Quality vs. Quantity

JD · Mar 24, 2006

How do we feel?

Better to get the 30 days of untracked POW, or 80 days at a resort?
Given the choice between 3 completely virgin runs via skinning, or a day riding the lift for good, but tracked conditions, what would you do?

IMO, and in my situation, I feel that I only really cherrish the 10 best runs of a year. They stick with me thru the summer and keep me going for the next winter, and the best few I think I will always have with me. I would gladly sacrafice for quality. Untracked, virgin snow is all I really want. I'll take a taste of Kind vs bunch of shwag anytime. Y'all?

meat · Mar 24, 2006

JD said:
How do we feel?

definatly quality over quantity, and however I can get the most quality then thats what I do.

mfi · Mar 24, 2006

This season I have only gotten quality out west, except for the day at Hunter with some of you. 30 days of it would be nice but I will have to settle for 12. I do like quantity just to keep me in shape but it's getting tougher each year. I need to move.

sledhaulingmedic · Mar 25, 2006

I'd have to answer "Yes"

I need quantity to enjoy the quality. (i.e.: I need time on the snow, any snow, to get up to form.)

I need quality as a reward.

Really, as long as I don't get hurt, there's no such thing as a bad day of skiing.

riverc0il · Mar 25, 2006

beautifully said JD. though there is a point of diminishing returns when the quantity isn't up there. this season, i have had about my normal amount of high quality days, though i will admit that most of those quality days i earned 'one run for the price of none' style. but if that is the only way to get boot to knee deep untracked, fine by me. this past week, i opted to stay use lift tickets instead of looking for untracked via hiking. the snow quality was good enough at the ski areas that even though i wasn't skiing untracked everyday on every run, i was getting sooooo many good runs in off a lift i couldn't justify the hike for just one run. so there is a trade off when quantity does come into play. since i broke my arm this past december, i only have a total of 17 days, not much by my standards. but half of those days were in fresh snow and a full third were legit "powder days."

in a single season, i ski a lot of days not worth remembering. as you do JD, i usually hang on to those really good days throughout the summer and still remember them years later. i will take quality over quantity any day and i suspect anyone that hikes for turns has similar thoughts.

smootharc · Mar 25, 2006

I'd opt for quality over quantity....

....in all things in life (wife, kids, ski, food, s#x, etc.) except for money.

With $$, I'll take quantity. Nothing like skiing knee deep in fresh Benjamins. I'm off to check my PowerBall tik now....

Dr Skimeister · Mar 25, 2006

Of course quality trumps quantity every time. But....
The best quality skiing seems to only happen every so often. I typically try to accumulate quantity so I'm "there" when the quality is for the taking.

riverc0il · Mar 25, 2006

my perspective is that quality happens more often than most people think. or at least more often than most people are willing to commit to. finding quality is all about following the snow and being ready to go where ever it falls, when it falls.

JD · Mar 25, 2006

Yup. Ya gotta go when it's good.

Phildozer · Mar 25, 2006

Quantity.

Because any day skiing is better than July in New England.

Sky · Mar 25, 2006

HEH! 30 of untracked or 80 @ a resort. At this point, I'd droll over either. I might be pushing 30 days tis year MAYBE. And not all of those days were "full" days...more like "experiences".

So I'll dumb it down for me and folks like me who get 20+ days a season....or less.

I think quality...friends, weather, location, snow...and pretty close to that order. Night race league in the rain was a rather craptastic weather day, and the snow certainly wasn't top notch...but still the experience was a memory I'd rather have than have not. Racing with pals and a few beers after the fact made up for the weather.

Okemo with my son mid-week. A great day.

Cannon mid-week with a good friend and excellent weather. Glad I had the camera...and glad Andyzee filmed his expereince abot a week earlier so I can viw that all summer long.

I'm pretty happy with my powder-less season of quality skiing with quality people.

Greg · Mar 26, 2006

Really great thread. Really an easy decision for me. Quantity. I simply am so stress-free and at peace everytime I ski. I usually have fun as long as I'm turning and will try to make the best of every ski situation. Living in southern New England and only getting season ski day counts in the twenties, powder days are few and far between. Quite honestly, I don't know that I've ever gotten a full run of totally untracked powder.

Scary but true. I don't hike for turns so I can't comment there. For me I usually need three or four runs to get into my ski day and ski with good form. I wonder if I hiked to ski something and skied it crappily if I'd be satisfied. Again, not a BC guy (yet) so I don't really know.

As sky pointed out so well, there are several other factors that determine a good day in addition to the surface. Good company can go a long way in making up for ho-hum skiing. A good example was skiing with you, Steve, at Loon. Probably blah conditions by some standards, but the company made for a great day. Again, I always find something while skiing to satisfy me. Maybe it's simply taking short radius turns in LGR along the sides of trails, maybe it's hitting the same bump line over and over, or perhaps it's that perfect hit at a trail merge that you can catch some nice air and maybe (in my case) try to throw down some lame trick - there's always a way to increase the day's enjoyment instead of just wishing the surface was better.

With all that said, I have to admit that a nat trail is my favorite. Nothing like skiing some natural snow on a secluded run somewhere. But again, I simply love being out there and I feel my happiest when doing it. Sure, I've had some pretty boring days skiing (a drizzley night session by myself at Mohawk this season comes to mind) where I really had to fight the urge to just pack it in and go home, but for the most part quantity is what I prefer. It makes those quality days all the more special...

sledhaulingmedic · Mar 26, 2006

Phildozer said:
Quantity.

Because any day skiing is better than July in New England.

A bad day of skiing beat a GREAT day of Golf

Terry · Mar 26, 2006

Well said Greg. I agree totally. I am happy any time I am skiing, just some days are better than others. Some days with good friends, some days alone, some days with good snow, some with boilerplate but all good days in their own way. I am at 69 days for the season now, should get 7-8 more hopefully.

skibum1321 · Mar 26, 2006

Phildozer said:
Quantity.

Because any day skiing is better than July in New England.

I don't agree with that statement. Skiing is my favorite sport by far but I enjoy summer too. Hiking, biking, swimming holes, beaches... I like all that too. Biking is quickly becoming a secondary obsession. A good day of skiing trumps any of that, but a day of skiing crowded icy slopes makes me want to hit myself over the head with my skis. Stratton yesterday, for example, was crowded and boring (side note: Stratton is about as McMountain as it comes). I didn't really have as much fun as I would at a good mountain like Smuggs, Stowe, Bush, Jay, etc. So yeah, I choose quality over quantity, although I don't necessarily agree with the statement that you necessarily need to avoid lifts for quality.

riverc0il · Mar 26, 2006

So yeah, I choose quality over quantity, although I don't necessarily agree with the statement that you necessarily need to avoid lifts for quality.

certainly not! but earning turns is almost a sure fire way to get high quality days after powder has been tracked out at the ski areas. i never went BC during my vacation last week because the lift serviced was just too good.

folks bring up some good points regarding the validity of quantity. personally, i keep a day total and try to get more days in every year whenever possible. but if i was hypothetically offered the chance to ski twice as many powder days if i skied half as many total days, i would do it in a heart beat. for my type of personality, once you have seen the best, the groomers will only suffice for the first two or three times skiing per season, things get boring quick after that if the quality isn't there. i will sure go for quantity when ever possible, but given the choice, i would always choose quality so long as it didn't effect quantity too much.

awf170 · Mar 26, 2006

riverc0il said:
folks bring up some good points regarding the validity of quantity. personally, i keep a day total and try to get more days in every year whenever possible. but if i was hypothetically offered the chance to ski twice as many powder days if i skied half as many total days, i would do it in a heart beat. for my type of personality, once you have seen the best, the groomers will only suffice for the first two or three times skiing per season, things get boring quick after that if the quality isn't there. i will sure go for quantity when ever possible, but given the choice, i would always choose quality so long as it didn't effect quantity too much.

Hah, I was just about to say the same thing but couldn't really word it right so I just clicked and right when I clicked back on this thread you said it. Yeah those good days defiantly kill you, once you get nice deep untracked powder everything else just doesn't seem as good. I'm also the same with groomers, first day or two there fine but after that there really not that fun. Just too much repitition. Glades are awsome because there is more to it then just doing the same turn over and over again. You have to find lines, make vairying(sp) types of turns, and some times even duck or jump to get around stuff.

Another thing to add is if I can't have quality I atleast want something that is really hard. For example a weeks ago at Wildcat I just lapped the same run even though it was half blue ice and bare spots because it atleast made me think and got me scared every once in a while.

andyzee · Mar 26, 2006

riverc0il said:
my perspective is that quality happens more often than most people think. or at least more often than most people are willing to commit to. finding quality is all about following the snow and being ready to go where ever it falls, when it falls.

I both agree and disagree. Yes, quality happens more often than most people think, and this is where quantitiy comes in. I've had some great days this year. There were some really good powder days. But if I only chased the powder, I would have missed some other really great days. One good example, was a day at K Christmas week. Bit on the warm side not too many people on the slope and then it started drizzling a bit and chased the reamining few off. Snow softened up real nice+no people+slight drizzle=great day of skiing! No, it wasn't the epic powder day, but still a great day. Actually there were quite a few of those.

Tyrolean_skier · Mar 27, 2006

For me, it is quantity over quality. If you ski in all conditions, then those powder days become so much more appreciated. So far this ski season, my best ski day was opening day at Killington, October 29, 2005. However, I had quite a few more good days. Today was one of those, I did many runs on the Fiddle and Outer Limits because the snow was good on those two runs and it may not be much longer that we can ski them repeatedly because we have lift service. I do plan to ski them when the lift shut down but that will probably be only one or two runs depending on who we can convince to come pick us up at Bear Mountain.

andyzee · Mar 27, 2006

Tyrolean_skier said:
For me, it is quantity over quality. If you ski in all conditions, then those powder days become so much more appreciated. So far this ski season, my best ski day was opening day at Killington, October 29, 2005. However, I had quite a few more good days. Today was one of those, I did many runs on the Fiddle and Outer Limits because the snow was good on those two runs and it may not be much longer that we can ski them repeatedly because we have lift service. I do plan to ski them when the lift shut down but that will probably be only one or two runs depending on who we can convince to come pick us up at Bear Mountain.

Poacher!!!

Quality vs. Quantity

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