Your First Time Out West

We're all jonesin'. Figured I'd help with this by asking folks to talk about their first trip out west...with pictures if you have 'em.

For me it was February 2010. I was 29. If you asked me then where Alta was I'd say Colorado. And I had not heard of many places...the west was just one area that was all the same in my mind. How wrong I was. Since the I've moved out here and skied some pretty neat places. But it all started with the first trip. Where was it? Tahoe.

We drove to Lebanon, NH, hopped on the bus to BOS with our skis in tow, and onto the United non-stop to Denver connecting to Reno. Had some interesting moments on the plane...complete with police removing a couple guys from the plane...and then they had to duct tape the overhead bin. Awesome.

The Rockies from DIA looked pretty sick. But we were onto Cali. We landed in Reno in the early evening with the sunset over the Sierra Nevada. Grabbed our skis and met up with my sister-in-law and her husband for the drive to Truckee and then down to North Tahoe. I was too excited to nap...this was all new.

We awoke to a fantastic bluebird of a day....with an awesome view over Tahoe.



We didn't waste any time and got right down to business that day...at Homewood for Passholder Special: showed the Sugarbush Pass and got a $35 ticket. It was a locals place, but it had lots of character and was rustic. Here I learned that there is no such thing as a base lodge in the west. You boot up in the Parking Lot:



Safety bars? Safety bars are for wusses!



Pretty sick view....it was amazing all day and the first day out west was pretty fun. You could put those sticks wherever you wanted and you found good snow. No ice at all to speak of.







I had to keep up with the girls that day....



No hardwoods...just softwoods.



Nice terrain...good choices...friendly folks and lots of room:



And yes, this is Homewood....not Kirkwood. It's largely the same four years later, but I know that the owner (JMA--owner of Alpine Meadows) has ambitions and now money to follow through...once they get the approvals lined up. They are planning a bit village (the ski area is RIGHT on the lake) and some much needed infrastructure including new lodges and lifts.

It was nothing flashy, but the skiing was damn good.....



Heavenly (IIRC) from Homewood:





Future midmountain lodge:



One of two base areas....a stone's throw from the lake. Pond skimming anyone?



The new HSQ was a real plus:





Nice line. You see 'em, you ski 'em.

Homewood was a hardscrabble area with some nice cruisers and fun, but not crazy tough, expert stuff. It has 2 triples, 1 quad, 1 HSQ, a few surface lifts, and two base areas. Big plans for the place--it's like Burke in that there have been many owners and ideas but things have been slow to develop. It actually almost closed a few years back.

http://www.skihomewood.com/

It was just the right size for us and our jet lagged selves. The elevation was not too bad in terms of altitude sickness or anything. The snow was nice....spring conditions....deep bases and fun terrain. It really opened my eyes.

We then went to Squaw Valley where we just could not get enough...more on that later...

What's your story?

Alta/Snowbird Jan. 1974.

There was so little snow the areas wouldn't even rent equipment.

Whistler/Blackcomb - April 19 and 20, 2009

I was in Vancouver for a convention (where we were the first group to ever use the convention center) and decided to take my skis along for the ride. It was the TELUS Festival to mark the end of the ski season and there were concerts all over the village. On the first day, my friend who was a Whistler local gave me a grand tour of the Jersey Cream Bowl, Harmony, Symphony, etc. Being an eastern skier, everything seemed so different -- the size of the mountains, the abundance of snow, the lack of ice. It was getting warmish already but the snow was skiing pretty well. We would go down trails and my friend would complain about the bumps or the ice and I would look at the trail and say "This isn't really bumped up? That's not ice." Even the food and the service was different. We had real cutlery instead of plastic disposable spoons. They served noodles in the cafeteria and the burgers were not hockey pucks! It changed my expectations of the ski vacation. I kept thinking: why can't we do this back home?

Anyway, day two, I was on my own and I explored the glades and the wide open spaces. The highlight of that day was heading down the mountain when the lifts shut at 4:00 pm. Mind you this is Vancouver/Whistler on April 20 and as soon as 4:20 hit, the scent from the valley rose to mid-mountain. Scotty would have loved this place! I got down to the Village and bands were playing, people were dancing and sparking up right in front of the cops who were probably enjoying a good contact high. Whistler set the bar for western skiing for me.

First trip was Vail I figured since it was my first time I stay on the mountain( my dad also help paid for this vacation, thanks for that and for giving me your love of skiing dad). First day I did the other mountain owned by Vail that was some good steeps here. Lodge was beautiful. I did Vail for next 3 days definitely big big mountain. Lots of grooming here even some trails twice grooming in one day. Went to the back bowls that was awesome. Found out pretty quickly that in the West try to stay one part if the mountain because their so big trying to get to several places you lousy ski time. Also bring sun screen my face was reddish more then a lobster when I got home. I was fun no new snow when I was there. I lost my pictures.

The year, it was 1993. Keystone CO. We went over Thanksgiving and they just got hit with a storm the day before. My dad and I skied at night on Thanksgiving with summit windchills around -40. We had to buy face protection because it was so painful. The rest of the trip had blue bird days with better temps. It was solid powder the first couple days and soft packed powder the rest of the trip. A far cry from the rock hard PA ice I was used to.

'92 - I was supposed to be going to Calgary for business. We were going to try to stay an extra day or 2 so brought my ski clothing with me and was going to rent gear. My working papers were screwed up so when we landed they would not allow me through customs. They gave me the option after 4 hours to fly back to Detroit or SLC. We choose SLC of course. Called our boss and said because of the hassle with customs that the company caused we were then going skiing the next day and would be back the day after. He was a good guy and said no problem.
We ended up taking a bus from our SLC hotel to Snowbird. The conditions were not great and visibility was nil skiing in clouds with our goggles freezing up. We took a few wrong turns and ended up skiing some pretty scary shoots but survived. Enjoyed a Wasatch beer or 3 at the end of the day and flew home the next.

tomcat said:

The year, it was 1993. Keystone CO. We went over Thanksgiving and they just got hit with a storm the day before. My dad and I skied at night on Thanksgiving with summit windchills around -40.

Click to expand...

Wow that brings back memories. DAMN was it cold in Summit County for Thanksgiving '93. I was working a lift a Copper and frozen to the bone. Which brings me to my first time out west....

Actually I had been out west a lot. I lived in CO when I was 2-4 years old and did family vacations out west almost every summer of my childhood. But I never skied out west until 1993. My wife and I were 23, just out of college, and decided to spend the winter working at Copper. I got a liftie job. I considered myself a good skier. But I was in for a major wake up call. I was gung ho to take on any of the baddest, hardest jobs on the mountain as long as it got me out on skis. We got an early season storm (maybe the one you mention right before thanksgiving) that dropped several feet of fluff. They were looking for crews to shovel out and open up some of the back lifts that been opened yet. I jumped all over the chance to be one of the first people to ski a section that year. We loaded up packs with shovels, bamboo, etc and took the main lift up. Then we ducked the ropes and headed towards the back bowl. There was 3+ feet of untouched pow laid out before us and I was drooling. I plunged in and immediately realized that I had NO IDEA how to ski it. I fell immediately and spent about 10 minutes getting myself upright again. Next turn, I was down again and lost a ski. 30 minutes later I find my ski. 30 minutes after that I figure out how to get back into it. And on and on. By the time I got down to the lift, the other guys had done all the work and were pissed at me.

By the time April rolled around I had skied ~100 days. I knew the place like the back of my hand. And 3' of fresh was a dream instead of a nightmare. Being out there changed my skiing and my world view. I've skied all over the west since then. But I always wish I could have that one run back.

Whistler was my first.I saw the best and not so good of the Coast Range.We stayed about a 2 minute walk to the Gondis and the liquor store was below us on the 1st floor.Good start.Our first night it dumped big time.When I went to bed we had 18 inches of snow on our deck.Wake up the next morning and its ALL gone.Nothing left.Holy crap.Whistler was closed that day so we skied Blackcomb in no visibility for my first big mountain western day.Not great.Day 2 they opened Whistler and that snow that turned to rain at the condo did not up high as we had 4 feet of untouched.We took the early gondi which left in total darkness which was very strange.It came with the full breakfast buffet at the Roundhouse and then you had to wait for the green light to ski.Fantastic day until about 10 am when everybody in the area showed up because of all the new snow and there were some pretty long lines.Day 3 was my first Heli-skiing with Whistler Heli and I struggled a little bit with the heavy snow on the lower elevation.Still a great trip and a real wake-up call for how the west compared to the east.

Hidden Valley at Estes Park, December 1965. 1st day ever on skis.

1st trip out when I really could ski would be Aspen in the early 70's. Mid March, people were down loading lift 1A even though the bottom of Ajax was barely skiable. The Aspen HS baseball team was practicing in the park in downtown. Skiing up high was good though.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ

Aspen/Snowmass in February of '86.

An AWESOME February school break family vacation for sure!

Awesome thread, gorgeous pics.

I really want to get out to SLC area at some point. It looks so friggen nice over the water.

The only places out west I have skied is Breck (when I was just a babe), and Canada heli skiing. Most other trips were to Europe.

Once Baby #2 is born and gets a bit older we will certainly be traveling out to Colorado to visit my sister

SLC, Jan 2014.

Apsen with my Dad in 1982.... No pix...

I don't know if you can really count my first west coast experience as real "West Coast skiing"

When I was stationed in southern Cali, the closest ski area was "big bear" which is actually 2 separate ski areas that are on one ticket (snow summit and bear mountain). I'd say it has more in common with east coast skiing other than west coast skiing, except that there is not really as much ice, and it seemed like the high during the day was in the high 40's, low 50's.

Basically all of snow summit was a terrain park. I'm not joking either, I'd say that over 80% of best mountain had terrain park features, with snow summit having a little less. As far as the trails go though, they were not challenging, and I got pretty bored with alpine skiing so I took up snowboarding.

The first real west coast skiing was at mammoth. I thought it was pretty cool how when I drove up there, I was less than an hour away, in Bishop, CA (elevation roughly 4,000 ft) and was raining profusely, but I went 11 miles further up route 395, and 4,000 feet higher, and it changing over to epic dumping.

The first thing that took me is seeing an actual treeline. Skiing on the east coast, I have only been to the loaf once, which is the only thing that really counted as above treeline, but even at that, there were still a couple, albeit very short trees/shrubs at the summit, and the above treeline skiing was only a couple hundred feet of vert.

Mammoth however had hundreds of acres of above treeline skiing and bowls. I realized too that even though the bowls were named, you has to know where you were and where you were going if you just wanted to ski that named bowl or trail, or you'd end up in another one since it's very hard to separate them.

Coming from the east, I liked to ski a named trail and then try out other terrain, but with bowls you can ski the same bowl 10 times and have 10 different experiences, I guess that's the biggest difference for me.

Discovering the chair 9 double was an absolute blast for me. I think the best terrain was over there. You were at the bottom of the bowl, but then went into the trees, and there were a few, small cliffs (none higher than 10 feet) as well, and the best part it that it wasn't crowded either, the only downside was the long chair ride, but that helped keep the terrain fresher for longer.

Edit. That lift has been replaced by a HSQ or six pack since then

Not sure how to add photos to my last post from a mobile phone, so here ya go

A few pics from Southern California 2010. Went to Mt High, Snow Valley, Bear Mountain and Mammoth. Only have pics available from Mammoth and Snow Valley though.

Mammoth Mountain near main lodge Feb 2010. Favorite resort I have ever been at with the best snow.


Overlooking Mammoth Lakes Feb 2010 Kids were 8 and 7 in this.


Snow Valley during a storm. It is a small resort on the way unto Bear Mountain.


Same place.


My Daughter at Slide Peak on Snow Valley. Her goal for the season was to get to that run and ride powder runs in the back portion of the resort. Was a great time.

Some nice follow-up stories and pics here. Keep 'em coming! I will have to add my Squaw Valley pics from that trip.

Went to Park City a few years ago. Only time out west, really want to go back sometime.

http://forums.alpinezone.com/showthread.php/91350-PCMR-02-19-11-The-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly

http://forums.alpinezone.com/showthread.php/91408-Deer-Valley-02-20-11

http://forums.alpinezone.com/showthread.php/91541-Park-City-Mountain-Resort-02-22-11

http://forums.alpinezone.com/showthread.php/91693-Deer-Valley-02-23-11

My first trip was to Big Bear 1986-1992 and we mostly skied Snow Summit. Very Northeast like - so as mentioned earlier not real West. Unfortunately, I did not take advantage of the area due to being married to a non skier (I fixed that problem). I live in So Cal. for 7 years and loved seeing the snow capped mountains while playing golf!

However did ski In Europe which is probably more like skiing out West.