Blower, Pow, Cold Smoke - Skiing 24-25

Tokyo Sox

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Yes, on the Hirafu side. It’s that run under the bubble quad where the chairs alternate black/yellow and orange/blue. We’ve ventured all over from Annupuri to Hanazono. It’s been dumping pretty much every day except for yesterday when we had snow in the morning and relatively clear skies the rest of the day. Crazy snow again today. We leave Wednesday and will be back the following Friday for only two days of skiing! This is from yesterday around 3:30:
Nice, I know it well. Good that you've been able to explore most of the terrain. I cannot wait to get up there.

Local factoid: Mt Yotei is nicknamed Ezo no Fuji, or "Fuji of the North," for obvious reasons.
 

Preacher

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Nice, I know it well. Good that you've been able to explore most of the terrain. I cannot wait to get up there.

Local factoid: Mt Yotei is nicknamed Ezo no Fuji, or "Fuji of the North," for obvious reasons.
Cool!

Yeah, this is our third time here. Two times last season and this trip. We really like Hirafu. It’s a great ski town. I just wish I didn’t have a half mile walk uphill back to our hotel every time we venture out but we like the ski in/ski out feature. You’ll have great snow.
 

Devizier

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Folks. Thinking of doing a guided free ride when I head out to Titlis in March. One thing I’m worried about is my fitness. I’m in pretty good shape but the lines in the alps are very long and I found my legs tiring a lot faster than I expected last week.
 

Preacher

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Jun 9, 2006
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Pyeongtaek, South Korea
Folks. Thinking of doing a guided free ride when I head out to Titlis in March. One thing I’m worried about is my fitness. I’m in pretty good shape but the lines in the alps are very long and I found my legs tiring a lot faster than I expected last week.
There are a lot of exercises you can do for your legs and you have a few months to do it so I say go for it. Squats, lunges, wall sits, step ups, stairs, all good stuff. I think there were more exercises mentioned upthread.
 

Zososoxfan

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Just got back from the Park City Shit Show (TM) last week--AMA. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, the Park City lift patrol union went on strike on 12/26/24 and the strike is still ongoing. PC only had 20% of their terrain open, which was partly due to lack of snow and wind, but the strike led to mayhem as lift lines were endless (even for the holiday period) and skiers of all levels were forced onto the same runs.

Every excuse Vail Resorts put out was pathetic and flimsy. Even the snowfall argument--which I and most skiers are sympathetic to--is Mike Mualarkey because it started dumping on 12/27 and now the resort is at 80% of average snowfall for the year. The eye test said that closing some peaks was legit because you could see exposed rocks, but not nearly the extent of lifts and terrain closed was justifiable. Other ski areas in Utah were at similar snowfall against average annual had 50+% of terrain open.

Perhaps the worst part of this is that there are firsthand reports of injured skiers not getting treatment quickly. I really can't express how bad it was--I've never seen anything like it in ~30 years of skiing. Ragging on VR is fun and trendy, but the truth of the matter is that if you can ski more than 5-6 days a season and can afford the season pass, it's a great value. But that value proposition depends on VR offering passholders access to great terrain with great infrastructure, some semblance of avvy control and safety precautions, and emergency services. That deal was not kept between VR and its skiers at PC over the past 2 weeks.
 

petefungtorres

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Just got back from the Park City Shit Show (TM) last week--AMA. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, the Park City lift patrol union went on strike on 12/26/24 and the strike is still ongoing. PC only had 20% of their terrain open, which was partly due to lack of snow and wind, but the strike led to mayhem as lift lines were endless (even for the holiday period) and skiers of all levels were forced onto the same runs.

Every excuse Vail Resorts put out was pathetic and flimsy. Even the snowfall argument--which I and most skiers are sympathetic to--is Mike Mualarkey because it started dumping on 12/27 and now the resort is at 80% of average snowfall for the year. The eye test said that closing some peaks was legit because you could see exposed rocks, but not nearly the extent of lifts and terrain closed was justifiable. Other ski areas in Utah were at similar snowfall against average annual had 50+% of terrain open.

Perhaps the worst part of this is that there are firsthand reports of injured skiers not getting treatment quickly. I really can't express how bad it was--I've never seen anything like it in ~30 years of skiing. Ragging on VR is fun and trendy, but the truth of the matter is that if you can ski more than 5-6 days a season and can afford the season pass, it's a great value. But that value proposition depends on VR offering passholders access to great terrain with great infrastructure, some semblance of avvy control and safety precautions, and emergency services. That deal was not kept between VR and its skiers at PC over the past 2 weeks.
Thanks for posting. I'm kind of fascinated by this situation for a few reasons. It seems like a really effective time for a strike, and the signs I'm seeing from the patrollers on the picket line are quite effective at highlighting the issue - I saw one that said something like "You pay more for a cheeseburger here than they pay me per hour". On the other hand I'm really curious as to how the people who dropped $10k for a ski vacation at Park City assess blame for their vacations being a lot less fun than anticipated.

I've also seen reports of people not receiving ski patrol assistance when needed which makes it seem like they are negligent just for being open since they can't provide the standard of care their customers are entitled to at every other resort in the area.

So - what's your take on the mood of the general public being affected by this? I know you're industry adjacent so I don't want to ask about picking a side in the dispute.
 

Zososoxfan

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Thanks for posting. I'm kind of fascinated by this situation for a few reasons. It seems like a really effective time for a strike, and the signs I'm seeing from the patrollers on the picket line are quite effective at highlighting the issue - I saw one that said something like "You pay more for a cheeseburger here than they pay me per hour". On the other hand I'm really curious as to how the people who dropped $10k for a ski vacation at Park City assess blame for their vacations being a lot less fun than anticipated.

I've also seen reports of people not receiving ski patrol assistance when needed which makes it seem like they are negligent just for being open since they can't provide the standard of care their customers are entitled to at every other resort in the area.

So - what's your take on the mood of the general public being affected by this? I know you're industry adjacent so I don't want to ask about picking a side in the dispute.
FWIW, there's a mini comment war going on my social media posts, and it seems like 80-90% of people are siding with the patrollers. That tracks--most people who ski understand how ski ops work at a basic level (i.e., with respect to VR/Alterra, patrol, lifties, etc.) and know they depend on patrollers more than anything to keep them safe with avvy control and EMS. Everyone in PC knew that the patrollers were basically asking for a $2 hourly increase to $25 (although that doesn't include other demands) while the C-Suites are making Millions annually in salary, and as VR is publicly-traded, that Net Revenue last year was $1.4B. This isn't exactly the sports talk radio crowd (no offense intended). VR employees were tight-lipped, but it's not hard to figure out they were just trying to avoid getting fired while supporting their patrol colleagues. I got a kick out of the fact that the Surefoot shop at the base of Canyons had a very visible sign supporting patrol.

The other 10-20% of people taking the other side are pointing at red herrings ("Don't you know that patrol doesn't operate the lifts, bro?") and calling others elitists for being skiers and complaining about anything.

As someone who worked in corporate America, I can understand that VR sees the trend of unionization and is making an example/precedent out of PC Patrol, but the disconnect between the suits at VR and their customers is palpable. VR first didn't notify visitors at all, didn't limit day passes at all, denied the existence of the strike, blamed the customer experience on other factors, and only recently finally admitted that the strike had an effect on ops. It was widely reported, but VR's stock took a 6% dive on Jan 2, the first day of trading in 2025. It really doesn't seem like VR realizes that Alterra exists, and there are ways to minimize how much money you give to VR if you want to make that a priority.

What I'm most interested in now is how long the strike lasts, what position VR takes w/r/t highly trained employees (patrol, Mtn safety, ops, etc.), and if VR offers any olive branch to guests. With MLK weekend just around the corner and plenty of people still booking trips for later in the season, VR could make this giant problem even bigger. Keystone, Crested Butte, and Breck (I think) patrol unions have already written to VR and expressed solidarity with the PC Patrol. Side tangent, VR brought in midlevel employees with patrol experience and patrollers from other VR resorts to cover the gap. Two issues here--first, they were allegedly paid $75/hour which is just shitty, but also harmed other patrol units at these resorts since they were unexpectedly losing leaders during the holiday period. But even with all of that, I'd expect the MBAs littering VR's ranks to realize they're going to lose real money in cancellations and brand loyalty if they don't change their tack soon.
 

petefungtorres

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FWIW, there's a mini comment war going on my social media posts, and it seems like 80-90% of people are siding with the patrollers. That tracks--most people who ski understand how ski ops work at a basic level (i.e., with respect to VR/Alterra, patrol, lifties, etc.) and know they depend on patrollers more than anything to keep them safe with avvy control and EMS. Everyone in PC knew that the patrollers were basically asking for a $2 hourly increase to $25 (although that doesn't include other demands) while the C-Suites are making Millions annually in salary, and as VR is publicly-traded, that Net Revenue last year was $1.4B. This isn't exactly the sports talk radio crowd (no offense intended). VR employees were tight-lipped, but it's not hard to figure out they were just trying to avoid getting fired while supporting their patrol colleagues. I got a kick out of the fact that the Surefoot shop at the base of Canyons had a very visible sign supporting patrol.

The other 10-20% of people taking the other side are pointing at red herrings ("Don't you know that patrol doesn't operate the lifts, bro?") and calling others elitists for being skiers and complaining about anything.

As someone who worked in corporate America, I can understand that VR sees the trend of unionization and is making an example/precedent out of PC Patrol, but the disconnect between the suits at VR and their customers is palpable. VR first didn't notify visitors at all, didn't limit day passes at all, denied the existence of the strike, blamed the customer experience on other factors, and only recently finally admitted that the strike had an effect on ops. It was widely reported, but VR's stock took a 6% dive on Jan 2, the first day of trading in 2025. It really doesn't seem like VR realizes that Alterra exists, and there are ways to minimize how much money you give to VR if you want to make that a priority.

What I'm most interested in now is how long the strike lasts, what position VR takes w/r/t highly trained employees (patrol, Mtn safety, ops, etc.), and if VR offers any olive branch to guests. With MLK weekend just around the corner and plenty of people still booking trips for later in the season, VR could make this giant problem even bigger. Keystone, Crested Butte, and Breck (I think) patrol unions have already written to VR and expressed solidarity with the PC Patrol. Side tangent, VR brought in midlevel employees with patrol experience and patrollers from other VR resorts to cover the gap. Two issues here--first, they were allegedly paid $75/hour which is just shitty, but also harmed other patrol units at these resorts since they were unexpectedly losing leaders during the holiday period. But even with all of that, I'd expect the MBAs littering VR's ranks to realize they're going to lose real money in cancellations and brand loyalty if they don't change their tack soon.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this, I do find it all very interesting. The evolution / commercialization of ski resorts over the last few years has brought a lot of change, and people generally don't like change. People also don't like to pay for parking at resorts when they haven't had to before, especially if they are then going to pay $150+ for a lift ticket.

As I've mentioned in this thread a few times I'm a passholder at Sunday River and ski there pretty much exclusively. It's a pretty big mountain by east coast standards and is on the Ikon pass. Quite a few of the longtime passholders I know bemoan the volume of people that brings in on good snow days but also realize that's what allows the owners to upgrade lifts and provide other amenities. But it does change the vibe of the mountain in some negative ways, making it more corporate. Last weekend we went to see a band at Mt. Abram, a much smaller local mountain with not a whole lot of vertical and pretty janky two person lifts. We had an awesome time, knew a bunch of people there, paid $7 per drink at the bar (as opposed to $13 at Sunday River) and walked away thinking that while the skiing is better at Sunday River we had a better overall time at Mt. Abram. A guy I know reasonably well was the head of patrolling and (I think?) mountain ops at Sunday River moved over to Mt. Abram this season to be its general manager. I suspect all of these things were part of his motivation in making the move, though I haven't had the chance to ask him yet.
 

Zososoxfan

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Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this, I do find it all very interesting. The evolution / commercialization of ski resorts over the last few years has brought a lot of change, and people generally don't like change. People also don't like to pay for parking at resorts when they haven't had to before, especially if they are then going to pay $150+ for a lift ticket.

As I've mentioned in this thread a few times I'm a passholder at Sunday River and ski there pretty much exclusively. It's a pretty big mountain by east coast standards and is on the Ikon pass. Quite a few of the longtime passholders I know bemoan the volume of people that brings in on good snow days but also realize that's what allows the owners to upgrade lifts and provide other amenities. But it does change the vibe of the mountain in some negative ways, making it more corporate. Last weekend we went to see a band at Mt. Abram, a much smaller local mountain with not a whole lot of vertical and pretty janky two person lifts. We had an awesome time, knew a bunch of people there, paid $7 per drink at the bar (as opposed to $13 at Sunday River) and walked away thinking that while the skiing is better at Sunday River we had a better overall time at Mt. Abram. A guy I know reasonably well was the head of patrolling and (I think?) mountain ops at Sunday River moved over to Mt. Abram this season to be its general manager. I suspect all of these things were part of his motivation in making the move, though I haven't had the chance to ask him yet.
There's been a lot of review of the historical record with the aforementioned commercialization, beginning with Leon Black and then escalating significantly with Rob Katz. I want to go into it more deeply because it's endlessly fascinating to me.

I'd be curious to hear your patrol/ops contact's perspective on the strike. I mean, this seems pretty cut and dry and I'd expect them to side with the patrol, but perhaps there's more insight.

Alterra Co. (Ikon Pass) just closed on its acquisition of Arapahoe Basin (A Bay) and everyone is watching that situation really closely. The reason is that A Bay has been the Denver locals' mountain while other ski areas on the front range (i.e., reachable for Denverites for day trips) have been gobbled up by the duopoly of VR/Alterra. If you haven't been to A Bay, you should definitely go--ideally with a local. The famous "Beach" is about as rowdy as a major ski area can get while staying under the radar, and the apres party in the base lodge is legendary. There's really no on-location accommodations, so you get daytrippers and those who have friends with houses nearby (Dillon and Silverthorne are great towns). I heard an interview with an Alterra exec last year where they claimed that they understood what made A Bay special to locals and that they wanted the A Bay COO to stay on as part of the acquisition--to which the COO agreed (at least at that time, not sure if anything has changed).

But to zoom out once again, skiers are annoyed that VR and to a lesser extent Alterra are trying their best to make every resort experience homogenous, even as the beauty of this industry lies partly in the fact that every ski area has its own unique quirks. Even neighboring Vail and Beaver Creek have maintained their differences, but I can understand why people, and especially locals, are so protective of their home mountains.
 

petefungtorres

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There's been a lot of review of the historical record with the aforementioned commercialization, beginning with Leon Black and then escalating significantly with Rob Katz. I want to go into it more deeply because it's endlessly fascinating to me.

I'd be curious to hear your patrol/ops contact's perspective on the strike. I mean, this seems pretty cut and dry and I'd expect them to side with the patrol, but perhaps there's more insight.

Alterra Co. (Ikon Pass) just closed on its acquisition of Arapahoe Basin (A Bay) and everyone is watching that situation really closely. The reason is that A Bay has been the Denver locals' mountain while other ski areas on the front range (i.e., reachable for Denverites for day trips) have been gobbled up by the duopoly of VR/Alterra. If you haven't been to A Bay, you should definitely go--ideally with a local. The famous "Beach" is about as rowdy as a major ski area can get while staying under the radar, and the apres party in the base lodge is legendary. There's really no on-location accommodations, so you get daytrippers and those who have friends with houses nearby (Dillon and Silverthorne are great towns). I heard an interview with an Alterra exec last year where they claimed that they understood what made A Bay special to locals and that they wanted the A Bay COO to stay on as part of the acquisition--to which the COO agreed (at least at that time, not sure if anything has changed).

But to zoom out once again, skiers are annoyed that VR and to a lesser extent Alterra are trying their best to make every resort experience homogenous, even as the beauty of this industry lies partly in the fact that every ski area has its own unique quirks. Even neighboring Vail and Beaver Creek have maintained their differences, but I can understand why people, and especially locals, are so protective of their home mountains.
If I talk to him I'll definitely report back. I mostly see him during golf season, he works long days in the winter.

Coincidentally my two older kids were at ABay yesterday. Middle kid goes to Mines in Golden so he skis the front range a lot. Older kid was there for a couple days before heading to Red Mountain in BC with the snow club from VATech. They both loved A Bay.

I was thinking earlier today that most east coast mountains make a lot of money selling slopeside real estate, with at least Sugarloaf and Sunday River expanding lift served areas just to juice up the value of land before selling it. Your comment about ABay not having no on-location accommodations got me wondering - are they on leased land like many of the Utah resorts or is there a chance that selling off house lots / developing hotels would be Alterra's way t really make money off the acquisition?
 

Zososoxfan

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If I talk to him I'll definitely report back. I mostly see him during golf season, he works long days in the winter.

Coincidentally my two older kids were at ABay yesterday. Middle kid goes to Mines in Golden so he skis the front range a lot. Older kid was there for a couple days before heading to Red Mountain in BC with the snow club from VATech. They both loved A Bay.

I was thinking earlier today that most east coast mountains make a lot of money selling slopeside real estate, with at least Sugarloaf and Sunday River expanding lift served areas just to juice up the value of land before selling it. Your comment about ABay not having no on-location accommodations got me wondering - are they on leased land like many of the Utah resorts or is there a chance that selling off house lots / developing hotels would be Alterra's way t really make money off the acquisition?
Would love to know more about the VaTech Snow Club! Don't think that existed at Michigan, at least not in the early 2000s [insert old guy joke here].

No idea re land at A Bay. If you're interested in this stuff though, I highly recommend you check out Powder Mountain in Utah with respect to their business model. IIRC, the resort was originally built for the Summit Series (TED Talks meet Burning Man, or something like that) and the plan was to have a homeownership structure like the Yellowstone Club. But now, they offer limited amounts of day passes too, or something along those lines (i.e., private-public hybrid). I've always been intrigued by Pow Mow because it has average annual snowfall rivaling AAS heavyweights Mt. Baker and the Cottonwood ski areas. But I hear it's weird, with slow lifts and requiring a bus ride from the base to access the lifts.
 

petefungtorres

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Would love to know more about the VaTech Snow Club! Don't think that existed at Michigan, at least not in the early 2000s [insert old guy joke here].
The snow club at Tech is the largest club, with some 650 members. They have a house on campus that no one can live in but they use for tailgating for football games. They do weekend trips to Snowshoe in WVa and an annual "big" trip - this year to Red Mountain. The big trip usually has about 100 students and recent alums. For the weekend trips they hold a lottery where members can put in for a spot and if selected they get to go. When my kid was a freshman he was going every weekend and I told him he was lucky to be winning the lottery every time. He told me that it turns out if you can rip they make sure you can go, so he could go whenever. Since they buy like 500 Ikon passes every year Ikon gave them a nice pair of Icelantic Nomads with custom Ikon graphics which he's been riding for much of this year since his J's delaminated (again - it's like the fourth pair of J's he's gone through). He's been bringing a group from snow club up to our place for spring break the past few years so we've gotten to know the officers and other dedicated skiers who are part of the club (we usually ski with them for a day and then leave them the house). It's a great group of kids. For both our college kids being able to ski is something that really helped them get connected in college - they've been skiing 50 +/- days a season since they were like 5.
 

Devizier

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My wife gave me her blessing to do a freeride day (maybe half day) at Engelberg. I am getting fucking pumped.

94615

Time to work on my fitness. Even at my peak I'm not sure I could handle that kind of run without a shitload of breaks.

* Knowing my luck there won't be enough snow this season
 

Kliq

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Wrapped up a weekend in Killington. Friday was a very typical Vermont ski day, cold as hell with strong winds--enough to blow you around on your skis at the summit. The mountain got about 2-3 inches of snow on both Friday and Saturday while I was there, which was nice. There were some powder patches thrown out over the mountain, especially on the more obscure trails. Not too icy despite the sub-zero temps the mountain had been experiencing that week. Still getting used to new skis and boots, definitely find myself being more conservative and avoiding hitting high speeds, which ironically has led to me falling more this past weekend, lol. Most of the mountain was open, although there was a lot of thin cover that was pretty manageable (except for at one point, when I got stuck on what appeared to be a 600-foot-wide rockface while trying to turn).

For people who don't know, Killington was purchased by a group of independent pass holders in September, purchasing it from Park City based-POWDR. They supposedly have big plans for the resort, including $30 million in year one improvements to the mountain as well as a proposal for a 2,000 unit development near the mountain which will probably take years to sort out. It's hard to tell just how much the ownership change has impacted the mountain since it only took place a few months ago. One thing I noticed as a negative was they seemed to be really short staffed, which isn't surprising given how hard getting employees is for most service-industry places, let alone one as remote as Killington.

Saturday was their busiest day yet of the season and the parking situation was a nightmare. The lot we parked in had no attendants, and was pure anarchy, with no organization for where to park and people openly double and even triple parking other people in. Thankfully, we stayed until the resort closed so the lot had emptied out quite a bit by the time we headed out it wasn't an issue, but I can't imagine if we needed to leave any sooner.
 

Stanley Steamer

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The snow club at Tech is the largest club, with some 650 members. They have a house on campus that no one can live in but they use for tailgating for football games. They do weekend trips to Snowshoe in WVa and an annual "big" trip - this year to Red Mountain. The big trip usually has about 100 students and recent alums. For the weekend trips they hold a lottery where members can put in for a spot and if selected they get to go. When my kid was a freshman he was going every weekend and I told him he was lucky to be winning the lottery every time. He told me that it turns out if you can rip they make sure you can go, so he could go whenever. Since they buy like 500 Ikon passes every year Ikon gave them a nice pair of Icelantic Nomads with custom Ikon graphics which he's been riding for much of this year since his J's delaminated (again - it's like the fourth pair of J's he's gone through). He's been bringing a group from snow club up to our place for spring break the past few years so we've gotten to know the officers and other dedicated skiers who are part of the club (we usually ski with them for a day and then leave them the house). It's a great group of kids. For both our college kids being able to ski is something that really helped them get connected in college - they've been skiing 50 +/- days a season since they were like 5.
Ah, too bad I only read this today. I snow host at Red once per week, but didn't last weekend. I saw VA Tech on the schedule, as a larger group coming. Hope he had fun. The mountain is in great shape, though the powder tap has shut off for a bit.
 

petefungtorres

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Ah, too bad I only read this today. I snow host at Red once per week, but didn't last weekend. I saw VA Tech on the schedule, as a larger group coming. Hope he had fun. The mountain is in great shape, though the powder tap has shut off for a bit.
Never ceases to amaze me how SoSH members are everywhere. Comments from the kid included "I've never skied a resort where there was in bounds terrain I wasn't sure I could handle". He sent a pic from an area called Chute Show that looked just crazy steep. He had a blast and wants us to schedule a family trip there now. If and when that happens I'll definitely be in touch.

Edit to add that my son tells me the mountain hosts he talked to were awesome and great skiers - they had a mountain host who took them down some pretty intense terrain and showed them the areas he wasn't allowed to take them down. I'm not sure who it was but you probably do.
 
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Stanley Steamer

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Never ceases to amaze me how SoSH members are everywhere. Comments from the kid included "I've never skied a resort where there was in bounds terrain I wasn't sure I could handle". He sent a pic from an area called Chute Show that looked just crazy steep. He had a blast and wants us to schedule a family trip there now. If and when that happens I'll definitely be in touch.

Edit to add that my son tells me the mountain hosts he talked to were awesome and great skiers - they had a mountain host who took them down some pretty intense terrain and showed them the areas he wasn't allowed to take them down. I'm not sure who it was but you probably do.
Awesome. Yes, there is some crazy hike to terrain on Grey which, if I'm honest, I may never ski. But there is so much more, especially when our base depth is solid like this year. Expert skiers that we host tend to be impressed. Just so you know, we have zero high speed lifts, and lack some amenities ski tourists would consider standard. It's not for everyone but we've got a good thing going on. Please, if you, or other SoSHers make your way here, let me know and I'd be happy to show you around.
 

petefungtorres

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Awesome. Yes, there is some crazy hike to terrain on Grey which, if I'm honest, I may never ski. But there is so much more, especially when our base depth is solid like this year. Expert skiers that we host tend to be impressed. Just so you know, we have zero high speed lifts, and lack some amenities ski tourists would consider standard. It's not for everyone but we've got a good thing going on. Please, if you, or other SoSHers make your way here, let me know and I'd be happy to show you around.
They were very impressed. My son really drove the decision to go to Red this year and it was based on Red's reputation as a skier's mountain (and a good exchange rate making it a lot cheaper for college kids). It did not disappoint. I wish I was more savvy and could post the pic he sent by snapchat of Chute Show, there hadn't been snow in like a week and yet it was still untouched. Lack of high speed lifts is no big deal when you never wait in a lift line and can access terrain like that.
 

Tokyo Sox

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Flying back to Hokkaido tomorrow. My wife is already in Japan (had a work thing today). @Tokyo Sox, how was the snow?
First couple days we had to look for it but found some patches of pow here and there. By Sunday there hadn’t been any fresh snow for about a week so we headed over to Rusutsu to mostly ski the piste, which was fun enough.

Still no fresh on Sunday meant we canceled our CAT for Monday. Monday night it started dumping and hadn’t stopped as we were leaving this morning so Tuesday was decent, Wednesday was great, and yesterday was epic. Tons of fresh untouched pow all day, we had a blast.

Wednesday the Miharashi run (short walk uphill from top of old Hirafu gondola) was terrific, especially staying skier’s left as you come down. Thursday we mostly stayed in the Annupuri back bowls in tons of pow.

This was shortly after heading into the super ridge run if you stay high right off the new Hirafu Ace Gondola:
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Good times.

Oh also I found a nice little restaurant in upper/middle Hirafu called Akaru. Local izakaya, specializing mainly in shabu shabu / hot pot stuff, but we just did the normal menu. Pretty good, and reasonably priced.

Enjoy - wish I wasn’t at Chitose headed back to Tokyo right now!
 

GoJeff!

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Crashed at high speed today.

94861

Just a groomer, but some combo of going into shadow, a rock and ski rebound threw me over the handlebars.

Haven’t had one like that in a while, but seem okay. Wear a helmet!
 

graffam198

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Dec 10, 2007
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Crashed at high speed today.

View attachment 94861

Just a groomer, but some combo of going into shadow, a rock and ski rebound threw me over the handlebars.

Haven’t had one like that in a while, but seem okay. Wear a helmet!
Scary scary. Brain Buckets are a must. Kid just died at my local mountain last week. Zoomies in the trees, caught and edge, blunt force trauma to the dome. No helmet. Ski Patrol felt it was 90% survivable. Only 18 and super tragic. Really glad you made it out of there w/just new gear needed.
 

graffam198

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Dec 10, 2007
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Reno, NV
I did monday and tuesday at stowe with my new volkl blaze 94/salomon shift 10 binding/salomon pro 130 boot setup that serve as good all mtn skis and also AT for backcountry stuff when there is more snow. good news is the ski setup held up well for alpine, which i was a little nervous about since it's my first time with that kind of gear. conditions werent all that great - freezing on monday and even though they received about 5" overnight the grooming wasnt great so by 930am tuesday most trails were basically a combo of soft bumbs and scratchy crap in between. this is my first time on mansfield with the new 6 pack that starts at the parking lot, which is ideal to start the day and keeps the quad liftline pretty short - but so many people on the trails at the same time, especially since nosedive was closed.
I picked up a pair of Blaze 86 this season and I have to say they might be my favorite ski of all time! I got short ones, 165, and a little narrower to keep me honest, but what a great set of sticks for how soft they are. Wishing I would have gone 173 a little bit, but I will just give this set to one of the girls and treat myself once I'm fully cleared to ski...

Kid has her first race this weekend, super pumped for her. She's really taken a shine to the training and finer aspects of Alpine. She is absolutely smoking me on the groomers; but I still have her beat in the bumps, even with a bum knee.

Absolute banner weekend. Snow is minimal, but so were the crowds. I got 30k feet on Saturday (24 runs) and another 18K on sunday (14 runs). PT this morning and the therapist wants me to go try and some kick turns in a low risk environment so I'm feeling pretty stoked. For the first time in 8 months my quad feels "normal". Tons of abuse all weekend then an hour of every squat variation imaginable so I'm flying high!

Love all the killer snow in this thread, keeps me going.
 

GoJeff!

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I picked up a pair of Blaze 86 this season and I have to say they might be my favorite ski of all time! I got short ones, 165, and a little narrower to keep me honest, but what a great set of sticks for how soft they are. Wishing I would have gone 173 a little bit, but I will just give this set to one of the girls and treat myself once I'm fully cleared to ski...

Kid has her first race this weekend, super pumped for her. She's really taken a shine to the training and finer aspects of Alpine. She is absolutely smoking me on the groomers; but I still have her beat in the bumps, even with a bum knee.

Absolute banner weekend. Snow is minimal, but so were the crowds. I got 30k feet on Saturday (24 runs) and another 18K on sunday (14 runs). PT this morning and the therapist wants me to go try and some kick turns in a low risk environment so I'm feeling pretty stoked. For the first time in 8 months my quad feels "normal". Tons of abuse all weekend then an hour of every squat variation imaginable so I'm flying high!
Good luck to her in her race and glad the quad is healing so quickly.

I’m off to Prince George, BC for a week of touring in the dezaiko range. Not really sure what to expect, but have a strong crew and have been feeling great.
 

jezza1918

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Jul 19, 2005
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South Dartmouth, MA
1. Friday Jan 31 at Stowe was a top 5non fresh powder ski day for me. No lines, soft butter like groomers and I legit felt like a pro out there. Almost zero effort to carve...cut over from nosedive to perry before the gondola opened and that run made me realize that all the insane money we spend on skiing is worth it.
2. -15 in the village on sunday morning...bailed and 260 miles south later it was 25 when I pulled into my driveway. just an insane temp shift
3. can someone talk to me about goggles? its been 20 years since I bought a pair and while I dont need my glasses to ski an OTG pair might be ideal (im a no contact guy). And these MAG goggles seem great but are pricey...but I also came across these - https://www.steepandcheap.com/backcountry-crestcruiser-goggles. That price point actually makes me wary but I have friends who have backcountry apparel and love it so?
 

GoJeff!

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Oh. my. fucking. god.

Just returned from 7 days touring in northern BC at Dezaiko lodge. The entire trip was amazing, but the last two days featured deep blower pow that was literally as good as skiing gets. Below is gopro follow cam from one of the guys in the group. I think it manages to capture the snow quality better than the terrain quality, but both were absolutely insane.


The week started off with mild temps and clear skies, so we also got some great skiing high up in the alpine, and we left just in time as the temperatures dropped to -20 F :oops: on our exit day. The hut owners Bryce and Tisha were perfect hosts. I can't recommend the place highly enough.
 

Bowhemian

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How do you guys know where you are going/where you are? And how do you all find each other at the end of a run? Seems like it would be pretty easy for someone to get separated from the group
 

jezza1918

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Oh. my. fucking. god.

Just returned from 7 days touring in northern BC at Dezaiko lodge. The entire trip was amazing, but the last two days featured deep blower pow that was literally as good as skiing gets. Below is gopro follow cam from one of the guys in the group. I think it manages to capture the snow quality better than the terrain quality, but both were absolutely insane.


The week started off with mild temps and clear skies, so we also got some great skiing high up in the alpine, and we left just in time as the temperatures dropped to -20 F :oops: on our exit day. The hut owners Bryce and Tisha were perfect hosts. I can't recommend the place highly enough.
Lolz way to make me feel shitty about my “epic” groomed lift serve day at Stowe!

seriously though looks amazing, nice work!
 

GoJeff!

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How do you guys know where you are going/where you are? And how do you all find each other at the end of a run? Seems like it would be pretty easy for someone to get separated from the group
The guide gives instruction on each run or segment.

If there is a tricky entrance to find, he will tell you follow his tracks.

If there is a hazard like a cliff, he will tell you to stay left of his tracks or not cross his traverse.

In most of that video, we were skiing to valley floor. The general rule is to find your own snow, but know which side of the tracks you are on and edge back to the middle as it flattens out. Typically there is also a bit more visibility as the forest gives way to the river.

On top of all that we have radios and skins to get around, so even if someone is a bit off course we can usually quickly find them.
 

Kliq

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Mar 31, 2013
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Lolz way to make me feel shitty about my “epic” groomed lift serve day at Stowe!

seriously though looks amazing, nice work!
Ha, this thread is basically someone posting "I had fun at my local mountain" and then GoJeff telling us how he skied down like, a glacier in Greenland where they needed drones to drop them in, and Preacher talking about skiing in Mongolia.
 

GoJeff!

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Ha, this thread is basically someone posting "I had fun at my local mountain" and then GoJeff telling us how he skied down like, a glacier in Greenland where they needed drones to drop them in, and Preacher talking about skiing in Mongolia.
Eh, glaciers are kind of a letdown
 

Bowhemian

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Nov 10, 2015
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The guide gives instruction on each run or segment.

If there is a tricky entrance to find, he will tell you follow his tracks.

If there is a hazard like a cliff, he will tell you to stay left of his tracks or not cross his traverse.

In most of that video, we were skiing to valley floor. The general rule is to find your own snow, but know which side of the tracks you are on and edge back to the middle as it flattens out. Typically there is also a bit more visibility as the forest gives way to the river.

On top of all that we have radios and skins to get around, so even if someone is a bit off course we can usually quickly find them.
Thanks for that. I’ve never done any backcountry, nor will I be, so I was just curious how it worked. Sounds like a wicked fun time though.
 

epraz

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Oct 15, 2002
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Ha, this thread is basically someone posting "I had fun at my local mountain" and then GoJeff telling us how he skied down like, a glacier in Greenland where they needed drones to drop them in, and Preacher talking about skiing in Mongolia.
I took my 5 year old for her first time on skis last weekend, we ripped some sick pow at Campgaw.

 

graffam198

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Dec 10, 2007
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I took my 5 year old for her first time on skis last weekend, we ripped some sick pow at Campgaw.

Heck Ya!!!!!

Unsolicited advice, keep her hands and toes warm! And get her lessons. It never ends well when Dad tries to teach them. Hopefully the start of many years of shredding together!
 

graffam198

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Whoever starts to cry gets the chocolate. Is that Dad? Maybe.
Might be me...

Kid's first race was fantastic. It was 7 degrees, wind howling, low vis. She got 38 out of 100 racers; pretty dang cool for her first race ever. There was a bit of a learning curve for the both of us. There are better ways to be support and where to stash jackets for the uphill/wait/etc. We got it figured out, but not after some frozen digits (Someone forgot her gloves in the bag at the lodge...) and had a pretty kick ass time. She is now learning what the edge of chaos feels like and learning how to really lean into it. Of course no photos where snapped b/c that's just where we are right now.

Sierra's got some really nice cement above 8k feet this weekend. Rain over Donner Pass so any of the Tahoe Resorts got that clear powder...

Retested knee on Thursday. Total garbage. Asymmetry is a huge problem. Still favoring left 40% more than right. Not fun when the therapists are confused. I knew there was imbalance, can fill it when trying to hold an edge across a slope etc. Basically my right knee does not like tracking over my toes. So kind of back to the drawing board on treatment. Annoying as we are at the 8 month mark on this journey and I was hoping to be nearing the end. Guess not. Frustrating b/c strength is there but mobility is not. What I am starting to come to terms with is the "newness" of this procedure (at least to my area) has not been met with updated rehab modalities. The therapists are treating ACL rehab the same across all 3 options (Patellar, Quad, Hamstring). And while they probably overlap 80% (guessing!) there are nuances that aren't needed for traditional Patellar procedure. Still glad I went with quad, but equally bummed that post op treatment lags behind operation. I could be wrong, but I have 2 different teams with the same "confusion" as to why my knee over toe progression is so far behind everything else.

9 month post op in two weeks. Super curious as to what they say.
 

epraz

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This is great advice. We did do a lesson but my kid was a bit shy at the beginning. I literally popped three gummy bears in her mouth, told her she had this, and walked off. She did great.

I also had to change instructors st the beginning. They have a bunch of kids teaching (local bunny hill) and our first was not going to be able to connect with a 5yo girl. Felt a bit bad for him but definitely the right call for her.
 

graffam198

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@Zososoxfan and @GoJeff! I know I know. I am a broken individual. Part of it is being a contrarian, part of it is "the vibe". I'm not a purist, per se, but I really like shitty snow. Anyone can ski powder. Give me chunk, ice, hardpack, etc. to prove I still "got it" (which apparently, I don't...) I love the feeling of riding the edge of chaos, touching the void if you will, and controlling it. Nothing is better (to me!) than tight turns that have consequences. Or getting after it in moguls and stomping.

Powder is fun and easy. You want to feel like a Ski G-d? Get knee deep in some fluff and float. It's cathartic. It's good for the soul. But I just prefer the challenge. I will walk it back a bit, Pow like that video, where it's just you and your buddies? Great day. Super fun. But I won't chase it. Pow inbounds is just a mad dash to get it before everyone else; the race for an expendable resource harshes my mellow. Now, once it's chopped up and everyone has moved onto groomers? That's my time.

I would NEVER yuck yuck someone's epic pow. All that matters is you got boards on your feet and a smile on your face. But for me, there's not enough angst. Not my preferred form of poetry. But I'm super jazzed for those who do.

Probably makes 0 sense, but, like I said, I'm a broken individual.

As far as mobility; part of it is time, part of it is lack of time. I first had to wake the quads up. Then I had to strengthen them. Now I have to stretch them back out after they have contracted (from atrophy and cutting). The other part is it's a newish procedure being treated with old standards. It's just super frustrating. While I don't seek pow, I also can't ski what I want; I'm just not agile/strong enough to handle the forces required.

I will say, my kid(s) have all passed me on the groomers this year for the first time ever. Part of it is me, part of it is them. It stung less than I thought it would. It's pretty exciting when your students become the masters you hope they will be. I still eat their lunch in the bumps though (I've seen them, it's not great hahaha)
 

Icculus

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I would NEVER yuck yuck someone's epic pow. All that matters is you got boards on your feet and a smile on your face. But for me, there's not enough angst. Not my preferred form of poetry. But I'm super jazzed for those who do.
Forget them - Ski the crud! I'll throw a few day tickets your way at my local hill to convert everyone (else) that you can, forcibly if necessary.
 

GoJeff!

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Pow inbounds is just a mad dash to get it before everyone else; the race for an expendable resource harshes my mellow. Now, once it's chopped up and everyone has moved onto groomers? That's my time.
I do get this. Nothing gets me more tense than timing the lines to get untracked at the resort. I'm on hair-trigger, ready to explode the whole time. And I absolutely adore chopped-up powder, blasting through at speed on heavy, big-ass boards.