skifree
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You planning on South America for summer? Great adventure. i'm jealous.
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ABC's ski bumming season 2017, Part II, North America
- Thread starter abc
- Start date
abc
Well-known member
Leaving the snow behind -- road side views:
Tahoe, a month ago, tons of snow
Colorado last week, not nearly as much snow (still snow on the peak if not easily visible from the highway), but the scenery is great.
The long mind-numbing stretch through the Midwest. With or without snow, it's never been my favorite. (I spent 6 years living there, knew for sure I wanted to get out of dodge by then)
Tahoe, a month ago, tons of snowColorado last week, not nearly as much snow (still snow on the peak if not easily visible from the highway), but the scenery is great. The long mind-numbing stretch through the Midwest. With or without snow, it's never been my favorite. (I spent 6 years living there, knew for sure I wanted to get out of dodge by then)
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abc
Well-known member
It's time to do a season summary and reflection. But I'm a little distracted by the epicski.com shutdown. There're threads and PM and photos I need to pull out of there before the light gets turned off.
It's particularly sad because during my season of travel, I met quite a few "bears" from epicski.com. And those people showed me their home mountain, and make my trip much more enjoyable had I been all alone by myself. Though in a way, it's a lucky thing that I've got to meet so many of them and skied with them THIS winter. Now I have their phone number and they're my "real" friend rather than just a user name (on a dead website no less)!
Let me get the "numbers" out of way first:
Cost:
- Passes: MCP + Epic Local ~ $1000 (Why TWO passes? Originally, I bought the MCP well in advance, at a relatively low price, because I thought I'd be taking a couple week-long trips while working full time. The Epic pass I had to pay more because I only realized I need it in late November after I got the pink slip)
- A set of winter tires + rims: ~$1000. In a typical winter, I put in several thousand miles driving to the mountains in VT or day tripping to the Catskill. So some of that cost for the extra tires are offsetting my "usual" winter driving cost. Also offsetting, rental car cost for my otherwise 2 week trip out west. Even if I rent an econo-box, the cost of that come pretty close to my winter tires. And if I ended up having to rent an SUV, that would be MORE than what I paid for the snow tires.
- Mileage (wear and tear): I put in very close to 10,000 miles from leaving my garage to pulling back into it! That compare to about 2-3000 I normally put in each winter on skiing trips.
- Gas: As from above, a bit more than the multiple weekend trip all over the northeast of my otherwise winters skiing the northeast.
- Lodging: I don't have the precise number. I got to crash with friends in various stops: Summit county, Park City, some part of my Tahoe stay too. But had to shell out big bucks in Whilster. More reasonable are Jackson and Sun Valley, while SLC was pretty cheap (still, even "cheap" adds up). Still, that works out more or less in the same ball park as my typical winter travel ("more" than less).
- Food, not any worse than eating out when working in NYC. I did a fair amount of cooking, while staying in friends' place and when my lodging is a condo with full kitchen (the Whistler week). Cooking was necessary for more reason than just cost saving. I need to stay healthy in a full 3 months trip. So eating right is important. Restaurant food everyday wouldn't cut it. In practice, after the first week, I started craving for veges and fruit!!!
I'm beginning to like cooking in a condo over eating out in a restaurant. A lot more relaxing with no one keep coming to ask if I'm done with a dish yet (hinting I should hurry up so they can have the table for other people). I can also control portion much easier too.
Bottom line: I wasn't exactly "roughing" it. Though I didn't exactly splurge either. I travel in style (BMW, AWD, snow tires). Stay in decent places (Super 8, Best Western, Holiday Inn etc). Ate well (both restaurant and self-cooked).
So it cost a bit more than my usual of skiing locally on weekends and taking a couple week-long trip out west. I got to enjoy a good many of different mountains I've not skied sufficiently before. See different part of country from the car and on skis. Met many great people who're crazy about skiing like myself.
It was great fun! And well worth the bit of extra cost.
It's particularly sad because during my season of travel, I met quite a few "bears" from epicski.com. And those people showed me their home mountain, and make my trip much more enjoyable had I been all alone by myself. Though in a way, it's a lucky thing that I've got to meet so many of them and skied with them THIS winter. Now I have their phone number and they're my "real" friend rather than just a user name (on a dead website no less)!
Let me get the "numbers" out of way first:
Cost:
- Passes: MCP + Epic Local ~ $1000 (Why TWO passes? Originally, I bought the MCP well in advance, at a relatively low price, because I thought I'd be taking a couple week-long trips while working full time. The Epic pass I had to pay more because I only realized I need it in late November after I got the pink slip)
- A set of winter tires + rims: ~$1000. In a typical winter, I put in several thousand miles driving to the mountains in VT or day tripping to the Catskill. So some of that cost for the extra tires are offsetting my "usual" winter driving cost. Also offsetting, rental car cost for my otherwise 2 week trip out west. Even if I rent an econo-box, the cost of that come pretty close to my winter tires. And if I ended up having to rent an SUV, that would be MORE than what I paid for the snow tires.
- Mileage (wear and tear): I put in very close to 10,000 miles from leaving my garage to pulling back into it! That compare to about 2-3000 I normally put in each winter on skiing trips.
- Gas: As from above, a bit more than the multiple weekend trip all over the northeast of my otherwise winters skiing the northeast.
- Lodging: I don't have the precise number. I got to crash with friends in various stops: Summit county, Park City, some part of my Tahoe stay too. But had to shell out big bucks in Whilster. More reasonable are Jackson and Sun Valley, while SLC was pretty cheap (still, even "cheap" adds up). Still, that works out more or less in the same ball park as my typical winter travel ("more" than less).
- Food, not any worse than eating out when working in NYC. I did a fair amount of cooking, while staying in friends' place and when my lodging is a condo with full kitchen (the Whistler week). Cooking was necessary for more reason than just cost saving. I need to stay healthy in a full 3 months trip. So eating right is important. Restaurant food everyday wouldn't cut it. In practice, after the first week, I started craving for veges and fruit!!!
I'm beginning to like cooking in a condo over eating out in a restaurant. A lot more relaxing with no one keep coming to ask if I'm done with a dish yet (hinting I should hurry up so they can have the table for other people). I can also control portion much easier too.
Bottom line: I wasn't exactly "roughing" it. Though I didn't exactly splurge either. I travel in style (BMW, AWD, snow tires). Stay in decent places (Super 8, Best Western, Holiday Inn etc). Ate well (both restaurant and self-cooked).
So it cost a bit more than my usual of skiing locally on weekends and taking a couple week-long trip out west. I got to enjoy a good many of different mountains I've not skied sufficiently before. See different part of country from the car and on skis. Met many great people who're crazy about skiing like myself.
It was great fun! And well worth the bit of extra cost.
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4aprice
Well-known member
Enjoyed following your winter. Spending an entire winter in the Rockies is on my bucket list so I read with great interest. I suppose it going to be back to the the grind for you and east coast skiing as well. Good luck with the job search and enjoy the summer.
Alex
Lake Hopatcong, NJ
Alex
Lake Hopatcong, NJ
Jully
Active member
I am so glad you took the time and effort to share your story with us! The costs were what they were. The memories though will truly last forever.
abc
Well-known member
Continue on summary of the season:
Mountain Impression:
With the 2 passes, I hit a total of 16 mountains! I had high hope to "checkout" or "know better" many of those mountains that I hadn't skied enough of, many of which I did.
No surprise: I've skied many times over the year, of these mountains. So no surprises there:
A-basin: Always good snow. Awesome terrain. Poor visibility whenever it snows, or even just cloudy day.
Vail: Big, hard to get from 1 place to another. Expensive parking. But when the condition is right, it's great (didn't hit upon such condition. So only went twice.
Beaver Creek: Posh, quiet, good snow preservation due to lack of skier traffic. But I'd be damned if I will again pay $10 parking to ski half of the mountain!
Jackson, Snowbird, Alta, Mt Rose: Awesome terrain, awesome snow, if you can get there (Snowbird/Alta)
Exceed expectation:
Whislter! -- Fan-freaking-tastic!!! I lucked out with excellent condition while there. (OK, not perfect since it's always snowing and we can't see sh*t much of the time). But the snow quality exceeds expectation (expectation was heavy wet snow). Terrain... there's so much terrain, just impossible to describe. Read my trip report if you want the blow by blow.
I went in to Whistler with pretty high expectation. It was exceeding expectation. So you get the idea.
Northstar -- A "Sleeping Beauty"! Northstar is a sleeper. A mountain I didn't bother to even try when I lived in the SF Bay Area (ok, individual lift ticket was expensive) The mountain is basically ONE HUGE GLADE! Runs are cut into the forest and groomed to provide cruising runs for those who can't or don't want to ski trees, which is basically 95% of its clientele. That leaves the 5% of us who LOVE glades the ENTIRE mountainside worth of endless glades to play in, powder and freshies and all that! A lot of the trees are widely spaced, a pleasure to ski with no pressure. Think of Northstar as a bigger version of Bretton Woods, with a lot more snow and a lot fewer skiers.
Keystone -- Like Northstar, I didn't pay much attention to it because it's low elevation compare to other Summit County mountains. Snow quality IS an issue because of that. However, its tree-lined runs provide shelter in stormy days. When other more exposed resorts had massive wind holds, Keystone has all its chairs running. Plus, the trees in Keystone are seldom touched, even days after a fresh snowfall.
Disappointment:
Park City -- (I mean the Park City part of the combined Park City/Canyon) I was hoping to get to know this mountain since I haven't skied it for 20 some years. But the weather didn't cooperate. I arrived a few days after a storm, it got really really warm. The busy skier traffic didn't help either. I did get two powder days while in the area, but spend those 2 days in the Canyon side.
That said, it's probably condition related. Had it not been for the extreme heat wave, it might have been less scratchy despite the lack of recent snow.
Sun Valley -- I skied it 48 hr after a foot of snow. I wouldn't have known they had a dump had I not been looking at the weather. The snow had been baked by their famous "sun" into typical east coast like packed powder. Though there were some leftover in the trees. Just nothing to write home about.
Squaw -- I only put in 1 day at Squaw despite spending 2 weeks total at Tahoe. The reason being, they're almost always on wind hold! The day I went was enjoyable thanks to the help of a friend who knows it well. But I never got a chance to go use my 2nd free day due to massive wind hold the remainder of my stay.
Breckenridge -- I had high hope with Breck but unfortunately the snow didn't cooperate. This season, Colorado got a long dry spell AND heat wave in the 2nd half of their season. So the time I was there wasn't ideal. Breck is well known for frequent wind hold for their signature top lift the Imperial chair. Although it was technically open many of the days I was there, it operating so sporadically! I only managed to ski the Imperial Bowl on ONE day! Further more, majority of Breck's lift goes too far down in elevation. So it's really slushy in the warm weather they had this year. I'm a big spring skiing fan but even I couldn't deal with the heavy slush at the bottom of EVERY RUN!
Not saying any of these mountains are bad. But they all have pretty serious inherent problem that handicap them in the eye of us visitors.
Insufficient data:
Kirkwood & Heavenly: Condition was such I only managed to ski one day at each. Kirkwood was great on the day of my visit. Heavenly not so much. But one day isn't sufficient to form an impression.
Mountain Impression:
With the 2 passes, I hit a total of 16 mountains! I had high hope to "checkout" or "know better" many of those mountains that I hadn't skied enough of, many of which I did.
No surprise: I've skied many times over the year, of these mountains. So no surprises there:
A-basin: Always good snow. Awesome terrain. Poor visibility whenever it snows, or even just cloudy day.
Vail: Big, hard to get from 1 place to another. Expensive parking. But when the condition is right, it's great (didn't hit upon such condition. So only went twice.
Beaver Creek: Posh, quiet, good snow preservation due to lack of skier traffic. But I'd be damned if I will again pay $10 parking to ski half of the mountain!
Jackson, Snowbird, Alta, Mt Rose: Awesome terrain, awesome snow, if you can get there (Snowbird/Alta)
Exceed expectation:
Whislter! -- Fan-freaking-tastic!!! I lucked out with excellent condition while there. (OK, not perfect since it's always snowing and we can't see sh*t much of the time). But the snow quality exceeds expectation (expectation was heavy wet snow). Terrain... there's so much terrain, just impossible to describe. Read my trip report if you want the blow by blow.
I went in to Whistler with pretty high expectation. It was exceeding expectation. So you get the idea.
Northstar -- A "Sleeping Beauty"! Northstar is a sleeper. A mountain I didn't bother to even try when I lived in the SF Bay Area (ok, individual lift ticket was expensive) The mountain is basically ONE HUGE GLADE! Runs are cut into the forest and groomed to provide cruising runs for those who can't or don't want to ski trees, which is basically 95% of its clientele. That leaves the 5% of us who LOVE glades the ENTIRE mountainside worth of endless glades to play in, powder and freshies and all that! A lot of the trees are widely spaced, a pleasure to ski with no pressure. Think of Northstar as a bigger version of Bretton Woods, with a lot more snow and a lot fewer skiers.
Keystone -- Like Northstar, I didn't pay much attention to it because it's low elevation compare to other Summit County mountains. Snow quality IS an issue because of that. However, its tree-lined runs provide shelter in stormy days. When other more exposed resorts had massive wind holds, Keystone has all its chairs running. Plus, the trees in Keystone are seldom touched, even days after a fresh snowfall.
Disappointment:
Park City -- (I mean the Park City part of the combined Park City/Canyon) I was hoping to get to know this mountain since I haven't skied it for 20 some years. But the weather didn't cooperate. I arrived a few days after a storm, it got really really warm. The busy skier traffic didn't help either. I did get two powder days while in the area, but spend those 2 days in the Canyon side.
That said, it's probably condition related. Had it not been for the extreme heat wave, it might have been less scratchy despite the lack of recent snow.
Sun Valley -- I skied it 48 hr after a foot of snow. I wouldn't have known they had a dump had I not been looking at the weather. The snow had been baked by their famous "sun" into typical east coast like packed powder. Though there were some leftover in the trees. Just nothing to write home about.
Squaw -- I only put in 1 day at Squaw despite spending 2 weeks total at Tahoe. The reason being, they're almost always on wind hold! The day I went was enjoyable thanks to the help of a friend who knows it well. But I never got a chance to go use my 2nd free day due to massive wind hold the remainder of my stay.
Breckenridge -- I had high hope with Breck but unfortunately the snow didn't cooperate. This season, Colorado got a long dry spell AND heat wave in the 2nd half of their season. So the time I was there wasn't ideal. Breck is well known for frequent wind hold for their signature top lift the Imperial chair. Although it was technically open many of the days I was there, it operating so sporadically! I only managed to ski the Imperial Bowl on ONE day! Further more, majority of Breck's lift goes too far down in elevation. So it's really slushy in the warm weather they had this year. I'm a big spring skiing fan but even I couldn't deal with the heavy slush at the bottom of EVERY RUN!
Not saying any of these mountains are bad. But they all have pretty serious inherent problem that handicap them in the eye of us visitors.
Insufficient data:
Kirkwood & Heavenly: Condition was such I only managed to ski one day at each. Kirkwood was great on the day of my visit. Heavenly not so much. But one day isn't sufficient to form an impression.
jimk
Well-known member
Very glad you completed trip safe and sound. Well done! I think finishing a big trip like that in one piece is the prime directive.
I always pause/think twice before commenting negatively on a ski area based on limited exposure, especially a big one because there could be a lot you missed. For example, I have a fair number of days (~10 ea) at Park City and Breckenridge in the last 2 or 3 years and they both have plenty of gapers:razz: but also plenty of good advanced terrain with low traffic. On the other hand, even though I skied Whistler (first time ever) for four days in March in good snow, the visibility was so poor much of the time I have to reserve judgement because I just didn't get to see and ski some of the best stuff.
I always pause/think twice before commenting negatively on a ski area based on limited exposure, especially a big one because there could be a lot you missed. For example, I have a fair number of days (~10 ea) at Park City and Breckenridge in the last 2 or 3 years and they both have plenty of gapers:razz: but also plenty of good advanced terrain with low traffic. On the other hand, even though I skied Whistler (first time ever) for four days in March in good snow, the visibility was so poor much of the time I have to reserve judgement because I just didn't get to see and ski some of the best stuff.
abc
Well-known member
Well, I typed a message but it disappeared. So I'll just re-type a different one...
Park City is definitely a anomalies this time around, which I recognized is due to unusually warm temperature. What's unmistakable is the crowd, and the long lift lines. It's way more crowded than the Canyon side, which I used to ski a lot of. So I'm somewhat biased. Coming from the east, I have relatively low tolerance to crowd. I didn't pay the big buck to go out west to be in a crowded mountain with scraped off groomers.
Whistler exceeds expectation in its "normal" condition, which we saw -- lots of snow and the top was in the clouds most of the time! Granted, I was there more days than the rest of the gathering group. So I did get to see the top when it's NOT in the cloud. And I also got the one big powder day (ok, half day) on the day you left. That day, the top was totally socked in and the top lifts didn't open till almost mid-day. But Whistler is so big that even without the alpine sector, it still got a lot of great terrain to play with. The other aspect that it exceeds expectation is, although everyone warn of crowds, we didn't had much problem with that!
Contrast that with Squaw, which had frequent wind hold that shut off easily 50% of its terrain! Add the typical crowding situation, that makes a bad situation worse! I lived in California for a few years. Even adding that period, I still haven't gotten to see all of Squaw!
Breck is different. I was there for nearly 6 weeks, over two part of the season. The problem is not just the Imperial chair, it's also the flat bottom run out. On really warm days, the slush really sucks. I mean SUCKS in that it sucks your skis to a dead stop! It's not it doesn't have good skiing. It's just the good days has a narrow weather condition! No wind, not too cold, not too warm...
And also, both Squaw and Breck are in stiff competition against 5-6 other mountains with 1/2 hr driving distance. So their "minor flaws" can be a major show stopper!
(another mountain has that same similar flat run out: Alpine Meadow. I knew that from previous experience. So I didn't even go there this time around because it's been relatively warm -- not an unusual condition for Tahoe)
Looking at the list of mountains that "meets" expectation ("no surprise"), I've skied them many times. So I knew what condition to go there or NOT go there. Part of the problem with Squaw and Breck had been, I didn't ski them enough in the past because they're more finicky to weather. And this time around, I have more time to wait, and STILL I didn't get to ski them that much because the condition that makes them good are not that often met!
That's why I termed them as "meeting/exceeding/missing expectation"! Especially "big name" resorts, carries with it big expectations! If that expectation is condition dependent, the condition had better be a "norm" rather than a rare occurrence.
Park City is definitely a anomalies this time around, which I recognized is due to unusually warm temperature. What's unmistakable is the crowd, and the long lift lines. It's way more crowded than the Canyon side, which I used to ski a lot of. So I'm somewhat biased. Coming from the east, I have relatively low tolerance to crowd. I didn't pay the big buck to go out west to be in a crowded mountain with scraped off groomers.
Whistler exceeds expectation in its "normal" condition, which we saw -- lots of snow and the top was in the clouds most of the time! Granted, I was there more days than the rest of the gathering group. So I did get to see the top when it's NOT in the cloud. And I also got the one big powder day (ok, half day) on the day you left. That day, the top was totally socked in and the top lifts didn't open till almost mid-day. But Whistler is so big that even without the alpine sector, it still got a lot of great terrain to play with. The other aspect that it exceeds expectation is, although everyone warn of crowds, we didn't had much problem with that!
Contrast that with Squaw, which had frequent wind hold that shut off easily 50% of its terrain! Add the typical crowding situation, that makes a bad situation worse! I lived in California for a few years. Even adding that period, I still haven't gotten to see all of Squaw!
Breck is different. I was there for nearly 6 weeks, over two part of the season. The problem is not just the Imperial chair, it's also the flat bottom run out. On really warm days, the slush really sucks. I mean SUCKS in that it sucks your skis to a dead stop! It's not it doesn't have good skiing. It's just the good days has a narrow weather condition! No wind, not too cold, not too warm...
And also, both Squaw and Breck are in stiff competition against 5-6 other mountains with 1/2 hr driving distance. So their "minor flaws" can be a major show stopper!
(another mountain has that same similar flat run out: Alpine Meadow. I knew that from previous experience. So I didn't even go there this time around because it's been relatively warm -- not an unusual condition for Tahoe)
Looking at the list of mountains that "meets" expectation ("no surprise"), I've skied them many times. So I knew what condition to go there or NOT go there. Part of the problem with Squaw and Breck had been, I didn't ski them enough in the past because they're more finicky to weather. And this time around, I have more time to wait, and STILL I didn't get to ski them that much because the condition that makes them good are not that often met!
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dlague
Active member
I think your assessment of Breck is right on. We skied there like 5 times this season and they were mostly of snowy days except the last. One snowy days it was awesome and the run outs were not that big of a deal. In fact, the run outs can be avoided by skiing pods or lifts. However, when it warmed up near the base things got sticky and it made us decide not ski Breck in the Springs.
March here was way out of the norm so we will see how things are next year.
Sent from my SM-G930P using AlpineZone mobile app
abc
Well-known member
More reflections...
Passes & Strategies:
I got Mountain Collective and Epic Local (Colorado). I could probably do with just the Epic pass. The best powder days were on the Epic pass: Park City, Whistler,
That said, the MCP gave me Snowbird when Park City was under the (heat) gun. That really saved my day(s), TWO days to be exact, of lovely soft leftover powder and wind re-distributed powder.
And 4 days in Jackson, when it got 3-4" each day, ultimately a foot and half of nice dry powder.
2 extra days "free" at Whistler on top of the 5 from the Epic pass. Those two days I would have had to paid (50% window price) to ski. In practical terms, had I not have the MCP, I wouldn't have skied the first half day (at something like $80) nor the last day due to the unfavorable forecast. The condition turned out to be creamy smooth and no crowd. So it would have been great days I didn't get to enjoy (and wouldn't have known how good it was). In other words, missed opportunities had I not got the MCP pass.
The above 3 would have made the MCP "worth it". (roughly speaking, 8 days @ ~$50/day of almost all fantastic condition is in my book "worth it"). So the rest were true bonus:
1 day in Squaw with many paths down the Headwall. It's the camaraderie of skiing with friends that makes it enjoyable. While I could take it or leave it, having the option add to my overall enjoyment of the season
2 days in Sun Valley just cruising and chilling. Getting to know SV, it's starting to warm up to me. Pure gravy.
Aspen as a bonus day at the very end. We did it because we could.
For a "mere" $359, it's the icing on the cake! Would do the same if I were in a similar situation again.
Half days & marginal days that turned into epic days!
Having sung the praises of MCP, a true season pass (Epic) is still the best. I had been out on many days that were marginal, or days when I had phone calls to make and can only do a few hours. Not having to "calculate" $/hr is significant in that I just go to the mountain and don't mind just doing a few runs. Many of those days turned into far more enjoyable days than expected. Some almost "epic" days.
The same can't be said about lodging cost. Each day I'm near a mountain, I pay through my nose for even a cheap motel. There had been several days I MAY have missed potentially decent skiing condition because I didn't want to pay $200-300/night! (many of them Saturday nights). One Sunday at the end of my Whistler stay remain unknown because I simply can't justify the $400 lodging (Saturday night) and left even though I still had one "free" day on my pass.
I often picked Saturday being my travel day so to avoid the crowd and the high lodging price.
The Skiing!
Having the luxury to ski consecutive days, my skiing definitely improved. And, as I got better at handling different, sometimes marginal snow conditions, my enjoyment of skiing also become greater. Having skied quite a few "marginal" days, I learned there're different ways to enjoy different snow. Now, even when I heard people say they "enjoy" days of ice and refrozen ice, I'm beginning to believe SOME of them may actually be telling the truth!
(I've had season pass IN THE WEST for several years now. The real benefit of a season's pass is indeed those "just a few turns" days. The key of course, is figuring out how to save lodging cost with those "extra days". Just because the pass is free is meaningless if the lodging cost more than the pass itself!)
Passes & Strategies:
I got Mountain Collective and Epic Local (Colorado). I could probably do with just the Epic pass. The best powder days were on the Epic pass: Park City, Whistler,
That said, the MCP gave me Snowbird when Park City was under the (heat) gun. That really saved my day(s), TWO days to be exact, of lovely soft leftover powder and wind re-distributed powder.
And 4 days in Jackson, when it got 3-4" each day, ultimately a foot and half of nice dry powder.
2 extra days "free" at Whistler on top of the 5 from the Epic pass. Those two days I would have had to paid (50% window price) to ski. In practical terms, had I not have the MCP, I wouldn't have skied the first half day (at something like $80) nor the last day due to the unfavorable forecast. The condition turned out to be creamy smooth and no crowd. So it would have been great days I didn't get to enjoy (and wouldn't have known how good it was). In other words, missed opportunities had I not got the MCP pass.
The above 3 would have made the MCP "worth it". (roughly speaking, 8 days @ ~$50/day of almost all fantastic condition is in my book "worth it"). So the rest were true bonus:
1 day in Squaw with many paths down the Headwall. It's the camaraderie of skiing with friends that makes it enjoyable. While I could take it or leave it, having the option add to my overall enjoyment of the season
2 days in Sun Valley just cruising and chilling. Getting to know SV, it's starting to warm up to me. Pure gravy.
Aspen as a bonus day at the very end. We did it because we could.
For a "mere" $359, it's the icing on the cake! Would do the same if I were in a similar situation again.
Half days & marginal days that turned into epic days!
Having sung the praises of MCP, a true season pass (Epic) is still the best. I had been out on many days that were marginal, or days when I had phone calls to make and can only do a few hours. Not having to "calculate" $/hr is significant in that I just go to the mountain and don't mind just doing a few runs. Many of those days turned into far more enjoyable days than expected. Some almost "epic" days.
The same can't be said about lodging cost. Each day I'm near a mountain, I pay through my nose for even a cheap motel. There had been several days I MAY have missed potentially decent skiing condition because I didn't want to pay $200-300/night! (many of them Saturday nights). One Sunday at the end of my Whistler stay remain unknown because I simply can't justify the $400 lodging (Saturday night) and left even though I still had one "free" day on my pass.
I often picked Saturday being my travel day so to avoid the crowd and the high lodging price.
The Skiing!
Having the luxury to ski consecutive days, my skiing definitely improved. And, as I got better at handling different, sometimes marginal snow conditions, my enjoyment of skiing also become greater. Having skied quite a few "marginal" days, I learned there're different ways to enjoy different snow. Now, even when I heard people say they "enjoy" days of ice and refrozen ice, I'm beginning to believe SOME of them may actually be telling the truth!
(I've had season pass IN THE WEST for several years now. The real benefit of a season's pass is indeed those "just a few turns" days. The key of course, is figuring out how to save lodging cost with those "extra days". Just because the pass is free is meaningless if the lodging cost more than the pass itself!)
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abc
Well-known member
Misses, mistakes, regrets, lessons learned
Misses:
I didn't use all my MCP days, nor all the mountains in it. Realistically, there're only so many days I can ski. So between Epic and MCP, I ran out of time to hit them all. It's mostly a choice of which one is in good condition when I'm in the vicinity. Some of them were just not ripe when I was around.
Of the mountains I REALLY wanted to hit, I missed Telluride by just one day! (or one week depends on how one counts). Was planning to hit it the Monday after they close.
Also, although I brought my xc skis. But I never found good condition to xc ski. Practically everywhere I went, it's far too warm (would have been very slow going in the slush)
Mistakes:
For the most part, the season worked out pretty well. So there's no big mistake I can recall that I wish I had done completely opposite.
Smaller stuff, mostly travel related.
- Probably the biggest missed opportunity was my stay at Japan was too short! Having paid for the long flight over there, I only skied 4 days. Part of it was I under-estimated the transit time on the ground, going from airport to ski resort and back. I ended up spending 3 of my days IN Japan travelling and only 4 days skiing.
- Navigation: I mentioned it at the time (above in this thread): DON'T blindly trust GPS! It can send you over some little travelled road with questionable condition IN THE WINTER.
- Lodging on the road: Since I was driving, I prefer not to pre-book lodging. For the most part, I was able to find decent lodging at reasonable price while on the road. But I made one big booboo one night. I arrived at Boise and found EVERY SINGLE MOTEL FULL due to state basketball championship!
- Lodging on mountain: For resort stay, I pre-book but pick the ones that has liberal cancellation policy till I'm sure of the weather. But at Whistler, it's just too expensive to add one last night, it being a Saturday night. SHOULD HAVE BEEN PREPARED TO CAMP IN MY CAR! (it was above freezing, car was in an underground garage, have access to shower + hot tub, next day skiing was free anyway)
- I skied Jackson 4 days, 2 of which I had to pay (50%). The condition weren't that good on first day. I should have skipped it and just rest up. Especially since I skied extremely hard the previous 2 days (powder days at SLC).
- Similarly, I wasn't very good at picking which mountain to go to after a storm, when there're multiple mountain to choose from. So the SLC/Jackson leg, I wasted some quality time at the wrong mountain or stuck on the road. I got better at that by the time I hit Tahoe. Partly because I met a bunch of people from Tahoe area attending the Whistler gathering. So each of them provided their own inside information on which mountain NOT to go DURING storm and which one to go AFTER a storm.
- I thought about taking some lessons to help improve my skiing. But somehow didn't how find the right solution. I didn't want to just randomly drop in on some unknown lessons. That's something I'll try a bit harder next season.
Lessons Learned:
The biggest lesson learn was the Japan part of the trip. Next time, I'll need to do better research on connecting buses to flight timing so I can minimize travel time and maximize my time on the mountain. I'll probably spend all my time in one spot instead of splitting it into two (and end up wasting a whole day just getting from one place to another). That said, I anticipate all my future trip to Japan still be only partially skiing (I have family in Hong Kong. I go often, but can't just blow them off and go skiing the ENTIRE TIME). I just need to make better use of my days once I reach Japan.
Ironically, the longest time I spend was at Summit county. Unfortunately due to weather pattern, I didn't have any REAL powder day there! A couple days of a few inches here and there. And a lot of lovely cream cheese. But otherwise underwhelming.
I did use those non-powder days to work on my skiing. I think I had something to show for it by the time I got to Whistler. People I skied with last year said I skied "much better" this year. Plus, I can ski bell to bell day after day.
Towards the tail end of the season, I also started on my new tele gear and ran with it on some days. But I can't say I've seen much result from that one yet. I must admit by then, I was somewhat bored with days and days of soft-to-slushy groomers. Had I not had my tele-gear as a diversion, I would have quit by mid-April.
I would have been way better off to spend more time at Tahoe in terms of catch the powder. On the other hand, the Tahoe Vail Mountain are far apart. So I wouldn't have quite the same freedom to hit the right mountain base on each days condition.
Also, not having "free" lodging at south Tahoe, it would have been a lot more expensive. So unless I see good potential of powder, it was hard to justify basing down there.
I'm not sure how I would/should have done it differently, balancing cost while chasing good snow. So it's still an on-going lesson I'm in the middle of learning.
Regrets:
That I haven't done this earlier!!!
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How far is the good skiing in Japan from Tokyo? My closest cousin is taking a job transfer this summer from Singapore to Tokyo. It won't be next winter, but I'd like to visit him. When I go, hitting the big snow region of Japan is definitely going to happen. What can I expect?
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jimk
Well-known member
Did you land on your feet career-wise or are you going to be a permanent ski bum:razz:
AmmergauerTele
Member
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I'm thinking about 4 hours from Tokyo to Hakuba Valley (Happo One, Hakuba Cortina, Hakuba 47/Goryu). I never went to Nosawa Onsen when I was there which was a colossal mistake. You can take bullet train then to a local train.
This got me so fired up to go back there:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HDsMeVB3ik
And:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ahp2IAeYR4
This got me so fired up to go back there:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HDsMeVB3ik
And:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ahp2IAeYR4
abc
Well-known member
There're skiing close to Tokyo. But I've not skied there.
I went to Hokaido which is a different island than Tokyo. Most people take an internal flight to get there.
Neither.
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abc
Well-known member
Partway through my season, some AZ'er popped the question:
"do you think returning to suburbia is going to be a difficult adjustment after all this travelling? Will you maybe start making a plan for a more permanent move, like saving a pile of money-live lean for awhile while working?"
At the time, I hadn't been into the season long enough to answer that question. But I think I can now.
But first, a summary of what I like and dislike of the past 3 months.
I enjoyed my road trip. I particularly enjoy the traveling and seeing different mountains part.
I also make sure I stay put for just long enough to get to know the mountain I'm stopping. I particularly enjoy meeting others who're just as enthusiastic about skiing. Sharing turns on the mountain were the highlight of my trip.
Skiing almost become the excuse for my travel. Wait... skiing IS just the excuse, traveling and meeting people is what I enjoy the most!
Conclusion
With that, I think I can now answer the question of "what next?" Or at least what I WISH to do next, that is.
There're TWO aspect to the question put to me:
1) Work vs Ski
So...instead of keeping my head down, work hard and save hard for an early retirement to the mountains, I think I prefer to ski more NOW!
However, that doesn't mean I want to ski, ski and ski some more. Or non-stop skiing without working. I don't actually like skiing all the time. (shock!?)
I really do want to find a way to work less, ski more. A lot more. But not skiing all the time, and without totally stop working.
That, obviously will have impact on my finances. It would mean I need to work more YEARS if I work less each year. But I feel that's what I really want. Rather than work, work, work, then stop working altogether to ski, ski, ski. I'd prefer to work, ski, work a bit more, ski some more etc. Whether I can make that pattern work out is a different matter. But that's my wish anyway.
Part of the reason is I actually enjoy my line of work. So I'm not ready to quit working altogether in order to ski. I do want to ski more, but not necessarily skiing all the time. I had a couple of interviews in the middle of my trip. To prepare for the interviews, I had to do a quick refreshment of the technical stuff. I found the intellectual stimulation filled me with excitement all the same!
2) "MOVE"! (to the mountains)
More importantly, as I mentioned above, I also enjoy the travelling a lot. In fact, that's one of the MOST enjoyable aspect of my 2017 season!
So, quitting the northeast and moving to ONE mountain (or even one mountain "region" such as the Summit county or Tahoe) for the rest of my life would NOT be my choice anyway. (that said, I wouldn't mind spending an entire ski season there, or even several seasons, may even include summers too! But I doubt I want to resettle to ANY of those places the rest of my life)
That said, I'm awfully tempted when it was suggested that I look for work at say, Boulder, CO. I can see myself doing that for... a few years!
Basically, I don't exactly want to be a ski bum. It's not the skiing that's all important and all consuming. It's an enjoyable pass time that I use as the excuse to travel all over the US (and the world), and the potential it provided for chance encounter of other like-minded people and the sharing of our experience.
So, work less but continue working. Staying put. NYC is as good a base camp as many other cities. But will spent more time to the west, different mountains each year.
"do you think returning to suburbia is going to be a difficult adjustment after all this travelling? Will you maybe start making a plan for a more permanent move, like saving a pile of money-live lean for awhile while working?"
At the time, I hadn't been into the season long enough to answer that question. But I think I can now.
But first, a summary of what I like and dislike of the past 3 months.
I enjoyed my road trip. I particularly enjoy the traveling and seeing different mountains part.
I also make sure I stay put for just long enough to get to know the mountain I'm stopping. I particularly enjoy meeting others who're just as enthusiastic about skiing. Sharing turns on the mountain were the highlight of my trip.
Skiing almost become the excuse for my travel. Wait... skiing IS just the excuse, traveling and meeting people is what I enjoy the most!
Conclusion
With that, I think I can now answer the question of "what next?" Or at least what I WISH to do next, that is.
There're TWO aspect to the question put to me:
1) Work vs Ski
So...instead of keeping my head down, work hard and save hard for an early retirement to the mountains, I think I prefer to ski more NOW!
However, that doesn't mean I want to ski, ski and ski some more. Or non-stop skiing without working. I don't actually like skiing all the time. (shock!?)
I really do want to find a way to work less, ski more. A lot more. But not skiing all the time, and without totally stop working.
That, obviously will have impact on my finances. It would mean I need to work more YEARS if I work less each year. But I feel that's what I really want. Rather than work, work, work, then stop working altogether to ski, ski, ski. I'd prefer to work, ski, work a bit more, ski some more etc. Whether I can make that pattern work out is a different matter. But that's my wish anyway.
Part of the reason is I actually enjoy my line of work. So I'm not ready to quit working altogether in order to ski. I do want to ski more, but not necessarily skiing all the time. I had a couple of interviews in the middle of my trip. To prepare for the interviews, I had to do a quick refreshment of the technical stuff. I found the intellectual stimulation filled me with excitement all the same!
2) "MOVE"! (to the mountains)
More importantly, as I mentioned above, I also enjoy the travelling a lot. In fact, that's one of the MOST enjoyable aspect of my 2017 season!
So, quitting the northeast and moving to ONE mountain (or even one mountain "region" such as the Summit county or Tahoe) for the rest of my life would NOT be my choice anyway. (that said, I wouldn't mind spending an entire ski season there, or even several seasons, may even include summers too! But I doubt I want to resettle to ANY of those places the rest of my life)
That said, I'm awfully tempted when it was suggested that I look for work at say, Boulder, CO. I can see myself doing that for... a few years!
Basically, I don't exactly want to be a ski bum. It's not the skiing that's all important and all consuming. It's an enjoyable pass time that I use as the excuse to travel all over the US (and the world), and the potential it provided for chance encounter of other like-minded people and the sharing of our experience.
So, work less but continue working. Staying put. NYC is as good a base camp as many other cities. But will spent more time to the west, different mountains each year.
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dlague
Active member
Interesting post. When we skied Banff region and Kicking Horse we got the bug. The following year we vacation in and skied Summit County. That led us to think about moving to Colorado. We ended up in Colorado Springs which is a bit further than we would like from skiing but I work 4 10s and have a three day weekend or more. We also found a greater interest in the outdoors and found ourselves actually hiking during the winter. So it can be done. I wish you the best and hope you land in a situation that works.Partway through my season, some AZ'er popped the question:
"do you think returning to suburbia is going to be a difficult adjustment after all this travelling? Will you maybe start making a plan for a more permanent move, like saving a pile of money-live lean for awhile while working?"
At the time, I hadn't been into the season long enough to answer that question. But I think I can now.
But first, a summary of what I like and dislike of the past 3 months.
I enjoyed my road trip. I particularly enjoy the traveling and seeing different mountains part.
I also make sure I stay put for just long enough to get to know the mountain I'm stopping. I particularly enjoy meeting others who're just as enthusiastic about skiing. Sharing turns on the mountain were the highlight of my trip.
Skiing almost become the excuse for my travel. Wait... skiing IS just the excuse, traveling and meeting people is what I enjoy the most!
Conclusion
With that, I think I can now answer the question of "what next?" Or at least what I WISH to do next, that is.
There're TWO aspect to the question put to me:
1) Work vs Ski
So...instead of keeping my head down, work hard and save hard for an early retirement to the mountains, I think I prefer to ski more NOW!
However, that doesn't mean I want to ski, ski and ski some more. Or non-stop skiing without working. I don't actually like skiing all the time. (shock!?)
I really do want to find a way to work less, ski more. A lot more. But not skiing all the time, and without totally stop working.
That, obviously will have impact on my finances. It would mean I need to work more YEARS if I work less each year. But I feel that's what I really want. Rather than work, work, work, then stop working altogether to ski, ski, ski. I'd prefer to work, ski, work a bit more, ski some more etc. Whether I can make that pattern work out is a different matter. But that's my wish anyway.
Part of the reason is I actually enjoy my line of work. So I'm not ready to quit working altogether in order to ski. I do want to ski more, but not necessarily skiing all the time. I had a couple of interviews in the middle of my trip. To prepare for the interviews, I had to do a quick refreshment of the technical stuff. I found the intellectual stimulation filled me with excitement all the same!
2) "MOVE"! (to the mountains)
More importantly, as I mentioned above, I also enjoy the travelling a lot. In fact, that's one of the MOST enjoyable aspect of my 2017 season!
So, quitting the northeast and moving to ONE mountain (or even one mountain "region" such as the Summit county or Tahoe) for the rest of my life would NOT be my choice anyway. (that said, I wouldn't mind spending an entire ski season there, or even several seasons, may even include summers too! But I doubt I want to resettle to ANY of those places the rest of my life)
That said, I'm awfully tempted when it was suggested that I look for work at say, Boulder, CO. I can see myself doing that for... a few years!
Basically, I don't exactly want to be a ski bum. It's not the skiing that's all important and all consuming. It's an enjoyable pass time that I use as the excuse to travel all over the US (and the world), and the potential it provided for chance encounter of other like-minded people and the sharing of our experience.
So, work less but continue working. Staying put. NYC is as good a base camp as many other cities. But will spent more time to the west, different mountains each year.
I met a ski patrol at Vail that works as a contract software developer in Huntington Beach, CA from May until October then works at Vail for the Winter. I thought that was pretty cool.
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jimk
Well-known member
"I really do want to find a way to work less, ski more. A lot more. But not skiing all the time, and without totally stop working.
That, obviously will have impact on my finances. It would mean I need to work more YEARS if I work less each year. But I feel that's what I really want. Rather than work, work, work, then stop working altogether to ski, ski, ski. I'd prefer to work, ski, work a bit more, ski some more etc. Whether I can make that pattern work out is a different matter. But that's my wish anyway.
So, work less but continue working. Staying put. NYC is as good a base camp as many other cities. But will spent more time to the west, different mountains each year. "
=============================================
Sounds like a good plan. My head is basically in the same place, but for slightly different reasons. I have a non-skiing wife who likes our home in DC area. I have a 20 hour per week job that supplements my USG pension and helps pay for travel. I can take more frequent ski trips out west, but still can't go out there for an entire winter which is what I'd really like to do. I like what the Grumps are doing. Each year they spend a full winter at a different, major ski area, then return to same home base for offseason.
That, obviously will have impact on my finances. It would mean I need to work more YEARS if I work less each year. But I feel that's what I really want. Rather than work, work, work, then stop working altogether to ski, ski, ski. I'd prefer to work, ski, work a bit more, ski some more etc. Whether I can make that pattern work out is a different matter. But that's my wish anyway.
So, work less but continue working. Staying put. NYC is as good a base camp as many other cities. But will spent more time to the west, different mountains each year. "
=============================================
Sounds like a good plan. My head is basically in the same place, but for slightly different reasons. I have a non-skiing wife who likes our home in DC area. I have a 20 hour per week job that supplements my USG pension and helps pay for travel. I can take more frequent ski trips out west, but still can't go out there for an entire winter which is what I'd really like to do. I like what the Grumps are doing. Each year they spend a full winter at a different, major ski area, then return to same home base for offseason.
abc
Well-known member
The Grumps have each other.
Travelling solo, it can get lonely quick. I spend most of my time at Summit county partly because of free lodging, but also because I have a buddy to ski and hangout together. Also, this year works out well because I met a bunch of people from NoCal at Whistler so I got to ski with them. With epicski light out, all of us will be groping in the dark for the next year or two.
I don't have a off-season. I bike, which I can do back home. And I kayak, which is not much fun to paddle the same stretch over and over. More over, I do like to travel.
So I have to jiggle between time for kayaking vs time for skiing, despite them not being in the same season.
I have a slightly different restriction. My Mom is turning 80. She's still in good health right now. But who knows for how long? So really, now is the better time for me to go away rather than 5-10 years later when I'm "financially secure" to retire. I may find myself financially ready but can't leave for more than a few days...
Jully
Active member
Traveling solo restricts a lot of my skiing too. I have the ability to take a week off work and go ski somewhere, but if it is not going to be with friends, I often wait, or restrict it to just a long weekend.
The skiing more NOW, really resonates with me too. There's too many factors that are going to restrict my skiing when I'm closer to retirement age from parents to my own health. As long as you enjoy your work, I don't have a problem with balancing more right now. Of course, I may feel completely different in 20 years when I am living the result of my choices.
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