Your First Time Out West

[xwhaler]

I've been out West 3 times.
1st in High School with my family we skied 2 days at Alta, 1 at Snowbird...amazing and really vowed to get back there someday.
2nd---Mt Hood Meadows w/ my brother who was living in Portland at the time. Mtn seemd nice but it was so fogged in and the snow was so thick/wet it became too tough to really enjoy. We bagged the skiing after abt 3 hrs and had lunch at the Timberline lodge (from the Shining) which was great.
3rd---Whistler/Blackcomb with my wife in March of 2009. Flew into Seattle and drove up---stayed in a nice 1BR condo in the village (on bus route) that I booked directly with the owner. Amazing snow all week we were there...we only skied 3 days but it was awesome.
My favorite area was off the Peak Express chair at Whistler---incredible bowls up there.

Places I wanna go in the U.S.: Jackson/Targhee, Steamboat, Alta/Bird, Powder Mtn, Big Sky

 

[deadheadskier]

Steamboat in the sixth grade; 1986. I've skied the mountain once since. Nice area, but overrated in my book. Not a lot of steep technical skiing to be had, which is kind of what I'm after when I head out west.

I've been out west four times since, all to Colorado areas.

It's been far too long (2001) since I've been back out there. I'll probably look to do a Utah trip at some point and just base out of SLC.

 

[Puck it]

Late 80's, Squaw and Sugar Bowl. They got dumped on with 6' of snow during the week. We drove up form Sna Jose on the weekend and fully experienced the term "Sierra Cement". It was like 50's and everything turned to corn and it was Feb.

 

[Razor]

First time was in 1993. Took my oldest son, a high school senior at the time, out to see CU-Boulder (Yes, he did go there). We planned to ski 2 days after his interview, but I got sick as a dog from altitude sickness the first day at Winter Park and that was it. Later that winter during school vacation we took a family trip to Jackson Hole. Now he lives in CO and we've been out west almost every year since.

 

[St. Bear]

SLC, Jan 2014.

Just wanted to add that pictures are forthcoming.

 

[vinnyv11]

Does Seven Springs, PA count.... It's west to me lol....

Ugh. I'm in season #4 this year and haven't been out west yet. I have to make it happen this year. I want to go to SLC so bad was there for work once before I skied. Can only imagine what the runs are like. Keep the post coming I only cut my wrist a little deeper with each word.. :angry:

 

[jaytrem]

Awesome thread, gorgeous pics.

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

If you talking about TBs pics they're not from SLC, their from Lake Tahoe. Just don't want you to be dissapointed....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80lM8ukLDns

My first trip was 2001 I think, it's whatever year they built the 3rd lift in Blue Sky Basin.. Got a 10 pack for the Vail owned areas, so I did all those. One of the Vail days a friend and I managed to ride every lift. Bit tricky since it had to be done on a weekend, they had some older lifts back then that didn't run midweek. I planned everything out pretty well and it seemed we were just ahead of the crowds all day. Only glitch was that one of the Magic Carpets was frozen and wouldn't start. The guy running it was kind enough to let us slide up it. Fun day!!!

 

[ScottySkis]

Does Seven Springs, PA count.... It's west to me lol....

Ugh. I'm in season #4 this year and haven't been out west yet. I have to make it happen this year. I want to go to SLC so bad was there for work once before I skied. Can only imagine what the runs are like. Keep the post coming I only cut my wrist a little deeper with each word.. :angry:

So cheap you can get hotel for 50 a night stay in valley take bus or rent cheap car, everything is great and mountains are huge,you have to go. I did Colorado twice then SLC mountains like 5 times in 3 years and one year it snowed 100 inches in one week that I was there it was amazing and awesome the memories last a life times.

 

[wa-loaf]

92 or 93 I think, Vail, Copper, and A-basin with my dad. No idea where any pics might be. A great powder day at Copper and then big soft spring bumps in Vail back bowls and A-basin.

 

[thetrailboss]

Let me add some more eye candy from that first trip...here are some pics from the three days at Squaw Valley that week. My first BIG west mountain ski experience. My sister-in-law offered to take us somewhere else...like Alpine Meadows...but we were having too much fun. Plus I preferred to focus on skiing the different areas in Squaw and getting a real good feel for the place. So glad we stayed there...and that I got to KT-22 for some fun. Some spring skiing and some Sierra powder skiing:

Again, no base lodge area, so we do what we need to in the lot:

Couldn't get over how steep things were there...and yet the traction was good:

Where to now?

How about a little Shirley Lakes action?

Those are real cliffs:

The whole "open bowl" thing really freaked me out for the first few runs...because there were no trees to guide you I guess!

Ssssssiiiiiccccckkkkk!!!!

Why don't they ski the damn trees out here?

I'm not getting sick of this....

Lifts, lifts, lifts and skiing everywhere!

 

[thetrailboss]

Day 2. Wind closed the upper mountain areas, but the goods in Red Dog were pretty sick. Found some nice nooks and crannies. I enjoyed the technical skiing there. I was more used to the pitch and really tried some fun stuff. Really loved Squaw.

It was more like east coast powder...a bit dense and wetter, but still pretty damn good. It also stuck nicely to the terrain:

Again, why not ski in the trees???

That's KT-22:

And this little bowl was pretty damn steep...a real eyeopener for me!

Red Dog was just too good though...and empty:

You just can't help but smile:

Castlerock? Nope.

Weird lifts....

Time for a test:

Tastes pretty good to me...

It wore me all out!

 

[thetrailboss]

If you talking about TBs pics they're not from SLC, their from Lake Tahoe. Just don't want you to be dissapointed....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80lM8ukLDns

My first trip was 2001 I think, it's whatever year they built the 3rd lift in Blue Sky Basin.. Got a 10 pack for the Vail owned areas, so I did all those. One of the Vail days a friend and I managed to ride every lift. Bit tricky since it had to be done on a weekend, they had some older lifts back then that didn't run midweek. I planned everything out pretty well and it seemed we were just ahead of the crowds all day. Only glitch was that one of the Magic Carpets was frozen and wouldn't start. The guy running it was kind enough to let us slide up it. Fun day!!!

Thanks for clarifying that because I was going to tell Nick that the ski areas are NOWHERE near the Lake...in fact nothing is really near the stinky, stagnant, ugly lake. But without the Lake there'd be no, or very little, snow here!!!!!

You can see the Lake from a number of resorts...Snowbird being one. If you climb up to the summit Snowbasin as well.

Lake Tahoe:

The Not-so-Great Salt Lake:

But there are moments that it is nice:

 

[thetrailboss]

And if anyone is coming out here to SLC look me up for advice. I just shot some to someone.....

 

[snoseek]

TB-I did some nice easyflow MBT riding out on antelope island on a good air day and it was absolutlely beautiful. Try this


ps, your tahoe pics are getting me stoked

 

[ScottySkis]

Thanks for clarifying that because I was going to tell Nick that the ski areas are NOWHERE near the Lake...in fact nothing is really near the stinky, stagnant, ugly lake. But without the Lake there'd be no, or very little, snow here!!!!!

You can see the Lake from a number of resorts...Snowbird being one. If you climb up to the summit Snowbasin as well.

Lake Tahoe:

The Not-so-Great Salt Lake:

But there are moments that it is nice:

Do people swim or boat in the Salt Lake?

 

[Smellytele]

The tahoe pictures bring back memories. While I never did find the base lodge at Squaw, all the others I went to had them - Alpine meadows, Sugar Bowl and MT Rose.

 

[wintersyndrome]

March 2001: Summit County CO:

Arrived DEN near midnight with two friends. We rented a Kia that looked like a rollerskate (sportage) and had that puppy revved up to 5000RPM going up the front range and through the continental divide. We wern't sure if we would make it to my friends house. We finally made it there at about 2am and were greeted by a gravity bong crafted from a 5-gal waterjug, elevation and THC do marvelous things...we should have slept and if that were to happen today I would have, but I was only 25 and too excited, needless to say we did not sleep.

At about 1st light we just packed up the friends car to go to Vail in the AM. Getting a chance to see those mountains during the day was part of the game changing paradigm shift in how I view mountains and how I may ski them (eds note: I've slid down mountains exclusively on a snowboarded since about 1994, but since I started on skis in 1986, it's still skiing to me, I just use a single plank).

Once at Vail, the plan was to make our way to BSB after a stop in the Northwoods area. Somehow on the long traverse to the backside I was separated from the group, now on my own at the largest place I've ever skied. Somehow I did make it to the far backside and caught the first group of chairs to BSB summit, I guessed that I could not be too far from the group I had started with.

Once at top I took the summit trail to skiers right and curiosity getting the best of me I went through a small wooded trail that led to the upper rim of Skree Field. When I exited the tree line I had to stop, It was then and there I was taken by the shear size of everything out west, I had to sit and take it all in, trying to imagine just how far away those skiers, being little dots on the other side of this bowl, were from me. Another feeling had hit me too it was as if I had just come face to face with God. Perhaps it was residual affect from gravity bongs at 2am, no sleep and going from sea-level to 12000 feet in a matter of hours, but I had to sit there for a few moments and contemplate things that men contemplate when they realize their place in this world is small and their time within it fleeting. Those expansive and wild mountains, which are so visually different from the terrain on the east coast, have a way of smacking us with the reality of our finite strength and epoch. Sitting there a midst the powder and exposed rock that marked the 4 foot or more drop of an entrance into the rest of the bowl. I felt the fact that all of my decisions in life had led to this one moment, alone with my thoughts on top of a lonely mountain halfway to the edge of our atmosphere. Sometimes good images and moments can be burned into your memory banks, for me this is one of them.

Great day of skiing that day as I, mostly alone until I ran into one of my group in the mid-mountain lodge, spent most of the day on BSB, Northwoods and Mid Vail.

The next days would be at Keystone, and Breckenridge, with each of them being impressively better snow conditions than what met us at Vail. Though, somehow that first experience stands above the rest for how truly special it all was.

Haven't been there since 2006...looking to get back.

 

[Cornhead]

My first trip out West was to New Mexico, Santa Fe, Taos, and Pajarito. It was in March, it was freaky, I was hiking in the desert, it was 96 degrees, the next day I was skiing Taos, a foot and a half of fresh powder. The place I hiked, Ghost Ranch, is only about 60 miles West of Taos.

 

[Domeskier]

I have nothing to add to this thread other than that I was relieved when it turned out to be about skiing.

 

[4aprice]

March 2001: Summit County CO:

Arrived DEN near midnight with two friends. We rented a Kia that looked like a rollerskate (sportage) and had that puppy revved up to 5000RPM going up the front range and through the continental divide. We wern't sure if we would make it to my friends house.
.

Not trying to Hyjack the thread but your story reminded me of one trip I took to Colorado. One time we rented a car from I believe Hertz in Denver. On the dash board right over the glove box there was a sticker that read "This car loses 2 (or 5 I can't remember) % of power for every 1000 ft of elevation." The car wasn't that powerful to begin with. We had a pretty good laugh and then proceeded to take it over the top of Loveland Pass. It made it.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ