride #2 you can choose either Wildwood #3 Mountain, Top Express #4 or Game Creek #7. Ouzo to Game Creek can be sweet. The runs down to #3 and #4 are usually groomed. #3 and #7 offload about the same area. Little extra pole work from #3 to get to Seldom or Never. # 4 puts you the at the top. lots of options from there. So one route maybe quicker or one may be better skiing. After that Insta has a great route planning. I would add off Teacup #36 try Genghis. Off China Bowl #21 try Red Square. Poppy Fields is a blast when groomed. Don't miss Blue Ox off chair 10 if groomed
 

Zososoxfan

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 30, 2009
9,201
South of North
Insta, it sounds like you have a very solid grasp of Vail and the Beave! I was just there recently, but I didn't have a guide at Vail. So, I think your suggestions are all solid.

Also, SoSH ski trip?!?
 

InstaFace

The Ultimate One
SoSH Member
Sep 27, 2016
21,591
Pittsburgh, PA
Yeah, I was there a few weeks ago for that long weekend with a guy who skis like ~60 days a year, he definitely had his things he wanted to hit and stuff to show me, but we also explored a fair bit.

Having the guide definitely helps, but you also need to have the right gear and preparation. Outer Mongolia is a cool experience, but I learned it's a huge pain to get to, and if you're not on powder skis, the whole way down you're worried about running out of momentum in 3 feet of powder, and figuring out how you'd get down the gentle slope if you do. I also think it's impossible to fully know Vail unless you're a local. I've done a couple dozen runs in Blue Sky Basin at this point and I maybe know 50% of the area, tops. It still feels like exploring and following my nose.

SoSH ski trip would be awesome. It'll be a few years before I can really get out there again once my baby is old enough to ski, but I have a feeling we have some expert après-skiers on this board. Maybe we can plan around a (likely) Pats playoff game or some Sox preseason games at that Boston bar.
 

GoJeff!

Member
SoSH Member
May 30, 2007
2,001
Los Angeles
Just got back from a midweek mini trip to Mammoth, right on heels of the last set of storms. Sunny day, cold powder blown by a south wind, no crowds, basically perfect.

It is amazing how much is filled in. I did lines I have been looking at for years. My best day of the year in a very good year.
 

Quintanariffic

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Apr 23, 2002
5,141
The City of Studios
Nice! Love that Mammoth wind buff. If any in the SOSH SoCal contingent are heading up there the weekend of March 17 let me know. I'll be looking for a partner to get in trouble with while the kids are in ski school.
 

graffam198

dog lover
SoSH Member
Dec 10, 2007
1,855
Reno, NV
Well, Tahoe had been insane. Mt. Rose has the most snow in North America with 670" or so. What dreams are made of.