Seems like we're overdue for this thread. It is officially the season, and I was lucky enough to kick it off this past weekend by making the trek with my 13 year old daughter over to the Rockies to ski at Lake Louise and watch Lindsey Vonn prove again why she is the easily the best American racer ever, and perhaps soon to be the best female racer of all time.
Having grown up skiing in Vermont, it was a priority when raising my family to live somewhere that had easy access to skiing and other winter recreation, as these things are critical to my sanity, and also just part of a lifestyle that I really enjoy and want to share with my kids. We bounced around the West (North Idaho, Oregon) a few years, and enjoyed some great skiing in those places, especially in comparison to what I had experienced in the East. I have great fondness and respect for the Vermont ski areas where I cut my teeth (and scraped my bases) in the early years. I would still love to go back and ski the trees at Jay Peak, Mad River, or hit Stowe on a good day.
But as we all know, the good days and the good snow just come a lot more often out West, so when the stars finally aligned career-wise for my wife and I, we jumped when the chance came to settle in B.C. 3 years ago, and since then, well, things have gone according to plan and then some. We have an amazing all-around resort right where we live called Silver Star, which is high enough to have consistent dry snow and is all I could ever ask for as a place for our kids.It may lack a little on the higher end challenge and tree skiing, but all anyone could ever handle in that regard is also just 2 hours away in Revelstoke. I have family a few hours away at Red Mountain where we'll spend Xmas. It's is a small resort, but is tough to beat when the snow is there. Each winter we're here and I explore other resorts, my powder woody gets colder and stiffer. Yeah, I'm livin' the dream, insert S.S. 17 comments here, lolboohoo!
In all seriousness, if any of you ever take the trouble to come way out here, I'd be glad to meet you for a day on the slopes, and first round apres-ski is on me. The resorts near where I live Silver Star, and Big White are not where most people would go if they were going to come as far as B.C., but Revelstoke is definitely one of the best resorts in North America, so if any of you fools are headed this way and want to get together, just lemme know.
I knew the Rockies were getting lots on snow where more locally the early season storms were a mix of snow and rain, so even though our hill was just opening, we headed to Lake Louise for the first time ever this past weekend and had about the best start to a season we could have asked for as far as conditions went. The whole mountain was open, and we were able to explore their back bowl areas which are a great mix of open alpine, glades, and trails. One nice thing about Lake Louise is there are green and blue runs off of every lift, so it makes it easy for groups of all levels to ski together. It was just me and my daughter though, and at age 13, I am now officially struggling to keep up with her. This will only get worse. L.L. is spectacular, both the terrain, and the scenery and we had an amazing 2 days. I was trying to include some pics, but having trouble with the link.
It was the first time either of us had been to a race of just about any level, let alone World Cup. We caught pieces of the first downhill race on Friday, but there were big fog delays, so we missed seeing Vonn ski from up close. If you didn't see her results from this weekend, she proved gain why she is right to be asking to race the men. She won by 1.73 seconds, a huge margin in downhill, and what was even more telling was that margin was the same as between 2nd and 21st place. When she is on, she has no peers among the women. My daughter was thrilled to be able meet, chat and get a picture with her. She won again on Saturday, this time after making a big mistake on the top part of the course, dropping behind the leader on the intermediate times, and then miraculously making it back up as only she could. My daughter was thrilled and it was amazing to see the entourage that Vonn is generating these days. She had a flock of about 40 girls between 7-14 following her around and yelling her name all afternoon. She spent a lot of time with all of them on the way out, a really graceful, positive role model who seems to understand the position of influence she's in. We left early Sunday and couldn't stick around to see her again, but she won the Super G as well, making the second year in a row she swept the 3 events at Lake Louise. She's Pedro-level good.
Anyway, that's our story of how we kicked off the season, a little long winded, I know. Mostly I has hoping to hear how everyone else's season is shaping up. Anybody else been out yet? Got any plans for trips further afield? What are the best places you've been? There are so many types of skiing and ways of getting out and having fun, and it would be great to hear what everyone else is doing, no matter how small or grand. Enjoy the season!
Having grown up skiing in Vermont, it was a priority when raising my family to live somewhere that had easy access to skiing and other winter recreation, as these things are critical to my sanity, and also just part of a lifestyle that I really enjoy and want to share with my kids. We bounced around the West (North Idaho, Oregon) a few years, and enjoyed some great skiing in those places, especially in comparison to what I had experienced in the East. I have great fondness and respect for the Vermont ski areas where I cut my teeth (and scraped my bases) in the early years. I would still love to go back and ski the trees at Jay Peak, Mad River, or hit Stowe on a good day.
But as we all know, the good days and the good snow just come a lot more often out West, so when the stars finally aligned career-wise for my wife and I, we jumped when the chance came to settle in B.C. 3 years ago, and since then, well, things have gone according to plan and then some. We have an amazing all-around resort right where we live called Silver Star, which is high enough to have consistent dry snow and is all I could ever ask for as a place for our kids.It may lack a little on the higher end challenge and tree skiing, but all anyone could ever handle in that regard is also just 2 hours away in Revelstoke. I have family a few hours away at Red Mountain where we'll spend Xmas. It's is a small resort, but is tough to beat when the snow is there. Each winter we're here and I explore other resorts, my powder woody gets colder and stiffer. Yeah, I'm livin' the dream, insert S.S. 17 comments here, lolboohoo!
In all seriousness, if any of you ever take the trouble to come way out here, I'd be glad to meet you for a day on the slopes, and first round apres-ski is on me. The resorts near where I live Silver Star, and Big White are not where most people would go if they were going to come as far as B.C., but Revelstoke is definitely one of the best resorts in North America, so if any of you fools are headed this way and want to get together, just lemme know.
I knew the Rockies were getting lots on snow where more locally the early season storms were a mix of snow and rain, so even though our hill was just opening, we headed to Lake Louise for the first time ever this past weekend and had about the best start to a season we could have asked for as far as conditions went. The whole mountain was open, and we were able to explore their back bowl areas which are a great mix of open alpine, glades, and trails. One nice thing about Lake Louise is there are green and blue runs off of every lift, so it makes it easy for groups of all levels to ski together. It was just me and my daughter though, and at age 13, I am now officially struggling to keep up with her. This will only get worse. L.L. is spectacular, both the terrain, and the scenery and we had an amazing 2 days. I was trying to include some pics, but having trouble with the link.
It was the first time either of us had been to a race of just about any level, let alone World Cup. We caught pieces of the first downhill race on Friday, but there were big fog delays, so we missed seeing Vonn ski from up close. If you didn't see her results from this weekend, she proved gain why she is right to be asking to race the men. She won by 1.73 seconds, a huge margin in downhill, and what was even more telling was that margin was the same as between 2nd and 21st place. When she is on, she has no peers among the women. My daughter was thrilled to be able meet, chat and get a picture with her. She won again on Saturday, this time after making a big mistake on the top part of the course, dropping behind the leader on the intermediate times, and then miraculously making it back up as only she could. My daughter was thrilled and it was amazing to see the entourage that Vonn is generating these days. She had a flock of about 40 girls between 7-14 following her around and yelling her name all afternoon. She spent a lot of time with all of them on the way out, a really graceful, positive role model who seems to understand the position of influence she's in. We left early Sunday and couldn't stick around to see her again, but she won the Super G as well, making the second year in a row she swept the 3 events at Lake Louise. She's Pedro-level good.
Anyway, that's our story of how we kicked off the season, a little long winded, I know. Mostly I has hoping to hear how everyone else's season is shaping up. Anybody else been out yet? Got any plans for trips further afield? What are the best places you've been? There are so many types of skiing and ways of getting out and having fun, and it would be great to hear what everyone else is doing, no matter how small or grand. Enjoy the season!
